Sony is usually at its best when it's weirdest, like making donut-shaped headphones that are actually super comfortable or a speaker and lamp combo that for some reason looks like a hookah. But when it comes to PlayStation Portal, the weirdness isn't just in the design, but in the core basis of “Why does this exist?”
PlayStation Remote Play is far from a new feature and is something you can use with multipurpose devices like a phone, tablet, or laptop at no extra cost. So why spend $200 on a dedicated piece of hardware just for this feature? After spending a lot more time with PlayStation Portal since my first experience, I think I've finally figured it out: this thing is a deep fryer.
You might be wondering, “Wait, how is a gaming handheld a home cooking appliance?” Well, just like a deep fryer, the Portal is a device that costs a not insignificant amount of money and does only one thing with only one way of doing it (stream games from your PS5 over Wi-Fi), while others Multi-use devices can perform the same task (PS5 Remote Play works on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS and even PS4). And also, like an air fryer, you probably already have a device that does the same thing as the Portal (many home ovens offer convection heating, which is how an air fryer cooks). But I'll be damned if whipping up some crispy chicken nuggets in 10 minutes or enjoying a quick gaming session while in bed aren't the same kind of comfort.
PlayStation Portal is all about convenience: taking your games from your console and moving them around your home or even out into the world. However, by relying on Wi-Fi performance, your world of convenience comes crashing down as soon as you run into problems with poor connectivity or when one of the Portal's many strange quirks rears its ugly head.
In my time with the Portal, I've mostly had a “it just works” experience, especially after a post-release software update that seemed to make some small performance improvements. I connect it to my PlayStation 5 and within seconds I can take my games to most of my house and play them perfectly on the Portal's crisp and colorful eight-inch LCD screen, with those nifty DualSense touch devices.
It sounds foolproof when I sum it up like this, but starting the Portal and connecting (the only thing it does when you turn it on) is a “your mileage may vary” moment. It may work well. It may not work at all. Some adjustments may need to be made to your home network settings. I've been lurking in the r/PlayStationPortal subreddit to get a general idea of the vibe of their community, and in the midst of the troubleshooting help and people posting their questions about how well your portal works. even on a road trip from time to time you see some massive frustration.
For my at-home testing, my PS5 is connected via Ethernet and I have gigabit Internet over a mesh Wi-Fi network with three Google Nest Wifi Pro routers. Even with all that, of course, there are places in my house where Connectivity can get a little complicated. Sometimes, for what seems inexplicable at one point, a game freezes and skips entire seconds of gameplay. I never know if it's because another device on my network is suddenly consuming bandwidth, or there's more congestion from my ISP in the neighborhood, or maybe it's just a strange anomaly. You never really know why, but you have to live with the reality that from time to time you may have your changes. spider man 2 or your ax is thrown God of war Ragnarök disrupted. It may test your patience at times, but it's the trade-off of relying on Wi-Fi in exchange for not using the family TV or taking your game to a different room.
This is where one of the PlayStation Portal's biggest oversights can't help but make you wonder if things could be better. The Portal only supports Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), which has been around since 2014. It has more than enough bandwidth for Sony's listed minimum requirement of 5Mbps download and upload speeds and even well beyond the recommended speed 15 Mbps, but why? Doesn't a new device released in late 2023 (one that relies on Wi-Fi, that is) ship with a Wi-Fi 6 or 6E radio? While not all homes have Wi-Fi 6E routers, those that do should be able to play their Portals on the less congested 6Ghz band. It's one of the Portal's many baffling oversights, especially since Wi-Fi 7 devices are just around the corner.
This is a very “YMMV” device.
But the Portal's illogical quirks go far beyond its Wi-Fi spec shortcomings. This thing has an airplane mode. Because? It's a paperweight without wifi. Does not play any games or media from local storage; not even tell you how much internal storage it has and does not stream any content that is not streamed from your PS5. It also lacks automatic brightness adjustment, doesn't come with any protective case (the only options available are third-party), and only supports one user login at a time. Do you share your PS5 with another person or do you have multiple accounts within your family? If you also plan to share the PlayStation Portal, be prepared to log out and log back in manually (even with 2FA if you have it enabled, which you should) every time someone else wants a turn.
All of these quirks and shortcomings make the Portal seem like a half-measure, or the essence of a larger project that had its funding cut mid-development. Although perhaps nothing seems as egregious as the omission of Bluetooth audio. Fortunately, the Portal has a 3.5mm headphone jack, but if you want wireless, your only option is Sony's new proprietary PlayStation Link audio devices, which have premium prices but lack premium features like active noise cancellation. noise. Of the two headphones announced so far, only the $199.99 Pulse Explore headphones have gone on sale (and they're still hard to find in stock). The $149.99 Pulse Elite Headphones It won't be out until the end of February.
Sony's Pulse Explore headphones work well on the Portal, and yes, its proprietary PlayStation Link connection produces noticeably lower latency than using the same headphones in Bluetooth mode on another Remote Play device. But in no way does that justify omitting Bluetooth entirely from the Portal. Bluetooth may be slow and inefficient, but it works quite well and is a convenient feature that should be present on this device that is all about convenience and simplicity. Asking your customers to spend another $150 to $200 just to use wireless audio on your $200 remote player is bad enough, especially since the Sony InZone H9 wireless headphones, more expensive (and noise-canceling) than some fans of PS5 already own, they can't even. be used through your USB device. The Portal's saving grace when it comes to audio is its built-in speakers that don't sound too tinny and the fact that you can always fall back on wired audio (which avoids any latency anyway).
Despite all these frustrating quirks, Portal offers a nice all-in-one experience. You can have a higher quality remote experience on an iPad or a laptop with much larger screens, and you can have a more portable experience with a foldable phone controller like the BackBone One, but all of those solutions are more complicated. Nothing is as simple as picking up the Portal and turning it on.
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Many steam cover and Asus ROG Ally Owners have found ways to use Remote Play with free software like Chiakibut you still have to put a little preliminary work and touch-ups to configure it. I've used it on my original Deck and it's generally fine – it successfully mimics even the DualSense touchpad and share button thanks to the community-created downloadable button designs – but you'll never have all those DualSense haptics (if you care) . ).
PlayStation Portal simplifies the initial setup work and confusion of Remote Play to give you a simplified, out-of-the-box solution. It can be useful alongside your PS5 if you're a parent or a busy person looking to engage in short gaming sessions despite someone else using the TV, or if you want to add a level of comfort to your games by allowing you to relax. bed while you play. But all the Remote Play warnings and issues are still there.
My biggest recommendation for people considering a Portal is to first connect your PS5 via Ethernet (seriously, Wi-Fi on both ends of this equation won't be a good time) and try the PS Remote Play app using your home Wi-Fi on your laptop, tablet or phone. If it works well enough the way you like it, especially for the types of games you like, then a Portal may make sense.
Sony's first attempt at a handheld since the PlayStation Vita may be a strange, limited device that only serves one purpose, but it serves it well if your home Wi-Fi isn't overrun with gremlins. Hopefully, Sony is testing the waters of what's to come, more than just releasing a half-baked product. There seems to be a demand (at least for now), as the portals have many pending orders. I like nerdy niches and single-use devices when they're good, and overall I've enjoyed Portal despite its many flaws. But most of all it makes me long for the return of a true portable PlayStation, which I hope Sony is working on in the future.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
