The Rabbit R1 AI device was a massive blunder for the company. So much so that it has an entry in the Museum of Failure. Now the company is back with something called Project Cyberdeck, which promises to be a “vibe-coding machine.”
How exactly this will differ from a standard-issue laptop hasn’t been fully explained, but the company obviously hasn’t given up on making AI-focused hardware. The company spoke to Engadget about its current plans for the project, which mostly involve concept renders and hardware sourcing for now. But how much faith should folks put into Rabbit’s ambitions this time around?
Rascally Rabbit
Rabbit’s eventual aim is to create a small, command-line-based portable PC that allows for vibe coding on the go. Beyond the size, along the lines of Sony’s Vaio P, it doesn’t sound like anything you can’t already do with a laptop. Project Cyberdeck will eventually run Linux and will feature similar power to the Raspberry Pi 5. It’ll live in a foldable cyberdeck-like frame. Oh, and it should cost around R8,300 ($500). That’s the target price, anyway.
A 165Hz 7in OLED screen is being considered, as is a low-profile mechanical keyboard. The keyboard PCB will be swappable, too. Four USB-C ports will support peripheral connections, like monitors and keyboards. That’s the extent of the hardware plans at present.
The other major factor for this “vibe-coding machine” is AI connectivity. It’ll chat with Anthropic, OpenAI, and likely others, while supporting everything developed for its creators’ own RabbitOS. That… didn’t work out too well for the R1, so hopefully there have been significant upgrades there.
But, as with many devices and with Rabbit’s plans in particular, Project Cyberdeck doesn’t come across as unique. Certainly not in its current incarnation. It’s a smaller computer that’ll let AI fanatics signal their cool factor by coding when they should be looking other humans in the eye. A MacBook Air could do that without coming off like a computer hardware-shaped fedora being furiously tipped at all and sundry.
Still, we’ll keep an eye on Project Cyberdeck. The form factor could be legitimately cool. Limiting it to vibe-coding and Rabbit’s ecosystem seems like a silly choice at this point. Without that, though, it’s just a teeny tiny, semi-moddable computer.
