Meta Connect 2024 live reporting – will we finally see the Quest 3S and Meta AR glasses?

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Meta Connect 2024 is almost here. At 1pm ET / 6pm BST today – or 3am AEST on September 26 for those of you in Australia – Mark Zuckerberg’s opening keynote will begin and likely showcase plenty of hardware and software updates

We don’t know precisely what will be demoed but based on previous year’s Connects, and several leaks, we expect to see Meta AI upgrades, Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses updates (maybe even AR glasses), and the big one: the Meta Quest 3S.

This follow-up VR headset isn’t exciting because it’s a new high-end, high-performance model; instead it’s expected to be a super affordable alternative to the Meta Quest 3 and could help to make VR more accessible should the rumors about it prove correct.

Here in this live blog of the event we’ll be getting you prepared for the sort of announcements we might see, as well as taking you through the opening keynote reveal by reveal as it happens.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening folks! We're just under seven hours from the start of the Meta Connect 2024 keynote, so until it kicks off I'm going to run you through some of the updates we're expecting to see based on the leaks and rumors so far.

Let's start with the announcement that seems most likely: the Meta Quest 3S.

Nothing has yet been said officially but as is usual with tech announcements several details have leaked early; some information about the headset's existence even came from Meta itself like when it accidentally named the new device on its official app store.

We know more than its name though, with leaks even showing us the headset's design early:

As you can see in the Twitter post, the device looks like a Quest 2 in terms of how bulky it is because it reportedly uses the older model's fresnel lens system rather than the Quest 3's pancake lenses.

I won't get too into the weeds here, just know that fresnel lens systems are usually chunkier than pancake ones and can lead to images being a little less sharp. That said pancake lenses aren't perfect, they typically lose more light meaning images viewed through fresnel lenses can appear brighter.

Sticking with the Meta Quest 3S design, there are a few extra details to unpack from this leak.

As you can see on the front face in the Twitter image the Quest 3S will supposedly boast some mixed reality sensors. We're expecting those to be for full-color mixed reality and be roughly of the same quality as the cameras we've seen on the Meta Quest 3 proper.

Just below the left set of cameras as we look at the headset you'll see a volume bar (fairly standard) and a new button. We've heard this is an 'Action Button' like you'd find on an iPhone 16. 

By default it'll apparently swap between passthrough and VR like the side of the headset double-tap feature on the Meta Quest 3, but you might also be able to customize it to perform other tasks like launching an app.

A Meta Quest 3 user throwing a giant die onto a virtual medieval tabletop game board full of castles, wizards and knights

(Image credit: Meta)

As for the specs it'll sit between the Meta Quest 3 and the Meta Quest 2 according to the rumors. So it'll boast a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset from the Quest 3, but displays that are only 1,832 x 1,920 pixels per eye like those found in the Quest 2. They will, however, supposedly boast a variable refresh rate that supports 90Hz and 120Hz playback.

We haven't heard about its RAM but I have a feeling it might only offer 6GB instead of 8GB as a further cost cutting measure to keep it more affordable. Though 8GB would be ideal especially for any AI functions Meta might add to Quest at Connect or beyond, as well as for multitasking in mixed reality, so we'll have to wait and see what's announced



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