Then there’s the height on this thing. At its highest point it’s 1.95m (about 6 foot 4). Thanks to its near vertical walls, there’s just about enough space to stand up in this thing as well.

The fly sheet comes out quite high off the ground and also leaves fair bit of distance from the inner at ground level so there’s plenty of ventilation here, even though there’s no vent at the top. The porch offers a lot of storage space and can be rolled back to open the tent right up.

Handy features that families will certainly appreciate are the numerous deep mesh pockets lining the walls of the inner and big toggled child-friendly zips.

Packing it up and away is easy thanks to the widemouth stuff sack and compression straps. And the overall packed size is a surprisingly small (for the category) 58 x 25cm. That’s small enough to fit into a person’s 65L backpack while still potentially leaving enough space for their sleeping bag and sleeping mat.

Materials

A lot of good stuff here, as you’d hope considering the big price tag. The fly sheet is a 1500mm Polyurethane with a ripstop weave and durable water repellent coating. It’s 68D, so a fair bit tougher than what you’d find on MSR’s backpacking tents – the 1.3kg Hubba Hubba NX for instance, has a 20D fly.

The bathtub style floor features a 68D taffeta polyester, rated to 10,000mm, with a PU coating and DWR. Then there’s a mix of taffeta polyester and 40D nylon micro mesh for the walls of the inner.

The poles are all made from aluminium. They’ve got a very high spec look and feel to them; lightweight but still very hardy.

Tester’s Verdict

Will Renwick, editor of Outdoors Magic

“I used this right in the middle of winter with fellow OM staffers Jordan and Giles and we were all very impressed.

“While a lot of family camping tents can feel a little bit brittle and cheap this really oozes quality.

“Putting it up took us a little longer than we had thought it would as we had a bit of trouble working out which pole went where in the pitch black of night! Still, it took us well under 15 minutes to have it perfectly pitched with the fly beautifully taut. That’s not bad at all when you consider how much of a headache family camping tents can be. I wouldn’t have wanted to put it up by myself for the the first time, but I reckon I could manage it alone in calm conditions.

“Inside, it really is cavernous. Us three full-sized blokes had bucket-loads of space. It’s like being in the tent equivalent of St Paul’s cathedral.

“It was a windy and wet night and I genuinely felt as secure as I’ve ever felt in a tent. I’ve read another review that says they found it a little wobbly but that wasn’t the case for us. We could hear the wind really shaking the trees around us, but the tent barely seemed to move.

“What’s more, the next morning, there wasn’t a drop of moisture on the inside of fly. Perhaps it was just one of those nights, but still, with the masses amount of ventilation at the base of the MSR Habitude I’d expect internal moisture won’t be much of a problem. As for the packed size, it’s impressively light and compact for a 6-person tent, that’s for sure. Still, it’s not the kind of thing you’re going to slip into your backpack and hike 20 miles with.

“That’s my initial impression anyway, I’ll try and get out with this a few more times this summer and add in a longer term verdict here at some point.”