The majority of people have probably forgotten about PC manufacturers' efforts to give premium mobile VR in backpacks, but Zotac persisted in the concept. The fourth-generation VR Go system's recent release indicates the device has at least found a market.
Some regions now sell Zotac's VR Go 4.0 backpack PC, which the company first unveiled at Computex last year. While pricing and availability information hasn't yet surfaced in the US, UK dealers are now offering one of two SKUs for £3,699, or about $4,688, without the headset (link may be restricted for non-EU IP addresses).
The GPU is the only distinction between the new models. Both VR Go 4.0 SKUs switched to professional Ampere cards, the A2000 and A4500, representing a shift away from gamers and toward developers and other enterprise users. The previous VR Go 3.0 featured an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070, reports TechSpot.
In addition, compared to the previous generation, there have been considerable improvements to the CPU, storage, and connection. The latest offering from Zotac has more USB 3.0 ports, Windows 11 Pro, an Intel Corei7-11800H processor, and a 512GB NVMe SSD (whose PCIe generation is unknown). Users can upgrade the DDR4 memory from the factory-set 16GB to 32GB and add more SATA-based storage.
Users shouldn't anticipate an exceptionally long battery life because the hardware is relatively high-end by most standards, especially for a mobile machine. The two provided batteries, which are hot-swappable and upgradeable, only give you about 50 minutes of playtime, as you might expect. The device, like other backpack PCs, may be taken from its straps and operated on a desk like a standard mini desktop tower.
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During the initial surge in enthusiasm for VR and AR in the middle of the 2010s, Zotac began to release backpack PCs for mobile VR gaming alongside other firms like HP and MSI. The VR Go series from Zotac may have found a steady professional user base, but their exorbitant prices on top of the flagship headsets prevented them from being widely adopted.
Furthermore, the basic concept isn't all that unlike the experience Apple is attempting to deliver with its impending Vision Pro. However, the so-called "Spatial Computer" from Cupertino Giant will be smaller hardware that prioritizes AR over VR. However, it will still cost several thousand dollars and require a user-strapped external battery, likely posing the same challenges as the older backpack PCs until Apple's reputation and software ecosystem set it apart.
