The best VR-ready laptops can take advantage of the growing number of virtual reality headsets, such as the HTC Vive Pro 2 and Quest Pro. Most high-end gaming laptops are capable of running VR games, but not all have a convenient mini-DisplayPort, though some do have a USB Type-C with DisplayPort adaptability.
You won't be able to pick up one of the best VR-ready laptops for under $1,000, but we know that budget does matter for many gamers, so we won't just list top-of-the-line systems either. At the very least, keep your purchase within Nvidia's 40-series GPUs. These will ensure that you can comfortably play AAA VR titles for at least a few years.
To keep you within a realistic budget, we highly recommend taking a tour of the best gaming deals and cross-reference that with the VR-ready laptops on this page. Keep in mind that the laptop in question doesn't actually need to be a gaming laptop. It just needs some DisplayPort functionality as well as a strong GPU. For example, you can meet your needs with the Dell XPS 15 (9530).
Without further ado, these are the best VR-ready laptops.
Rami has been swimming in gaming laptops for most of his adult life, which is wild to think about, but excellent for you, those of which that need a new VR-ready laptop in their life. Rami knows that power, portability, and accessibility is what makes the best VR-ready laptop. Extensive reviews and testing taught Rami which are the best VR-ready laptops available for any setup.
The quick list
Best overall
The Asus ROG is large and in charge with its overclockable Intel Core i9 processor and Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. This beefy desktop replacement can handle all your gaming needs and then some.
Best budget
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is exactly what you need if you want to play VR on a budget, gracing you with an RTX 4070 GPU, a sturdy chassis and a bright 16-inch, 165Hz display.
Best thin-and-light
The Razer Blade 14 is the best gaming laptop for battery life, but not only that. You get powerful gaming and productivity performance, a vivid display, a sleek aluminum chassis, and intense audio.
Best for creators
The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is a powerhouse that delivers many fronts. It's built with a stunning display, boasts swift productivity metrics, and claims a formidable gaming performance.
Best performance
The MSI Titan 18 HX (2024) is a beast that will outshine all of its competitors and then some. If you want to jump into VR without any issues, the Titan is for you.
Best workstation
The ZBook Fury 16 G9 is a thick stunner with more than enough power to handle any workflow while delivering a gorgeous display and excellent audio.
The best VR-ready laptops you can buy today
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We've thoroughly tested each VR-ready laptop and reviewed them for their capability to run VR games and other critical tasks. If you want a great laptop and a great VR-ready laptop, this is the place to be.
Best overall
At the top of our list is the absolute beast of a machine: Asus ROG Strix Scar 18. Rocking an Intel Core i9-13900HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics chip, it can tear through every VR game you throw at it like a lightsaber through butter.
It ran through AAA titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider (181 fps), Grand Theft Auto V (152 fps), Far Cry 6 (107 fps), Borderlands 3 (165 fps), and Red Dead Redemption 2 (123 fps) like they were traffic cones made of glass. VR gaming is surprisingly light on the system, so if the Strix can do this to these massive titles, it’ll melt any VR game.
This rig has pretty amazing qualities when you're not playing VR games, too! For instance, the speakers offer amazing sound. It's all thanks to Dolby Atmos software, which offers crisp highs and strong mids.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 has a massive 18-inch, 2560 x 1600 display clocked at 240Hz, which means you can experience all 240 frames of any video game you play (provided the GPU can handle it). The display is also bright and relatively colorful, with 402 nits of brightness and 77.5 percent of DCI-P3 coverage, respectively.
Keep in mind that if you’re looking for something portable, this ain’t it. We love the futuristic design that the Strix offers, but its 6.8-pound body and 1.2-inch chassis make this laptop a literal drag. Considering you’re looking for a VR-ready laptop, let’s hope you like to stay in one place.
There's a reason the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is at the top of our best gaming laptops page, too.
See our full Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review.
Best budget
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is relatively affordable at $1,500. Unfortunately, we'd typically see a decline in quality features at this price point, but Lenovo manages to pull through with some key features. The AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU certainly make this a remarkable gaming laptop for VR.
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro took on Borderlands 3, hitting 110 fps, and then followed through with Far Cry 6 at 97 fps. The next two were Red Dead Redemption 2 and Metro Exodus, which resulted in 78 and 84 fps, respectively.
Outside of VR, you get a 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 display clocked in at 165Hz. It reproduced 82.4 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 319 nits of brightness. Those numbers mean you get a bright and bold display. It won’t be as good as some of the premium options on here, but it’s respectable.
Packed in that sturdy chassis is an amazing ThinkPad-esque keyboard. Thanks to its 1.5 mm key travel, each key is as pleasantly clicky as the last. It feels almost as good as a mechanical keyboard.
Unfortunately, the Legion's battery life isn’t going to cut it if you’re trying to get work or school done during the day. On our battery test, it lasted only 4 hours and 38 minutes. A few years ago, I’d say that’s normal, but nowadays, we’ve got gaming laptops that last over 8 hours on a single charge.
But overall, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is an exceptional gaming laptop considering the price point.
See our full Lenovo Legion 5 Pro review.
Best thin-and-light
Sometimes, you need to take your VR gear on the go, and there's no better companion than the Razer Blade 14. This machine comes in at 4.1 pounds and 12.23 x 8.97 x 0.7 inches. Who needs a MacBook when you've got this gorgeous black aluminum chassis? With this thin-and-light killer machine, you only need to worry about where you're stuffing that VR headset.
Are you working on the go? Problem solved. The Razer Blade 14 survived 8 hours and 35 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. Great for long commutes and long workdays when you've unplugged from VR. And that's not the only great feature for folks spending time outside virtual reality.
Packed with a powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, the Razer Blade 14 punches through every game in our library. On the Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and Red Dead Redemption 2 tests, the Razer nailed 98 fps, 85 fps, and 73 fps, respectively. Running AAA titles above 60 fps is excellent. That means VR games will be easy to run.
VR headsets need to support gorgeous displays to retain immersion, and you can carry that experience to the Razer Blade 14. Its 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display covered 114.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 465 nits of brightness. That's a hell of a show for a gaming laptop with long battery life. I'm jealous of anyone watching Dune 2 on this screen. Meanwhile, the 240Hz panel lets you experience the full breadth of 240-fps gaming, granted that you turn down the graphics a wee bit.
If your VR headset doesn't have a convenient audio setup, the Blade 14's bangin' speakers will help. While it's rare for a gaming laptop to support great audio, it's a boon to users in and out of virtual reality.
The fans can get loud, so we recommend gaming in a well-ventilated area.
See our full Razer Blade 14 review.
Best for creators
The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is not only a great VR-ready laptop but also a great all-around laptop, succeeding in hitting the marks for productivity performance. This machine packs an Intel Core i9-13905H processor combined with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB VRAM.
These components are solid enough to take you through less taxing video games but, more importantly, through productivity-based VR apps. This is an excellent laptop for non-gamers who use VR. It managed to maintain a steady 35 to 45 fps when tested against Elden Ring on max settings at its native resolution. That gives me more confidence to say it can handle most VR games and apps despite sporting a lower-end RTX 4050.
When you’re not in another world, the stunning 16-inch, 3K, 165Hz, Mini-LED display awaits you. This baby hit a peak brightness of 637 nits, nearly double the brightness of the average premium laptop. And the color tests clocked it at 111.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Anything 100 percent or over is perfect for professionals and drool-worthy for gamers.
In our review, we wrote that the battery life was lacking, but that’s not the case in the context of this list. The Slim Pro 9i offers the longest battery life out of every VR-ready laptop on this list, lasting 6 hours and 12 minutes. That won’t get you through an entire workday, but it’s impressive considering its large, sharp, high-refresh-rate panel.
The most prominent feature of its greatness is its $1,599 price point. We've seen several laptops with similar specs charged up to ridiculous price points.
See our full Lenovo Slim Pro 9i review.
Best performance
Are you looking for the monster under the bed? Well, it ain't the MSI Titan 18 HX because this baby is way too damn big and loud, and for good reason. The Titan has been one of the most powerful gaming laptops for years. So it's no surprise that it's on our list of best VR-ready laptops. This machine packs an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, and 128GB of RAM. It's a chonky boi.
We put the Titan to task on benchmarks for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (169 fps), Far Cry 6 (120 fps), Borderlands 3 (181 fps), and Red Dead Redemption 2 (135 fps). As you can see, it did not disappoint. If there was any doubt that this machine could run the most intensive VR game now or in the future — snuff the thought.
Outside of being a monster for VR games, we've got a gorgeous 18-inch, 4K, 120Hz Mini LED display. That's right, this thing will blow your face off (yes, in a good way). We measured 112.4% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut and an average of 559 nits of brightness. Nothing beats gaming on a beautiful display; the Titan’s panel would make Aphrodite jealous.
What’s more impressive is the mechanical keyboard that will grace your fingers like a lover in the night. When I say mechanical, I mean a full Cherry keyboard embedded in this baby’s deck.
There's no stopping the MSI Titan HX 18 from becoming your next VR-ready laptop. Well, maybe the obscene price (screams at $5,399). I also wouldn’t count on hauling it around many places. Not only does it have a short battery life (2:40), but it also weighs 7.9 pounds.
See our full MSI Titan 18 HX review.
Best workstation
Now, if you're on the opposite end of the spectrum, looking for pure productivity power beyond measure, the HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 is your next best bet. This monster is packing an Intel Core i9-12950HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX A5500 graphics chip with 24GB of VRAM, and 64GB of RAM. That's more than enough horsepower to drive you to the moon and back (that's technically canon — we went to the moon with 72K of RAM).
The Fury 16 scored 122 fps on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark, so it’s still perfectly viable for gamers. But we actually threw a 6K video at it in DaVinci Resolve, and it rendered a short video in under a minute. Longer-form videos took only five to ten minutes. This machine is built for professional apps, so keep that in mind.
In addition to being a VR beast of epic proportions, the HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 offers a 16-inch, 4K+ display clocked in at 120Hz with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It's bright and colorful, registering 107.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 412 nits of brightness. You can experience everything you're creating or testing outside of the VR space.
When you clack away, you'll be doing so on a pleasantly comfortable keyboard. We experienced deep travel and clicky feedback. And if you want to listen to tunes while you work, you’ll be graced by Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers. They deliver loud sound and solid bass performance.
Unfortunately, even for a work-oriented laptop, there’s not a lot of battery life to go around. The Fury 16 lasted 5 hours and 19 minutes on a charge. It’s not bad, but there’s a reason that this isn’t under the best battery life category.
See our full HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 review.
How to choose the best VR-ready laptops for you
The minimum specs required for VR are not something you should worry about if you're shopping from the above list. But let's take a look at the minimum specs for Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is one of the more intense VR games.
Here are the VR minimum specs:
- Intel i5-8400 or equivalent
- Nvidia GTX 1080 or equivalent. Here's how to check your GPU.
- 16GB of RAM
- 8GB of VRAM. Here's how to check your VRAM.
- Two USB 3.0 ports
- Mini DisplayPort or USB Type-C/DisplayPort
The main thing you must worry about when picking out a VR-ready laptop is what kind of specs it has and if it has a mini DisplayPort. Anything apart from those features is negligible if you’re just focused on the VR portion, but you should be mindful of the laptop's display, keyboard, and size, as you’re likely to use it as a standard gaming laptop.
If you’re on a budget, consider looking at laptops with lower-end 30-series GPUs. It won’t be ideal, but it’ll get your VR setup up and running. Of course, you can spring for a laptop with a 40-series GPU, which would kill it in VR, but that will cost you. Overall, you must determine your budget and what’s important to you in a VR-ready laptop.
How we test the best VR-ready laptops
When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, we aim to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use industry-standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.
To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. We use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses to judge pure processing power, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5/6 synthetic test.
We ramp up our 3DMark testing to include Fire Strike Ultra and Time Spy Extreme, which determine how well the laptop copes with DX11 and DX12 4K graphics workloads. If the laptop is equipped with a graphics card that supports DirectX ray-tracing, we also use the 2560 x 1440 Port Royal test. (We don’t bother with Night Raid here—who cares about integrated graphics on a gaming laptop?) For the best-equipped laptops on the market, we may also run Speed Way, which plies the deepest and most demanding features of DX12 Ultimate.
We run all gaming benchmarks in full-screen mode with vertical sync disabled, always at least at 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution and the laptop's native resolution. Games include Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and more.
We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's essential travel and ambient heat. See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.
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