Laptop Built for VR

The rise, or rather resurrection, of virtual reality (VR) has surely begun. Over the last few years, the emergence of companies like Oculus and Magic Leap and the investments being made by Microsoft and Samsung in the VR market have shown that there’s a growing interest in the technology. Even old-media standard bearer The New York Times releases VR content viewable by Google Cardboard. Computer companies have responded to this demand as well, with workstations optimized for VR content creation. And now BOXX does it with a mobile workstation.

Enter BOXX

Earlier this week, BOXX announced the release of the GoBOXX MXL. According to BOXX, the MXL is a laptop that can completely replace your desktop workstation. Equipped with a 4.0 GHz Intel i7 processor, the MXL can be outfitted with either a Quadro or GeForce GPU and can manage up to 64GB of RAM. Users can choose between a 15.6- or 17-in, full-HD LED display.

But what about this laptop makes it VR ready?

Given the high frame rates that accompany VR visuals, it’s critical for any VR-ready machine to have a really powerful graphics card. Without one, the latency in a presentation could completely ruin the experience. But beyond the graphics card, a VR-ready machine has to have beefed up hardware across the board, and it looks like the MXL delivers that.

While BOXX’s MXL does allow users to spec out their workstation with hardware powerful enough to develop and view VR content, it isn’t the first mobile workstation to be able to handle VR workflows. MSI’s WT72 mobile workstation has also been positioned as VR ready, and there are a litany of other gamer-centric laptops that claim to have VR chops.

The GoBOXX MXL is available now, and the starting price for the 15-in model is $3,721.