Get rid of the Harness Free to Play VR HP Shadow Elf X VR Backpack Experience

Before he had contacted VR, Xiao Bian thought that real VR should be wearing VR glasses in an unrestrained environment and immersed in the virtual reality world. However, the reality is so cruel. After being beaten several times by HTC Vive's complicated wire, Xiao Bian feels deeply that VR is still a standing VR and wants to play VR with no restrictions. Outside the immature wireless suite, is there no other way?

The PC makers have taken another path. Instead of VR headsets being wireless, it would be better to put the host on their backs. This will allow them to play VR freely and ensure stable performance.

This time we got the Shadow Elven X VR backpack computer from Hewlett-Packard. This set of today's top hardware and relatively light-weight design of VR backpack computer will bring you a feeling, and then we will experience it together.

Unpacking/Accessories

You can see the HP Shadow Wizard X VR has a very rich range of accessories, including the host body, two pairs of a total of four batteries, a rated 330W power adapter, an adapter that can charge a pair of batteries at the same time, a set of carrying system, a pair Support hot-swappable power supply box and a wire that can be directly connected to HTC Vive.

Appearance/form

In terms of design, friends who have contacted HP Shadow Elves should be familiar. The sign of the shadowy, highly visible frontal genie, combined with the family-designed "X" shaped RGB light bar, exudes a strong fighting atmosphere.

The skin-like plastic panel is designed with a large area of ​​heat-dissipating mesh, and the fan-cooling openings are on both sides.

The back is also made of plastic material, and the protruding snap can be used with the carrying system.

This time, Hewlett-Packard not only regards Shadow Elf X VR as a VR backpack, but also wants to provide users with more usage scenarios. Therefore, Hewlett-Packard is very convinced with a docking station. The docking station has a trapezoidal design. The top slot securely grips the vertically inserted mainframe; the bottom large non-slip pad prevents undesired sliding of the machine's fit. After the two are combined, they are very stable. As long as they are not disabled or violently used, I believe they will not be easily detached.

In the host and docking state, connect the monitor and mouse keyboard, which will be a high-performance desktop host.

In terms of interfaces, Shadow Elf X VR can be said to be a luxury package for HP players. There are two USB3.0 ports on the top of the host, a lightning interface, HDMI 2.0, DP1.2, HTC Vive power supply interface, 3.5mm audio output interface readily available. This is still not finished, there are two USB3.0 at the bottom of the side, so many interfaces, Xiao Bian may not use all his life (Big mistake!)

This is only in the state of loading the system mode. If there is a docking station for distribution, there is no doubt that this is an interface world. Five USB 3.0s, a USB type-c interface, a DP interface, an HDMI, and an RJ45 network interface can be said to be connected to the expansion dock and the scalability is greatly improved.

Performance/configuration

In fact, this Shadow Genie X VR can be seen as a super performance laptop. It is equipped with the Intel i7-7820HK processor. This processor is not much different from the 7700HQ when used in peacetime, but the 7820HK has some optimization in the underlying architecture and instruction set, so it is more stable in overclocking performance. Avoid the possibility of crashes caused by overclocking. The graphics card is Nvidia’s GTX 1080 with 8G DDR5X memory. Xiao Bian think this should be Nvidia's latest MAX-Q technology, that is, at the expense of 10% of the performance in exchange for 50% of energy consumption, so we can see in such a compact body can also be loaded on the GTX 1080 this monster Level of graphics. Configurable 16GB DDR4 memory, astounding 1TB large storage M. 2 Nvme SSD, the configuration can be said to be as strong as the sky, this is the right level of VR-Ready configuration.

Product configuration

HP Shadow Elf X VR

processor

Intel Core i7-7820HK

RAM

16GB DDR4

Video card

NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080 8GB DDR5X Memory

hard disk

1TB M. 2 Nvme SSD

Pre-installed system

Windows 10

size and weight

317*232*57mm about 4.6KG

SteamVR Performance Test is to test whether the host configuration is ready for VR software, through which you can get a glimpse of Shadow Wizard X VR performance.

It can be seen that Shadow Elf X VR is much higher than the recommended configuration for running HTC Vive. There is no doubt that this is a powerful host for VR.

3DMark is the old software that tests the performance of the host video card. After the test, we take a look at the running score of this machine.

It can be seen that both the Fire Strike Ultra and the Fire Strike Extreme benchmarks, this machine's GTX 1080 score is close to the market's GTX1080, and this score can be said to be very high. With this powerful graphics performance, running most VR games on the market is stress-free.

Next, we conducted a pager test on this camera, and used FurMark to perform a 15-minute pager at a resolution of 1080P at room temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. The results show that the machine has been stable at about 75 degrees.

Because the continuous battle in VR is too agonizing, so Xiaobian used Prime95 and furMark continuous pagers to test the battery life. The results showed that a pair of batteries took 1 hour and 10 minutes from full power to shutdown. Hot-swappable Xs can be replaced with another pair of batteries to continue fighting, in theory, can be close to the official promotion of the two pairs of batteries 2.5 hours of battery life. However, Xiao Bian suggested that ordinary players really do not immerse themselves in VR for more than one hour in a row. Don't ask me why, bloody lessons. So in this way, the 2.5-hour battery life is more than enough.

Experience

VR backpack host, the experience of carrying the state is very important. In the piggyback state (host, two batteries loaded with a backpack), the weighing is probably around 4.6KG.

The data seems to be cold, and of course it must be back to be sentimental. We have come up with different editors to experience what this VR backpack carries.

The sturdy handsome figure edited on the back is still acceptable, because he is usually accustomed to carrying a laptop to work, so this is a small part of him.

The beauty editor who had experienced VR backpacks in the past said that she was more comfortable than expected. Although this backpack is relatively heavy on the level of data, but the backpack's weight distribution is more reasonable, so the back feel will not be too burdensome.

Petite sister paper editors also indicated that they were completely within the acceptable range.

Xiao Bian also experienced first-hand, although the backpack is relatively easy to lift, but back, it is another experience. The support of the backpack to the host is very reasonable, the host does not cling to the back but is held up by the backpack, so there is a gap between the host and the back. This gap allows the back to stay in contact with the host, keeping the back in its natural state, and it does not directly touch the heated host.

The two batteries are distributed at the waist instead of being directly mounted on the main unit, which spreads the weight distribution. Coupled with the backpack design and the use of materials is also very good. The combination of these factors will give people a feeling of good back.

Game experience

Before getting the product, Xiao Bian took part in the experience of the Shadow Elven X VR backpack arranged by HP. This experience will be Hewlett-Packard's cooperation with the 7663VR competitive platform. Xiao Bian briefly experienced two very popular VR games provided by the 7663VR competitive platform. These are the “Lunar Eclipse: The Rise of Blood Sources” developed by Shanghai Jiqu and Shanghai Thinking. The bears developed and made public for the first time in the Adventures of Bobby: Town War.

Play on Hewlett-Packard and the 7663VR competitive platform federation

At the scene of the experience, although the experience of arranging for Xiao Bian was not much, the Shadow Elf X VR was very impressed by Xiao Bian. During the brief experience, the Shadow Genie X VR backpack is directly connected to HTC VIVE without annoying streamer, and it can be said that it truly realizes “freedom”. At that time, the experience of "The Adventures of Bobbi: Town War" was a tower defense game. Since the elements of this game are so numerous, the overall picture experience would not be good if the performance could not keep up. But this does not exist for Shadow Elf X VR. The game experience is very smooth, there is no phenomenon of delay or stall, and the performance between various elements is very clear, and the powerfulness of the host performance does not need to be questioned.

After getting the product, Xiao Bian further tested the game performance of Shadow Elf X VR. Xiao Bian used three games on the STEAM platform, including "Heroes Sam", "Super Hot" and "VR SPORTS".

The first test is the game "The Hero Sam". This game is very difficult to get started, and even the first pass is very difficult. Various monsters in the game will appear in different places and then knock you down in various ways. All you have to do is to destroy them with laser weapons. As the number of enemies increases, various elements on the screen will continue to increase, so it is a good test for the performance of Shadow Elf X VR. Xiao Bian personally tested that when various laser splashes and various monsters flowed in, the picture was still very smooth. Xiao Bian played for a long time without passing the first pass (囧 囧 , , ,), but the Shadow Elf X VR never delayed or stuck and made me feel uncomfortable. Visible this backpack's powerful graphics performance.

The second game is very magical "Spuer Hot". The game has fewer screen elements, but the enemy's shooting speed is synchronized with the player's shooting speed, which tests the ability to synchronize speed. During the experience, the fight between the player and the enemy is very synchronous and there is no delay, making the game experience very smooth.

The last one is VR SPORTS. This game is a collection of various sports games. Among them, the rhythm of the boxing match is very compact, and it is more testable than the picture rendering ability In terms of actual experience, this backpack is also able to run very smoothly without doubt, and it will not make Xiaobian feel dizzy. Because it is the reason of VR backpack, there can be more choices in the boxing match, not afraid of being tripped by the wire.

to sum up

After a series of experiences, Xiao Bian was surprised that this was a very mature and outstanding product. Unlike other previous friends of the product is still in a more "wild" period, HP's Shadow Elf X VR backpack is already very "civilized and modern". The compact and compact shape design, superior configuration performance, comfortable wearing experience and enjoyable gaming experience make this product highly competitive in the market. This Shadow Genie X VR is really able to move freely and freely with no restrictions on VR play. No longer worry about being picked up by annoying wires. When the VR wireless suite is still in its infancy, this is an excellent product that truly enables you to play VR as you wish.