The PlayStation Portal Changed my Mind 

Love my Portal. I was shocked. My initial impression at the reveal, was “This is horse poop! Why not make a dedicated handheld.” But then I thought about how much I tried remote play on my phone (too small), and iPad (too awkward to use in bed or couch). So I bought the Portal and now I’m finding I’m putting way more time into my PS5 gaming.

I prefer playing in handheld if given the option. This device has been perfect for me. I got the Platinum in Spider-Man 2 on it and am currently replaying GoW: Ragnarok. I cannot believe how good it looks.

During the weekdays after work and the gym I have no energy to sit up and play on my TV so this has been a game changer for me so far ..

Been playing the portal in Tampa while my PS5 is in Orlando using my phone’s hotspot and even playing like that it’s been smooth so this is definitely what I wanted…once I’m back home gameplay is even better and so smooth with no lag using my WiFi at 500 download and 20 upload speeds and my PS5 wired which I think is key to have a solid no lag connection.

You also can’t remote play any media while using your phone or tablet as an FYI.

Awesome video man! I figured out that you can use RU-vid and even sign in on your Portal, but it has to be through your PS5's browser. Unfortunately though, you can't watch videos in full screen and it will be maxed out at 1080p (obviously). It's still cool that it works at least.

I wish it did work like a Wii U. All I want is a zero latency way to play my PS5 off-TV, a la Wii U. I don’t know why 11 years later and no one has figured out how to do what Nintendo did.

The main reason I won’t be getting one is my main use of my current handheld is doctor appointment, and the hospitals have Wi-Fi that needs to be verified by connecting to a browser and putting in a login and password problem though the Portal doesn’t have a browser so it can’t connect to a hot spot like that which is a very common setup for hospitals, schools and businesses. Since it has no native games such as a Switch does if you are in a situation where it can’t connect it becomes useless. I do realize for others it might serve their needs.

Hopefully, the Portal evolves into a stand-alone dedicated device for all things Playstation.

It's amazing that it's out of stock everywhere unless your willing to give scalpers double the RRP on reselling sites.

Living in a shared household the internet tanks like crazy, even with a booster, I’m just going to wait until the upgrades and updates come so you can rely on better connections overall

I've been using it alot over the weekend and it's got some lil glitches here and there but overall I've very much happy with my purchase

I’ll wait for a Bluetooth version, if that never happens then oh well

I’d consider it but I finally got Chiaki running flawlessly on my Steam Deck after a lot of tweaking.

The portal is cool, but with the steam deck oled out I personally think gamers are better off spending the extra money to get that. You have a majority of your steam library, you can emulate basically every console prior to the ps4 and any games that don’t run on steam deck there’s geforce now or playstation remote play.

C'mon guy's, we gotta admit, the only time we really need this is when we go to the bathroom...

“Long play times of 2 hours or more” this was the point I realised how much of a hardcore gamer I am because I can’t remember a time i played for less than 4 hours and that’s a super light session 😂

Great video. Very informative

Yeah.. nah. I’d rather just buy a Backbone controller for my phone and stream my Series X or PS5, using whatever headphones I like.

I’ve enjoyed my time with my portal so far. Like he’s mentioned a few moments here and there where the stream gets a bit fuzzy and frame drops or what not. It was one night I played 2K, MW3, and Madden back to back. Played until I got the low battery indicator. Always been a fan of remote play and have used the backbone controller with my phone to take advantage of remote play I’ve never been a fan of the having to remove my case to use the backbone(they’ve now fixed this). Depending on my schedule it’s just easier to handheld play my games. The portal isn’t for everyone and that’s cool but I’m glad Sony came out with a dedicated device. Hopefully they can build on this in the future.

Ive playing this thing nonstop since i got it. Its so easy and quick to just pick up and start playing for hours. This coming from a person with a dedicated gameroom

I’ve been playing my Portal all day. I love it! I’ve been playing Star Ocean The Second Story R and it’s been running great.

This is still a cloud streaming system. If you have a bad internet connection in either locations, then you are out of luck or if you are at a shuttle hotel, etc

It's great, I'm actually chipping away at my backlog now too as i can play for an hour or two in bed every other morning.

Sony is out here literally making the proverbial saying "It's like selling water to a whale!" a true testament

Well said bro great content

I’ve just picked one of these up for myself and I’m loving it. The screen looks gorgeous and I’m finding it works flawlessly in and around my home which is the only place I’ll be using it. I’m just using my normal isp router but it has gigabit fibre 👌

Technically you still have to have your Playstation on in some shape or fashion in order for the portal to be in use so you might as well say the portal needs to connect to Playstation to use it

Trophy hunting gonna be fun

portal doesn’t have a built in browser so if you are connecting to public networks with a sign in screen good luck. Most people are better off just doing remote play on their phones or getting a steam deck now that they are cheaper.

Great overview, now I just have to wait for a restock on Very

It works for me honestly. I have kids and it’s nice to be able to play my ps5 while they are watching what they want. I feel like this definitely wasn’t made for everyone.

I am winning games of Texas Chainsaw with the portal and that’s all that matters. It works really well and I have terrible internet. And somehow it looks better than one of the 4K tvs in my house. The screen is beautiful

I mean, the screen and controller help DRASTICALLY with people who are just in the Sony ecosystem. The biggest issue with remote play devices is the comfort...and the dual sense is imo the best controller to come out this generation. Yes the steam deck OLED can be played offline but i simply do not play games on PC except the insanely rare indie and emulation moments... Portal is for those PS5 only ecosystem players, also being able to grind for trophies/grind for levels in RPG/Combo practicing in Street Fighter and the occasional shooter make this well worth the price as you can do it in complete comfort. If you play multiplatform? get the steam deck OLED..if you're primarily a Sony player? buy the portal..no brainer.

It comes off as a rebellion against handhelds.. I can see what they’re going for a way to put 110% into one line and still have it portable too so they don’t have to split their resources.. It’s understandable.. Maybe it is the beginning of the wave of the future..

I noticed the image looks smeared or blurry even with great internet. Mainly during fast moving games. Wish they had a Bitrate setting to up the settings for quality

7 hours is GREAT! I waiting to hear 3 to 4 hours. Wow.

This is perfect for over the road truck drivers

Enjoying mine very muchly ! 😊

Kevin!! Really need to know where you got that slime ps5 faceplate. It’s so sick!!

Can I know where's the tab button pad for the portable and also does it support gyro? cause my steam deck can literally do it all to be honest.

I have the PlayStation edge controller and the case has a open hole to charge your controller. More need to have that

hoping Kevin can answer this. Im ethernet hardwired on my PS5. I have about 1.5gb upload and download but when I check my connection on PS5 it says my upload is 500 and my download is a measly 20mps. Granted i have no issues so far with the Portal although i wonder why my PS5 is the only device showing my speeds like this, I heard this is a common PS5 issue and that those are not the real speeds but im not sure, maybe you can answer. Also i hear unplugging the HDMI when playing the portal helps, have you tried that?

I wonder if they will do a way of wifi direct with the ps5. As almost all mordern tech have that build in now

They did say that probably capable of just streaming games not from your ps5. But that they concentrating on remote play only for now.

Question does it make a a difference playing a disc vs digitally downloaded game on portal ?

I ordered mine because the backbone just hurts my hands and I hope this feels better and have a bigger screen then my phone

Could you hook up your duel sense edge to your PS5 and still control it through the portal? Be nice to not have to abandon my controller lol

Was waiting to see your review on this!

I went to my buddies house about an hour away. I connected to his wifi and the portal worked with no problem. I didn't even get a weak signal indication or anything. A big win for me💯

I been playing that new persona game on my portal. It nice playing while laying down and I don’t need to wear my glasses. Saved data say 6 hours

I am loving the portal so far for the purpose of what i got it for, whenever the kids or wife use my living room tv i just hop on the portal and it has performed flawless for me. The remote play on the portal is significantly better than on a phone or other smart device, that shit sucks, the portal is almost a direct connection to your console in remote play.

Good edited video, my thing is with game pass you can do this with a phone, Xbox controller and good Wi-Fi outside of home for under $20

What if the joysticks start drifting? can you replace them?

I might be an outlier here but while I think it’s a good device that does what it’s supposed to. Given the parameters for it I just kind of don’t feel it’s worth $200. I think it’s good for what it is though

Just a quik question something random . Just say u took ur portal out and it got nicked can tht person have access to ur main account threw the portal and could they steal ur accont as well

I got my portal last night and I absolutely love it its so dope I am so happy with it😊❤

Can anyone answer a question? Only place I've been able to test it outside my apartment is my parents place. Was fine after the initial set up. But the next couple times I went over the ONLY way it would work was if I forgot the network and manually reconnected it even thoigh it was saved

In my situation I have the ps remote play on my phone I try it then it didn’t work because of the screen size then I also have it on my Samsung tablet but the connection was interrupted now I first wanted the portal should I get it of the problem I have on my phone and my tablet?

I would really like to see an in-depth video between the Steam Deck OLED and the portal.

I've been doing remote play on my phone for years. From my experience, remote play is best for any visual novels like Ace Attorney series or turn base RPG like FF7, 8, 9, or Persona 5. I don't have good wifi at home so I never bother to play action game on it. But I bet that screen is a huge upgrade from playing on my phone.

This is actually very good! Yes, Remote Play has lag, but I genuinely don't see how else you can have a "portable PS5" unless the PS5 was made like the Switch, a handheld that happens to connect to an HDMI and that would hokd back the capacity of the console! So yeah, well done Sony! :),

So, you can also connect it by hotspot from your phone right

I’m vaguely interested in this, but I already own a backbone. Is this worth upgrading too?

Can you use this as a regular controller if you wanted to? If not, they really dropped the ball

Saving for the switch 2 🎉

Have you tried turning off HDCP for the game streaming? 🤔🤔

Great review. I love it. We have one main tv and so this gives me a chance to game on PS5 while my wife is using the tv. I use the Spectrum wifi router and it works great. This cheaper than any other handheld gaming device, i.e. Switch, Steam Deck, etc. Also there is no need to buy games for the system since you are using your PS5 library of games and Playstation Plus.

A year ago, I used Remote Play on an iPad while on vacation at my mom’s house and I found that I had to plug my iPad into the router with an Ethernet cable in order to get the best connection. This year, I bought a Nintendo Switch. I doubt that the Portal would work for my needs.

At first I wasn't thinking about getting a Playstation Portal. But I really want to now!

Adding some kind of improved near-location casting, like WiiU, including an actual case, Bluetooh audio, better speakers, an OLED screen, letting it run some basic video streaming apps and the like, Sony could have done more to justify the cost, or even increase it. But even a positive review is a hard sell for what it does, and more importantly doesn’t, do.

Where you get that ps5 faceplate from ?

Don’t you guys have phones?

My portal is working just perfect. I own multiple ps5 and each ps5 has different games in them so being able to decide which ps5 I want to play is awesome And the graphics are freaking nice.

I want one but it all sold out!

Oh yeah if you have sony pulse headphones you can use them for audio on the portal too so you can have wireless headphones 😊

The first game I’d try with Portal is Portal.

Why record yourself playing while walking around outside? That will not be the typical/ideal way to play

Had mine a couple of days. Think it’s really enjoyable and nice to use. My only concern is what happens if/when it gets stick drift? 😢

can you play online game modes (fortnite, Moderrn warfare, fifa etc?)? or is it only for single player modes?

Well said, in the end, it really is a kinda niche product, but it fits that niche so well.

What happens if you get stuck drift or vibration fail or squishy buttons 😮??

Imagine if they utilised the USB C port to plug in a Sony 5G game drive add on with on board game storage for true portability. 😁

Final fantasy XVI specifically doesn’t work and keeps dropping. I have 1GB UPL/DL.

Yea ❤ my portal too... I know I could do it before but it's just so much easier

So how is this any better than a Backbone and my cell phone/Tablet?

I would've totally buy it if it had an OLED screen and BT headphone support... not talking about spending another 100-150$ for their headsets >.

So can I use another ps5 controller to control the portal?

Price is the biggest issue about this

The WI-FI requirement is the deal breaker here. 🥾💥 =PS Prortable

1 question… can i play games on it while my PS5 is in restmode?

I saw some 3rd party plates for the PS5 Slim on Amazon with no reviews and only 1 seller, can these be trusted or should I wait for Sony to release official ones if I want a different color?

Look forward to picking one up eventually. Im a big remote play fan

Getting mine today! 😄

Can you please suggest a good wifi router for this

I'm sure there was that PlayStation Portal had a lack of Bluetooth

Expensive ass paperweight 😂

Has anyone been playing this without a wired connection to your ps5? I’m wondering about the performance because I have good wifi and I’m unable to wire my ps5

The Playstation Portal would be awesome, if it was released back in late 90s or early 2000. Since technology in that time frame was not multi-purpose use and just one dedicated device Printing, scanning, faxing and photocopying were all separate products in 80s and 90s. Now they all in one products with wireless connect technology capabilities. Don't get wrong Playstation portal doesn't need to be all-one product, but could had use some more innovation. Some examples, 1)New Playstation 5 Slim with Wifi 6 technology included aswell with new release of Playstation portal. No internet required to play inside the home (connect wifi6). 2)Micro SD card expansion for retro gaming download service of top 25, PSP ,PS1,and PS2 (offline play). 3) A Real Offline portable device and with some features that work without needing internet to function.

So they finally finished remote play capabilities of the Vita? 😂 This stuff was in the ads for the Vita too