Meta reportedly postpones the debut of its Phoenix mixed reality glasses to 2027

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Meta has pushed back the release of its next-generation mixed reality glasses, code-named Phoenix, to the first half of 2027, after initially planning to release it in 2026. The company has apparently made this decision to help them deliver a more polished experience.

Recently, Meta introduced its Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 smart glasses in India, and was anticipated to release its much-hyped mixed reality project, codenamed Phoenix, next year. However, a new report suggests the company has delayed this anticipated release to 2027, as the Mark Zuckerberg-led company needs more time to further polish the product, due to the growing competition in the mixed reality space.

Meta delays its mixed-reality glasses codenamed Phoenix: Details

According to a Business Insider report, citing an internal memo from Maher Saba, vice president of Reality Labs Foundation, Meta has postponed the launch of its mixed reality glasses (internally codenamed as Phoenix) until the first half of 2027. The delay from an initially planned release in the second half of 2026 is reportedly because the company wants a fully polished device.

Moreover, in another memo, metaverse leaders Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns have stated that this delay is "going to give us a lot more breathing room to get the details right". Further, in another memo, they added "there is a lot is coming in hot with tight bring-up schedules and big changes to our core UX, and we won't compromise on delivering a fully polished and reliable experience."

Previous reports and leaks have suggested that Phoenix is a goggle-style headset connected to a puck-shaped external module, which powers the device. This design was chosen to provide better comfort and improved thermal management over other similar-looking mixed reality headsets, like Apple’s Vision Pro. It is also tipped to run on the same Horizon OS as Meta’s Quest headsets.