MSI Aims To Deliver Ultimate VR Experience With ‘VR One’ All-in-one Backpack PC

It goes without saying that 2016 has been an incredible year for virtual reality, and if one thing’s certain: its momentum is not slowing down. 2016 could also be considered the “year of the VR backpack”, as we’ve seen a huge number of options from vendors the world over. MSI’s latest, though, the VR One, still manages to stand out.

The VR One is a PC. While it’s essentially a backpack that a notebook slides into, it’s not a backpack that allows you to choose which notebook to slide in. VR One is an all-in-one system designed to reduce the hassle of such setups. Because of that design, it means the backpack perfectly complements the notebook, meaning heat and noise will be less of an issue.

Despite coming equipped with two large battery packs, the VR One sucks down power like only a mammoth gaming notebook could. It comes equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, which means insane performance and visual fidelity. It also means that VR One is spec’d to last just 1.5 hours. That’s kind of awful, but it’s to be expected. For some, they wouldn’t want to play for longer than that anyway, so the caveat is basically nonexistent. Instead, they get to enjoy their VR content without having to worry about cables.

MSI’s press release says that the notebook can be removed from the backpack to be used as normal, which is great, else the VR One would be beyond niche. With the extra batteries plugged in, the entire setup weighs just 3.6KG – not too bad considering we’re talking about a completely wireless VR solution that’s market-leading in terms of performance.

At this point, we don’t know a whole lot about the notebook itself, such as how much RAM it has, or even which CPU is used (we’re assuming an Intel Core i7). What we do know is that the notebook features a Thunderbolt 3 port, HDMI, DisplayPort, and 4x USB 3.0 ports. With dual 9cm fans and 9 heat pipes, the notebook shouldn’t ever break past 41dBA – not bad considering the power and capabilities here.

At the moment, the VR One doesn’t have pricing information available, nor even a release date. Hopefully those details will not take long to emerge.