The Verge has published images it says were found in the HorizonOS Prescription Lens firmware package.
The images show what appears to be Meta's much-rumoured "Project Phoenix", a slim, glasses-style mixed reality headset with lenses set into a lightweight frame, rather than the bulk of a Quest-class visor.
What the leaked hardware shows
The pictures show a wire running from an earpiece, consistent with a small external compute puck, alongside what appear to be outward and downward-facing cameras.
That configuration would deliver passthrough mixed reality, where cameras feed a digital view of the surrounding world to the display, rather than a fully transparent augmented reality view seen through the lenses directly.
Meta's timing appears unchanged in the leak, with Project Phoenix not expected to launch until next year, meaning this remains an early look rather than a product announcement.
Why the slimmer design is the whole point
Earlier reporting and firmware leaks have framed Phoenix as an attempt to sit between Meta's Ray-Ban style smart glasses and its bulkier Quest headsets.
Moving compute out of the frames and into an external puck is intended to keep the glasses themselves light and closer in feel to consumer eyewear.
If realised, the effect is a clear trade-off: a more wearable device suited to longer everyday use, at the cost of a tethered cable and reliance on camera-based passthrough rather than direct augmented reality optics.
A crowded field chasing the same idea
Meta has already pushed smart eyewear into mainstream product lines through its Ray-Ban partnership.
Rivals including Xreal and Viture, along with Google's own Project Aura, are pursuing similarly mid-weight mixed reality designs, suggesting the industry broadly agrees that lighter, glasses-like hardware is the direction worth chasing.
Meta Connect?
The leak arrived weeks ahead of Meta Connect, with The Verge noting the timing comes just before the event on 23 September.
The next milestone to watch is whether Meta confirms the design at Connect, and how the company chooses to position Phoenix: as a mass-market companion to its existing glasses, a premium mixed reality option, or something positioned between the two.
For consumers, the practical takeaway is straightforward. Phoenix, as pictured, promises a noticeably lighter mixed reality form factor, but keeps the familiar trade-offs of a tethered compute puck and camera-based passthrough rather than true see-through augmented reality.
