Lenovo today announced its next standalone headset, the Lenovo Mirage VR S3, is set to release sometime in Q3 in select countries. Built in conjunction with Pico Interactive, the headset is targeting education and enterprise customers.
Update (June 2nd, 2020): Lenovo announced that its next standalone headset, Lenovo Mirage VR S3, is set to ship to enterprise customers sometime in Q3 of this year.
Starting at “under $450,” the 3DOF standalone will be first available in North America, China, Japan, the UK, France, and Spain.
The original article refers to the headset itself as the Lenovo VR Classroom 2, however that name refers to a program targeted at educators, which includes the Mirage VR S3 hardware, software, device management, and content.
Original Article (January 21, 2020): With Lenovo VR Classroom 2, the company is offering up a complete package to educators, which includes hardware, content, device management, training, and support—all of it intended for middle and high school students.
The company says in its education-focused site that the headset will help teachers and administrators “easily integrate virtual reality lessons and field trips into their curriculum, leading to inspiration and meaningful learning outcomes.”
As for the hardware itself, Lenovo seems to be going a bit retro in the tracking department, as both the headset and single controller are 3DOF, which not only will keep students sitting at their desks due to the lack of room-scale tracking, but will also likely lower the overall cost of the hardware.
Lenovo says it will include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 running an Android-based OS, 1,920 × 2,160 per lens resolution display clocked at 75Hz, and an integrated 4,200 mAh battery charged via USB type-C. The field of view is said to be 110-degrees, which is more or less standard at this point; overall it basically sounds like a slightly beefier Oculus Go.
According to a press release, Lenovo VR Classroom 2 will launch sometime in Spring 2020.
Deflated Daydream ambitions notwithstanding, the Chinese tech giant is garnering itself a name in VR/AR product design and manufacturing. It recently partnered with Facebook to create Oculus Rift S, the inside-out tracked hardware refresh of the company’s PC VR headset, unveiled a new prototype AR headset for business travelers, and partnered with Finnish headset creator Varjo to certify a line of Lenovo workstations for Varjo’s super high-resolution commercial VR headsets.
