GAEMS' Sentinel is a briefcase monitor for gaming mid-meeting

Ever found yourself snoozing through an afternoon meeting and thought "boy, this would be a great time to grind out some PvP medals for that Last Word quest in Destiny 2"? Well, you're in luck—GAEMS (no, that's not a typo) has produced the ultimate camouflage for the business gamer, a 'personal gaming environment' called the Sentinel that is essentially a briefcase with a built-in monitor, into which you can tuck a laptop or console for gaming on the go. It's primarily aimed at people that want to transform their PS4 or Xbox One into a portable console, but anything with an HDMI out will work within its spacious interior. 

The portability of the Sentinel is a bit of a dicey proposition—it's massive, even for a briefcase, and weighs 13 pounds empty. Add in the weight of a console or laptop and any additional cables you may need, and you're looking at around or in excess of twenty pounds. The form factor itself is quite bulky, large enough that you'll definitely need a table or other flat surface to make use of the Sentinel; this is not a lap-suitable experience. 

Joking aside, there are a few use cases where the Sentinel could be quite handy, like if you want to take a console to a friend's house to play multiplayer games online but they don't have a second TV for you to plug into. It would also be handy in hotel rooms, where trying to find an HDMI port can range from a tedious exercise in frustration to a Herculean labor, or in a rustic Airbnb with nothing but a tiny, ancient CRT to game on. The included screen is a crisp, 17.3' 1080p IPS panel and comes with a pair of stereo speakers, though for a dedicated gaming display I would've appreciated a higher refresh rate than the Sentinel's native 60Hz.

It's an incredibly niche product, though it does fill a very specifically shaped hole in the marketplace, and I can see its utility for people that travel a lot or want a new display for their ageing laptop without sinking $1,000 or more into a brand new machine. At the very least, I can attest from personal experience that it'll provide some eye-catching novelty the first time you unpack it at your office. The Sentinel retails for $349.99 on GAEMS' site.

Alan Bradley
Alan's been a journalist for over a decade, covering news, games, and hardware. He loves new technology, Formula 1 race cars, and the glitter of C-beams in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. Find him @chapelzero on Twitter for lengthy conversation about CRPGs of the early 90s and to debate the merits of the serial comma.