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The advantages to using the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift is that because they are powered by our computers, they tend to be more powerful and feature rich due to the resources they have access to. This is versus the Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard/Daydream, and so on where they are powered by our phones.

However the downside is that they are not portable, but recently we’ve seen companies like HP and MSI create VR backpacks which are basically wearable computers that could be used to power devices like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Now it looks like Alienware wants in on the fun as well.

During E3, Alienware’s booth actually had prototypes of the device in question, which you can see in the photo above. According to Alienware, they have been working with the likes of AMD to create the device, and that one of the biggest issues right now with such a device would be the ventilation. After all this is essentially a computer strapped to your back, meaning that the heat has to go somewhere, and the idea of a sweaty back isn’t particularly appealing.

That being said, don’t expect Alienware to release this VR backpack anytime soon. Like we said, this is just a prototype and something that Alienware is looking into and not necessarily turning it into an actual product, but based on what we can see, it certainly looks a lot more compact than the competition.

Filed in . Read more about Alienware, E3, E3 2016, Virtual Reality (VR) and Wearable Tech.