Gaems G155 Mobile Gaming Environment

The Gaems G155 is described by its maker as a 'Mobile Gaming Environment'. What that futuristic-sounding phrase means in English is that it's a portable screen that doubles as a hard carrying case for an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3 Slim console.

The screen is contained within the case's tough plastic shell, and the console fits inside, so with a single carry handle on the top you can take your complete gaming ‘rig' on the road. The plastic felt strong enough to protect the screen and console and the connections and buttons below the screen were well laid out.

It's not truly portable, however, because what the G155 doesn't include is a battery or power pack, so you will still need to set it up close to a couple of power sockets, one for the console and one for the G155's own power supply. In any case, given the power requirements of modern games machines, a power pack that would last a good amount of time would have been far too heavy with the screen and console as well.

The 15.5in screen has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, so games can be displayed in high definition from either console, to which it attaches with an HDMI cable. A short cable is supplied and normally we'd criticise the length but under the circumstances it's ideal. You can of course plug other things into the screen such as a Blu-ray player or even a PC.

There is a foam base that can be inserted in two ways, which allows it to securely hold the standard-size Xbox 360, the slimmer Xbox 360 S or the Playstation 3 Slim (it won't hold the larger full-size Playstation 3). Two accessory pouches fit down either side of the console.

One of the benefits of using HDMI is that this also carries audio – limiting the number of wires you need to carry around. The two headphone outputs mean you can play with another person without using the internal speakers.

The problems came when we connected a PC and turned the G155 on: screen quality was very disappointing and nowhere near as clear as we'd expect from a high-definition screen. When playing games from a console the screen looked a lot better, but it still wasn't enormously good.

The Gaems G155 is a clever idea but it's a great shame that the screen wasn't better quality. Given the rather expensive list price of £299, this screen is even more expensive than either of the consoles for which it's designed, but it is a unique product that does provide for gaming on the move - or at least wherever you can find a couple of power sockets.