Meta leaks first images of Project Phoenix headset ahead of Connect conference

Someone at Meta left the barn door open. Images of the company’s next mixed-reality headset, codenamed Project Phoenix, surfaced after UploadVR discovered them buried in a Horizon OS prescription lens firmware package. The timing is notable: Meta Connect 2026 kicks off September 23, which means the company’s carefully orchestrated reveal just got spoiled by its own software update. The leaked design shows something that splits the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses and a full Quest headset. Think slim, glasses-style frames with nose pads, side-mounted sensors, and removable prescription lens inserts. The whole thing reportedly weighs under 110 grams when worn on your face, with the heavier computing hardware offloaded to a tethered external puck you’d carry or clip to your belt. A headset that doesn’t want to be a headset The 110-gram figure is worth sitting with for a moment. A typical pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers weighs around 45 grams. The Quest 3 tips the scales at roughly 515 grams. Project Phoenix lands much closer to regular glasses territory than anything Meta has shipped for mixed reality, which helps explain why internal memos reportedly show the company priorit...