Meta Platforms used its annual developer conference, Meta Connect 2026, held on September 23, 2026 in Menlo Park, California, to unveil an expanded lineup of AI-powered hardware spanning smart glasses, a spatial computing headset and a pocket-sized companion device. The common thread across the announcements was Muse, the personal AI agent Meta launched only weeks before the event.

A lineup spanning every price point

Meta brought a full menu of devices, and the price range was wide enough to cover most budgets, running from a $249 entry point to a $1,299.99 flagship expected next year.

At the bottom of the range sits the Meta Adventurer, priced from $249. The model widens the company's glasses lineup and offers newcomers a lower-cost way in.

Next is the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, a camera-free pair of glasses weighing roughly 43 grams. Pricing starts at $349, with shipping expected to begin on October 13, 2026.

The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 is available now, starting at $449. Meta says the new version delivers a refreshed design and better battery life.

The headline act is the Meta VR Glasses, which weigh about 100 grams and feature a 5K micro-OLED display aimed squarely at spatial computing and immersive experiences. A separate compute puck, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Reality Elite chip, handles the processing so the headset itself can stay light. The device is expected to launch in spring 2027 for $1,299.99. For context, Meta's previous premium headset, the Quest Pro, launched at $1,499.99 in 2022.

Rounding out the lineup is the Muse Charm, a small handheld device that puts Meta's AI agent in a pocket-sized package. It is expected to ship by December 2026, with more details still to come.

Muse as the real product

Meta is positioning Muse as a proactive assistant that can manage tasks, handle voice conversations and offer help based on context. Spreading one assistant across glasses, a headset and a handheld gives it more hardware touchpoints than any single device would, in line with Meta's framing of the agent as the anchor of the lineup.

The company also leaned into fashion, saying it plans to offer more than 100 style options by year-end across its Ray-Ban, Oakley and Meta brands. Ray-Ban and Oakley are owned by EssilorLuxottica, Meta's eyewear partner on its smart glasses line.

Building on the Ray-Ban bet

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have reportedly sold millions of units, giving the company a rare hardware win after years of expensive experimentation. That track record formed the backdrop for the much larger lineup unveiled at this year's event.

Meta, Apple and the wearables race

With a dedicated spatial computing device and a growing AI wearables catalog, Meta is now in direct competition with Apple, whose $3,499 Vision Pro headset launched in early 2024. A Motley Fool analysis of Meta's hardware push argued that history suggests Apple investors should not be worried.

Early shipments of the Ray-Ban Meta Audio in October and the Muse Charm by December will offer the first real read on demand. Pre-sale activity for the VR Glasses and consumer reaction ahead of the spring 2027 launch could indicate whether the $1,299.99 price tag lands or stalls.

Meta's emphasis on camera-free models also suggests the company understands that face-mounted cameras still make some people uneasy.