Even though mobile virtual reality (VR)
has seen abandonment as of late, with Google quietly dropping support for its
Daydream VR platform for Android smartphones, it appears now would be a good
time to bring it back, in response to social distancing and home isolation.
Possibly with that logic in mind, Lenovo
has announced its new Mirage VR S3 standalone headset, developed in partnership
with Pico Interactive, a company that specializes in virtual reality solutions
and has recently released its own VR headsets.
The Lenovo Mirage VR S3 headset will be
running on the 2017 high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and will sport
two 5.5-inch 2160 x 1920 displays, one for each eye, with its total weight
being 475 grams. In Lenovo's announcement during the VR/AR Global Summit Online
Conference, the company also suggested over three hours of battery life, 101°
field of view, and support for eyeglasses.
Other specs include a 4200mAh battery,
Bluetooth 5.0, 64GB of Storage, Android 8.1, a microphone and dual speakers.
Hand controllers are also listed in the technical specifications for the
device, which will feature a built-in touchpad and buttons, and are to be
powered by two AAA batteries.
Lenovo advertises the VR headset to be
used for tasks such as training employees, engineering and construction, and
even in the oil, gas and mining businesses, as a way to prepare workers for the
machinery they'll be using prior to being sent on-site.
On Lenovo's support page for the headset,
the Chinese company also notes that the Mirage VR S3 is enrolled into the
ThinkReality platform, which enables company IT administrators to mass update
the headsets, easily deploy content, and manage installed applications.
The Mirage S3 will also support Lenovo VR
Classroom 2, which is the company's educational VR platform that promises a
high degree of user data protection and a variety of interactive content. The
Mirage VR S3 headset is to be released sometime in the third quarter of 2020,
in select regions that include North America, the UK, and Japan.
