By Alex Perry – November 16, 2023
Article Summary
At its best, I love the PlayStation Portal. But with frequent connectivity issues and many other small problems, you might want to wait to get it after a price drop.
What I Love About the PlayStation Portal
At first glance, the PlayStation Portal looks like the long-awaited (but probably never going to happen) device for Sony’s handheld PSP and Vita. It also seems a bit strange, as it is just a giant LCD screen stuffed between two halves of a DualSense controller.
This funny idea really works well. The DualSense controller that comes with every PS5 is the best controller Sony has ever produced, and the PlayStation Portal feels exactly like that. Mission accomplished! But the fun doesn’t stop there. It feels great in the hands.
Sony has actually included unique touch mechanisms, including haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, with the PlayStation Portal. I tried this out with Astro’s Playroom, and sure enough, it felt just like the first time I turned on my PS5 back in 2020. Astro’s feet provided a little satisfying sensation with every step, and the triggers offered resistance every time the game demanded it.
There’s one caveat to all this: the weight of the device. The PlayStation Portal weighs 529 grams – or just over 1 pound. Certainly not heavy or uncomfortable to carry by any means, but this is nearly double the weight of the DualSense controller itself. It can be a bit annoying to hold with one hand, but aside from that, I don’t think the weight is a major drawback here.
A Great Way to Play RPGs
One thing that is basically a drawback with game streaming devices is latency. There’s no way to get around the fact that there is a tiny, almost imperceptible gap between pressing a button and something happening on the screen with the PlayStation Portal. The good news is that for many games, it doesn’t matter at all.
For example: I love RPGs. I tried several RPGs (both turn-based and action-based) on the PlayStation Portal, like Dragon Quest XI, Star Ocean: The Second Story R, Tales of Arise, and Octopath Traveler II. I found this to be an excellent way to enjoy these games. Whether I was grinding points or doing side quests, it was really great to play these games on a portable device while watching football on TV.
I could also play Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 surprisingly well on the PlayStation Portal. Really, the only thing I would avoid is truly frenetic action games, particularly first-person shooters. Not even Cyberpunk 2077 is among the most precise shooting games in the world, but I found it a bit disorienting to play on the PlayStation Portal. Trying to aim for precise headshots on a smaller screen with some delay mid-fire isn’t the best experience.
You also shouldn’t play competitive multiplayer games on the PlayStation Portal. You’ll be at a significant disadvantage.
While latency isn’t a huge issue on the PlayStation Portal, visual problems are more prevalent. If a game runs at 60 frames per second on the PS5, it will run the same way on the PlayStation Portal, but not all the time. I personally noticed several small drops here and there, and it seems to be more related to my WiFi connection rather than anything happening in the games themselves. Again, for many titles, this isn’t a big deal, but shooting games and racing games will be affected by it.
The news
The good news is that latency and visual artifacts were very rare on the PlayStation Portal. I noticed more stuttering and visual artifacts when I was playing on Mashable’s office WiFi, but on my home network, this wasn’t a real issue. However, stuttering and visual artifacts become significant problems if you try to play a game on the PlayStation Portal while downloading something on your PS5, so maybe don’t do that.
Bigger Than Any Phone
One of the main arguments against the PlayStation Portal is that it’s a device that costs $200 and is designed for something you can already do on your phone. You can even connect a DualSense controller to mobile devices too, so you won’t miss out on haptic feedback.
I can’t really argue against the criticism that $200 is a hefty price tag for a service that can easily be accessed without it. However, the 8-inch LCD screen on the PlayStation Portal is much larger than any average smartphone. I think the split DualSense controller design with a large screen in the middle is more suitable for gaming than an iPhone with a noticeably attached third-party controller.
The PlayStation Portal’s screen does the job, but the maximum resolution of 1080p and a refresh rate of 60Hz won’t impress anyone. The latter figure is particularly interesting because there are some PS5 games that optionally support playing at 120Hz on compatible TVs. That simply won’t work on the PlayStation Portal. Frustrating, I know, but those are the facts.
What I Don’t Like About the PlayStation Portal
So far, you might think the PlayStation Portal is a great device with just a few minor flaws. Let me break that illusion a bit.
Connection Drops
Without any hints, the PlayStation Portal struggled significantly to maintain a constant connection with my PS5 during testing. Some sessions were fine, but most of the time, I experienced a disconnection error every 15 to 20 minutes. This happened while I was sitting just six feet away from the PS5.
The good news is that this is a brief interruption that can be easily resolved. When the Portal loses connection, the game will stop, the screen will freeze for 5 to 10 seconds, and then it will request to reconnect. It only takes a few seconds, so that’s a maximum annoyance of 30 seconds each time it happens. I never encountered a situation where the PlayStation Portal didn’t connect directly to the device upon my request.
It’s not game-breaking at all, but it is really annoying. The PlayStation Portal receives software updates, so perhaps Sony can fix this, but for now, it’s a significant issue.
This Isn’t a Tech Breakthrough
At the risk of repeating myself, the PlayStation Portal costs a few hundred dollars to replicate an experience I can get “for free” by owning a PS5 and a smartphone. The value offered here is not exceptional. There’s not much to say about that. You get the idea.
No Bluetooth
I won’t beat around the bush: the PlayStation Portal only supports wired headphones and PlayStation’s proprietary wireless headsets for audio output. Your AirPods won’t work here.
The worst part? These proprietary headsets aren’t available yet. You need something with Sony’s “PlayStation Link” technology, and for now, that’s in the form of the Pulse Explore or Pulse Elite headsets. The former launches on December 6 for $199, while the latter doesn’t launch until February 21 for $149. Annoying!
Could
The Matter is Different for You
My biggest question mark about the PlayStation Portal is how its usability changes depending on your personal situation. My ability to experience it was limited only to my home network and at the Mashable office, and as I mentioned earlier, the former was better than the latter.
That said, the internet in my apartment is terrible. The network speed is inconsistent at best. There are good days and bad days – and we experience throttling on weekday evenings. Despite all that, the PlayStation Portal worked quite well! Really, if you have a better internet connection than I do, you might have a better time than I did.
But if internet connectivity is a major issue in your daily life, I might be hesitant regarding the PlayStation Portal.
Battery Life of the PlayStation Portal
There is some good news regarding the PlayStation Portal to close out the article. The battery life on this device is by no means excellent, but you can get about six to eight hours on a full charge. In my opinion, that’s sufficient for what the PlayStation Portal offers. Since there’s not much power in this device, there’s no annoying fan noise or noticeable heating issues like you find in actual handheld gaming devices like the Lenovo Legion Go.
It’s quiet, cool, and lasts long enough not to be a major problem.
Final Thoughts
The PlayStation Portal has been a real puzzle for me throughout the review process. It’s either a great device that suffers from some minor issues or a bad device that is also governed by some rules. I’m not sure which it is, and maybe that distinction doesn’t matter.
It has significant problems and minor ones for me to tell you to throw this bad device in your Amazon shopping cart and spend $200 on it. Playing moment to moment can be great (and often is) on the PlayStation Portal, but recurring connectivity problems and high variability due to network differences make it hard to recommend.
However, I find myself using it every day. In fact, I have somewhat forgotten about the real PS5 sitting in my bedroom, opting instead to play smaller RPGs on the PlayStation Portal while watching TV. The excellent form factor, good screen, and overall utility of the PlayStation Portal outweigh its many issues for me.
Maybe it won’t do the same for you, but I can’t simply say “this thing is bad” and move on. Life isn’t always that simple.
Leave a Reply