MSI’s day-one announcement at GTC is the WT72 – the company’s flagship mobile workstation that packs the new Quadro M5500 graphics card and is labeled as “VR Ready.” This notebook is the result of a collaboration between MSI and Nvidia, and together they claim that it’s the world’s first mobile VR workstation.
The notebook will be available in three variants, all of which pack the Quadro M5500 GPU with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory. CPU options include the Xeon E3-1505M v5, the Core i7-6920HQ and the Core i7-6700HQ, and memory options consist of either 64 GB of 2133 MHz ECC-enabled DDR4 memory (with the Xeon CPU) or 32 GB of 2133 MHz DDR4 memory with both the Core i7 options.
All the WT72s come with a 256 GB SSD configuration and a 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive, as well as a Blu-ray burner, Thunderbolt 3, six USB 3.0 ports (because you will need two for an HMD), and a full-HD webcam.
The base model comes with a 17.3-inch Full HD IPS panel, which isn’t an impressive resolution for its large screen size, although it won’t matter much if the notebook’s purpose is primarily to power a VR HMD on the go. Of course, the WT72 was built for tasks other than powering a VR headset. For professionals, the M5500 graphics card will handle their GPU needs, and the mid- and top-tier WT72 configurations come with a 17.3” 4K panel. All the screens come with Adobe RGB certification.
Although it’s a workstation on the inside, the notebook is still styled very much like a gaming notebook. It has the same design language as other notebooks in MSI’s gaming lineup, and it has a SteelSeries backlit keyboard, a Killer E2400 gaming NIC, Dynaudio speakers, and more.
The WT72 measures 428 x 294 x 48 mm and weighs 3.8 kg, so it’s not exactly thin and light.
Pricing for the base model starts at $5,499, whereas the mid-tier model will cost $6,299. If you want the Xeon CPU to go with that, along with the extra 32 GB of ECC memory, that will cost you an additional $600, bringing the tally up to $6,899. MSI covers the notebooks with a 3-year warranty.
