A group of creative modders in China has ingeniously transformed Sony’s PlayStation 5 into a portable device, crafting it into a laptop-style machine, albeit without a built-in battery. Dubbed the BBook AI, this fascinating creation showcases a massive 17.3-inch display within a bulky frame that brings to mind the old-school, chunky gaming laptops. Weighing in at more than 9 pounds, it’s definitely an eye-catching gadget.
The BBook AI Original Edition sports a 3D-printed chassis that houses the internal parts of a PS5. The major advantage here lies in its impressive 17.3-inch 4K IPS screen, which boasts full 100% DCI-P3 color coverage. However, gamers might find the 60 Hz refresh rate to be a bit of a letdown.
Interestingly, there’s an HDMI 2.1 port on the side, allowing you to hook up an external monitor if you choose, but some might argue that this defeats the whole purpose of a portable PS5. There’s no built-in battery, so you’ll need to plug it into an AC power outlet to actually use it. It’s not the modders’ fault, as the PS5 guzzles about 200W during play, leading to a short-lived 30-minute battery life if it were to use a 100Wh battery.
On the connectivity front, the BBook AI has a USB Type-A 10 Gbps port. However, one significant downside is its noise level, reported to reach a staggering 71.3 decibels, which is on par with the roar of a sports car. It’s worth noting that this unique laptop retains a fully operational PlayStation 5 inside, meaning it runs on PlayStation OS. So, technically, this makes it the first PC capable of playing games like Astro Bot. Can your current gaming laptop do that?
Spec-wise, the BBook AI matches the PS5 under the hood, using an eight-core CPU based on Zen 2 architecture and a 36 Compute Unit GPU built on RDNA 2. It also comes with 16GB of unified GDDR6 memory and 825GB of PCIe 4.0 storage. All this for the rather steep price tag of $2,750, which is over five times what you’d pay for a regular PS5! From the pictures, it appears to include a keyboard, although it’s unclear whether it’s membrane or mechanical.
While the BBook AI aims to offer portability, it’s actually twice as heavy as the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8 that’s powered by an RTX 4090 and equipped with a 99Wh battery. If you’re looking to save some cash, a more practical route might be grabbing a portable monitor for between $700 and $1,000 alongside a PS5, setting you back a total of $700-$1,000 depending on your monitor’s specs. In the end, the BBook AI remains a fascinating, albeit impractical, DIY project for those intrigued by such modding endeavors.
