Long before Apple reinvigorated the ‘spatial computing’ industry, while Meta was struggling to popularize consumer-grade VR headsets, Lenovo was hard at work, building the metaverse in its own vision. The ThinkReality VRX is a part of Lenovo’s ThinkPad ecosystem, and is targeted towards using VR (virtual reality) and XR (extended reality) to help enterprises reach their goals. The ThinkReality VRX pokes fun at Meta’s own pitch, highlighting that VR is a little too conceptually powerful to be reduced to playing games like Beat Saber. Instead, Lenovo sees the metaverse as something quite useful, to help people reimagine their workplace, to help train employees, and to help remove the barriers that screens create to usher in an immersive 3D work environment. Given that businesses are much more open to radical change than consumers are (laptops were first designed for businesses, Bluetooth headsets too), Lenovo’s new pitch may be the home run the metaverse really needs.
Designer: Lenovo
The ThinkReality VRX is Lenovo’s answer to the enterprise’s VR needs. A headset built specifically for work, productivity, meetings, and training, the ThinkReality VRX fits well into Lenovo’s ThinkPad ecosystem. Starting at $1299, the ThinkReality VRX works as a standalone device as well as plugged into your laptop or desktop for wired use. Think of it as the productivity-focused version of Meta’s Quest Pro headset… without any of Zuckerberg’s dark design pattern and data-grabbing tendencies.
The sleek, all-black design of the VRX resonates beautifully with its serious personality. The device is sleek but not flashy, and has all the features of a cutting-edge VR/XR headset. It’s got 3DoF as well as 6DoF tracking abilities, along with full-color passthrough, so your physical and virtual worlds can seamlessly combine, just like on the Quest Pro or Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro.
6 camera lenses on the front (including two perfectly lined up with your eye placement) help the VRX accurately position you in your space. The headset, relatively light for its category, weighs just 1.76 lbs (marginally heavier than the Meta Quest Pro), and straps to your face rather comfortably, with a tightening knob on the back securing it in position so it doesn’t slip around as you turn your head. On the inside, each of your eyes are treated to a 2280×2280 pixel display with a 90Hz refresh rate, immersing you in crisp, responsive, high-definition visuals.
The headset supports cloud-based rendering solutions like the NVIDIA CloudXR, however, unlike the Quest Pro or Apple Vision, the ThinkReality VRX doesn’t come with eye-tracking abilities. It has 12Gb of RAM as well as 128Gb of built-in storage, runs Android 12, and is powered by the Snapdragon® XR2+ Gen 1. Yes, you also still have handheld controllers with the VRX, although hand-tracking sounds like a software feature that could easily be integrated in the future (just like how this engineer built out a Vision Pro user interface for the Quest Pro device). The headset also comes with WiFi 6E, BlueTooth Low Energy 5.2, a USB 3.1 jack, and a 3.5mm audio input. There’s a battery pack mounted in the rear module, helping easily disperse weight on both sides of the head, but Lenovo hasn’t officially mentioned how long it lasts.
The ThinkReality VRX is currently Lenovo’s flagship offering in the enterprise VR category. Perfect for everything from executive meetings to soft-skill and hard-skill training, the VRX integrates right into your existing workflow, empowering it in the process.
However, Lenovo’s metaverse ambitions don’t just end there. The company’s also been working on hardware like the Glasses T1, a pair of consumer-grade AR glasses that create a massive virtual monitor for your work needs. For Lenovo, the metaverse pivot seems much more thought-out and planned, given their laser-like focus on particular use-cases (like the enterprise) instead of building out powerful hardware and expecting the user-base to just show up. Moreover, the company is also being explicitly clear that its metaverse hardware will be backed by Privacy, Security, and Support – Lenovo’s top priorities for its consumer base.
The Lenovo ThinkReality VRX is a Winner of the iF Design Award as well as the Best of Best Winner of the Red Dot Award: Product Design for the year 2023.
