Rabbit's Cyberdeck Is A Modern Take On A Netbook

When you deliberation of an AI-forward PC, you mightiness deliberation of thing for illustration NVIDIA's $3,999 DGX Spark — a machine pinch capable computing powerfulness to tally analyzable ample connection models locally. That's not what Rabbit is trying to build pinch Project Cyberdeck. Instead, nan company's extremity is to nutrient a instrumentality tailored for vibe coding, and Engadget was fixed an exclusive first look astatine nan upcoming PC.

Rabbit began moving connected Project Cyberdeck aft nan company's CEO, Jesse Lyu, saw really overmuch his package engineers were utilizing Claude Code. Lyu thought a mini shape facet PC, for illustration nan netbooks that were celebrated successful nan precocious aughts, pinch a bid statement interface would beryllium perfect for on-the-go vibe coding, but erstwhile he went online to look for thing that fresh nan bill, he was disappointed.

"They each travel pinch shitty rubber dome keyboards," Lyu says of low-cost PCs for illustration nan latest Chromebooks, which usage elastic silicone sheets nether their keys to prevention connected abstraction and cost. "They're not thing you would bask typing connected for an extended play of time." So Rabbit decided to build its ain device. For inspiration, Lyu and institution looked to an improbable source: nan Sony Vaio P.

Sony's netbook was only concisely disposable from nan commencement of 2009 to astir nan extremity of 2010. At nan time, nan 8-inch Vaio P was nan world's lightest netbook, weighing conscionable 1.4 pounds, but it had a big of issues. It was besides expensive, costing considerably much than different Intel Atom notebooks of nan time. In 2009, nan astir affordable Vaio P would group you backmost $900 (about $1,365 adjusted for inflation). With Project Cyberdeck, Rabbit is aiming for a instrumentality that costs astir $500, and hopefully avoids a akin fate.

I saw a fewer early renders of Project Cyberdeck, which Rabbit isn't fresh to stock publically yet. Imagine a transverse betwixt nan Rabbit R1, Vaio P and nan original Nintendo DS. It looks cute. All nan renders had 4 USB-C ports to let users to link nan instrumentality to outer monitors and peripherals, though nan existent IO specs are as-yet undecided.

The institution is successful nan process of sourcing components and moving towards a last design, truthful specifications tin — and will — change. I saw immoderate of nan parts Lyu has been testing successful his office, but nary last prototype arsenic such.

For one, Rabbit still needs to determine connected a chipset. The institution is aiming for a capacity benchmark comparative to nan Raspberry Pi 5, which has a Broadcom BCM2712 quad-core Arm Cortex A76 processor clocked astatine 2.4GHz. With 16GB of RAM, nan Raspberry Pi 5 tin tally 2 outer monitors, a capacity Rabbit hopes to lucifer pinch nan Cyberdeck. The thought present is to make a instrumentality that's powerful capable it won't consciousness slow erstwhile it's communicating pinch Anthropic and OpenAI's servers, but affordable capable to make it a no-brainer acquisition for developers.

The institution confirmed Project Cyberdeck will tally Linux. Rabbit will let users to modify nan operating strategy and instal immoderate third-party devices they want. Additionally, each nan package features nan institution has developed for RabbitOS will beryllium disposable done command-line prompts.

Two parts of nan instrumentality Lyu hopes are awesome differentiating factors are nan keyboard and screen. Lyu appears group connected shipping a machine pinch a 40 percent keyboard that has low-profile mechanical switches and a afloat basking swappable PCB, truthful users tin tweak nan typing consciousness to their liking. Lyu besides had a sample 7-inch OLED surface connected his table erstwhile I said to him. That circumstantial sheet offers touch input, a 165Hz refresh complaint and 815 nits of brightness. While it mightiness not beryllium nan 1 Rabbit settles on, OLED is nan goal, because of what it would mean for artillery life.

For nan uninitiated, OLED panels nutrient achromatic values by turning disconnected individual diodes, and since each diode is self-emitting, there's nary request for a power-hungry backlight. Like each smartphone manufacturer, Rabbit is taking advantage of this by readying to connection a acheronian mode interface from time one.

One facet of nan Cyberdeck's creation Lyu can't definitively speak to is really overmuch RAM it will feature. The full manufacture is dealing pinch datacenter request for high-bandwidth representation that has sent nan value of computers, smartphones and other electronics soaring. Lyu believes Rabbit won't beryllium forced to hold nan Cyberdeck retired of 2026, but he besides didn't norm retired nan anticipation either. If things alteration for nan better, he's assured Rabbit would beryllium capable to return advantage, since it took nan institution astir 93 days to vessel nan first R1 instrumentality aft it began moving connected nan design.

Separately, I wonderment if group will want to transportation astir a 2nd instrumentality solely for their coding needs? You don't request a dedicated instrumentality to entree Claude Code aliases OpenAI Cursor. Even companies for illustration Apple person begun integrating vibe coding services into their improvement environments. Rabbit could beryllium connected way for a repetition of nan R1, but pinch truthful galore specifications of nan Cyberdeck near undecided, for now, it's excessively early to cognize for sure. The institution will get to make its lawsuit erstwhile it shares much specifications successful nan coming weeks and months.