Arsenal VR One Hands-on, First Impressions

There’s a new smartphone brand in the country called Arsenal and their first phone to launch is the VR One — a 5.2-inch premium build handset. With the ‘VR’ moniker attached to its model name, the handset is capable of delivering virtual reality experience on a budget. Here are our first impressions of the Arsenal VR One.

When we first saw the VR One, we immediate thought of its beautiful design. On the hand, the 5.2-inch display is just about the sweet spot for a display size. The panel is LTPS from JDI with a Full HD resolution or about 423ppi. Above the display are the 8-megapixel selfie camera, earpiece, and front sensors. Below is a physical home button equipped with a fingerprint scanner.

To the left-hand side is where the hybrid card slot sit that accepts a micro-SIM and a nano-SIM or a microSD card for storage expansion.

On the right is the pair of physical buttons for power/lock and volume. The buttons have the same aluminum build with chamfered edges just like the whole frame of the device.

Despite the growing popularity of the reversible USB Type-C among lower-midrange phones, the VR One sports a microUSB port for charging and transfers with support for USB-OTG as well. The top of the phone has the 3.5mm headphone jack and the noise-cancelling microphone.

The back of the phone shows the matte aluminum unibody. The black variant we have hides the antenna bands well and is definitely a looker. Its main 13-megapixel camera module protrudes in the upper-left corner with a single LED flash beside it.

Powering the handset is the dated MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz with the Mali T720-MP3. Paired with 3GB of RAM, it’s sufficient enough for everyday task and gaming. For virtual reality, it relies on Google Cardboard app along with all the supported apps for VR.

Arsenal has a couple of handsets coming soon to the market with the VR One as their initial offering. For a new brand to enter the mature and competitive local smartphone scene, the Arsenal is brave to release such device. We are yet to fully test out the handset and we’ll save our final judgment for our review. For now, the VR One impresses us with its build quality, design, and display.

Arsenal VR One specs:
5.2-inch JDI LTPS Full HD display, 423ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 octa-core CPU
Mali T720-MP3 GPU
3GB RAM
32GB storage
microSD up to 64GB
13M AF rear camera w/ LED flash
8MP front camera
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE (B1/B3/B5/B7/B28)
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0 BLE
GPS, A-GPS
Fingerprint scanner
FM Radio
Dirac HD Sound
Gyroscope
Android 6.0 Marshmallow w/ Arsenal UI
2,800mAh battery

The Arsenal VR One is priced at Php11,990USD 204INR 17,321EUR 195CNY 1,488 and will be available online on www.one2shop.com starting today. Physical store availability is through MemoXpress next month. Check back next week for our full review. If you have any particular questions for the handset, hit the comments section below and we’ll answer soon.