A modder named Francesco came up with an ingenious way to create a portable PlayStation 4 Slim. His inspiration stemmed from a desire to play his favorite game franchise, Dark Souls, on the go. To make it even more impressive, he aimed to use only parts he had lying around the house. On top of that, he wanted the project to be something others could easily replicate, meaning minimal soldering and no significant modifications to the PS4’s motherboard.
With those goals in mind, Francesco created this:
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The main components of his build include a PS4 Slim (a specific revision with the smallest heatsink), a screen salvaged from a broken Acer netbook, and 18 lithium-ion 18650 battery cells scavenged from an old hoverboard. Armed with these parts, as well as some clever 3D modeling for the outer shell and internal frame, Francesco managed to assemble one of the cleanest and most well-designed portable PS4s to date.
However, given the project’s constraints, a few limitations do arise. The most obvious is the short battery life. On a full charge, you can expect about 1.5 hours of gameplay—not ideal, especially for something like Dark Souls. Compounding this is the lack of a battery indicator, which means the console could shut off unexpectedly mid-game. Charging time is another drawback. Using an Xbox 360 power supply he repurposed, it takes up to 12 hours to fully charge a dead battery. Francesco noted that a standard 12v charger, available online, could significantly reduce this time.
Size is another factor. While technically portable, the console is still quite bulky and weighs over 5.5 pounds. While you could take it on the go, its practicality might be limited for true portability.
That said, practicality wasn’t the main goal of this project. For Francesco, this was more of a “because I can” challenge—and he absolutely nailed it. Creating a portable version of a console as powerful as the PS4 Slim is no small feat, and Francesco’s work is nothing short of impressive.
