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Meta Launches Ray-Ban Smart Glasses With Display & Neural Band
The company’s latest wearable adds a display for apps and alerts, paired with a Neural Band wrist controller. Launch is set for September 30 at $799.
Meta has revealed a new pair of Ray-Ban branded smart glasses featuring a built-in display and a wristband controller that reads hand gestures. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the device, called Meta Ray-Ban Display, at the Meta Connect 2025 conference, confirming it will go on sale September 30 for $799.
The glasses display apps, alerts and directions directly on the right lens. Control comes via the Meta Neural Band, a wristband using electromyography (EMG) to detect signals between the brain and hand during small movements. The band resembles a screenless Fitbit, offers 18 hours of battery life, and is water resistant.
Meta is pitching the device as its strongest consumer push so far toward hardware that doesn’t depend on Google’s or Apple’s ecosystems. While the company has invested heavily in VR, it now sees AI-powered smart glasses as a more direct way to reach users.
The Ray-Ban Display builds on Meta’s earlier smart glasses, developed with eyewear partner EssilorLuxottica, which have sold in the millions. Like those models, the new glasses include an AI assistant, plus cameras, speakers and microphones. The addition of a display broadens what the glasses can do: users can access Meta apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, see directions and live translations.
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Reports of the device surfaced earlier this week after a leak, with media outlets noting its internal codename Hypernova. The product is notably less advanced than Meta’s Orion prototype shown at Connect 2024, which featured full AR lenses and eye tracking. That device remains years away from consumer release.
Zuckerberg argued the advantage lies in being first to ship something consumers can actually buy, even if competitors like Apple and Google are expected to follow with their own smart glasses. Tight integration with existing mobile operating systems could give those rivals a significant edge despite Meta’s early move.
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Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA
Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.
Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.
Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.
For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.
“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.
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For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.
“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.
The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.
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