Chinese enthusiasts have managed to transform Sony’s PlayStation 5 into a portable device of sorts—imagine a hefty, battery-less laptop. This creation, spotted on Weibo by VideoCardz, is called the BBook AI, and it stands out with its massive 17.3-inch screen. Despite its weight of over 9 pounds, it’s a striking piece of tech.
Within the 3D-printed case of the BBook AI Original Edition, you’ll find the PS5’s guts. The real draw here is the expansive 17.3-inch 4K display, offering vibrant DCI-P3 colors. Alas, it falls short with a mere 60 Hz refresh rate. An HDMI 2.1 port on the side lets you connect to another display, but that feels like it defeats the point of having everything in one unit. And since there’s no battery, you’ll be tethered to a power outlet, which is a nod to the PS5’s hefty 200W gaming power requirement—a 100Wh battery would hardly last half an hour.
Name: BBook AI Original Edition
CPU: 8x cores based on Zen 2
GPU: 36x Compute Units based on RDNA 2
Memory: 16GB of unified GDDR6 memory
Storage: 825GB of PCIe 4.0 storage
Display: 17.3-inch 4K display at 60 Hz
Thickness: 31.3mm
Weight: 4.321kg (9.5 pounds) + 500g (1.1 pounds) for the adapter
Price: 19,999 Yuan or $2,750
For connectivity, there’s a USB Type-A 10 Gbps port. According to reports, the BBook AI can get extremely noisy—hitting 71.3 dB, akin to a sports car revving up. Despite its form, this laptop runs PlayStation OS, making it effectively the first “PC” to run Astro Bot. How does that stack up against your gaming rig?
In specs, it matches the PS5—sporting an eight-core Zen 2 CPU and a 36 Compute Unit RDNA 2 GPU, with 16GB of non-upgradable memory and 825GB of storage. The price tag of $2,750 is a hefty 5.5 times what you’d pay for a standard PS5. From the photos, it seems it includes a keyboard too, though whether it’s membrane or mechanical isn’t clear.
While the aim of the BBook AI seems to be portability, it’s twice as heavy as Lenovo’s Legion 9i Gen 8 with an RTX 4090, and that one comes with a 99Wh battery. For a more budget-conscious move, pair a standard PS5 with a portable monitor for roughly $700 to $1,000. This homemade laptop might be better seen as a quirky experiment than a practical purchase.
