Mixed Reality headset for business

Lenovo ThinkReality VRX is a standalone headset for business with color throughput.

The company hasn’t revealed many details or specs other than it will have pancake lenses, stereo color cameras for pass-through, and optimized weight balance with the battery on the back. pancake lenses support smaller panels with a shorter opening to the lenses, and thus a slimmer and lighter visor. Lenovo says the color throughput makes ThinkReality VRX suitable for mixed reality applications.

The device will apparently ship with “a full suite of end-to-end services — from consulting and content creation to cloud deployment and customer support,” including the third-party education platform ENGAGE.

Lenovo has a relatively long history in VR. In 2018, it partnered with Google on the $400 Mirage Solothe first standalone headset with positional tracking to launch outside of China, although it has been eclipsed by Facebook’s $200-only Oculus Go rotation. In the years since Lenovo has shipped standalone headsets with rotation only for the education market, under the brand name VR Classroom.

In the PC VR field, Lenovo was one of Microsoft’s original partners for the 2017 Windows MR headsets, which was released the Lenovo Explorer based on Microsoft’s reference design. In 2019 it is along with Facebook on Oculus Rift S.

In August of this year, Lenovo teased a ‘Legion VR700’ headset in a poster shared on social media in China, but there’s no indication that that seemingly consumer-oriented gaming headset is coming to Western markets.

Lenovo has not disclosed a price for ThinkReality VRX, but said it will launch in “select markets” later this year and then globally in early 2023. The headset will face stiff competition: Pico 4 Enterprise and Meta Quest Pro also features pancake lenses and color transmission, as well as other features such as face and eye tracking.