Despite building an excited community prior to launch and promising a technological revolution, the Rabbit r1 has yet to prove itself. Even with the controversy surrounding the Large Action Model (LAM), which the company has been boasting about and which turned out to be a potential hoax, the device itself offers a poor user experience.
While the best AI chatbots continue to surge in popularity and Apple Intelligence is bringing significant improvements to Siri with the upcoming iOS 18 AI features, Rabbit has fallen behind. ChatGPT 4o may be the final nail in the coffin for the Rabbit r1, but one person has found a way to make the device somewhat useful. Well, sort of.
In a lengthy video, YouTuber Bringus Studios converted the Rabbit r1 into a quirky dumbphone gaming device. By using a GitHub repository called 'R1 Escape!', which unlocks the Rabbit r1's Android capabilities, Bringus Studios was able to download and use the Google Play Store.
After downloading a variety of games, including Minecraft and Angry Birds, the gaming experience on the Rabbit r1 turned out to be better than expected. However, given the small screen size, poor touch sensitivity, and overall disappointing design of the device, it’s far from matching the experience of using an actual smartphone.
If you're looking to play the best Android games right now, we wouldn’t recommend converting the Rabbit r1 into a gaming device. Considering the r1's disappointing performance both as an AI gadget and for general Android functions, it's safe to say Rabbit won't be marketing this tech as a budget-friendly competitor to the best gaming handhelds anytime soon.
In any case, it’s interesting to see a device being repurposed into something entirely different, even if the Rabbit r1 is just a glorified Android gadget masquerading as a sophisticated AI companion. Hopefully, those who invested in the r1 can also experiment with it, although it's worth noting that 'R1 Escape!' is currently irreversible, so proceed with caution.