FINALLY Portable PS5 Gaming Is GOOD! - PlayStation Portal Full Review

so this week I finally caved and bought myself the PlayStation portal I've been doing a lot more gaming recently not only on console and PC but also on handhelds like my Rog Alix and Logitech g-cloud the main problem with those and just about all handhelds though is the fact that if I want to use PlayStation Remote Play I have to connect my controller because it doesn't support the native controls on these devices and that kind of defeats the purpose of a handheld so I decided to pick myself up the PlayStation portal so I can finally comfortably playing my PS5 games away from my setup and today I'm going to go through unboxing setting up and reviewing this to find out if it was actually worth the purchase let's get into [Music] it so first things first let's walk through unboxing the portal and getting it all set up opening up the outer box inside we have another box it has this super cool little tab with the PlayStation logos on the side and we can use that to slide out another box then opening this up we finally have the portal itself and then underneath that we have the manual which obviously nobody's going to read and then on the underside of this part there's actually a little compartment which houses a USBC charging cable and there you go that is literally everything that you get inside First Impressions on the design then are that this is a very nicely made device build quality is very good and it does feel like a premium highquality handheld obviously this is built to mimic the PlayStation 5 dual sense controller and they've done a great job with that gripping the portal just feels like you're holding a controller with your hands further apart controls on either side of the device have remained identical to the controller the only change is the PlayStation and mic buttons from the center of the controller are now located at the top either side of the screen the only other difference I can Spar is the size of the thumb sticks which are noticeably smaller on the portal than the ones you get on the PS5 controller but they still feel extremely nice to use and the performance and feedback mirrors that of a controller perfectly in terms of the rest of the design the screen is lovely and thin and much thinner actually than I was expecting it has this nice clean white section on the back connecting the two sides and housing all the internal components on the top of the device we have the triggers which again are the same as on the controller then we also have the power button a link button for connecting headsets and on the other side we have the volume controls there are also two speakers located on the top on either side as well turning it over and looking at the underside we also have a USBC port for charging the portal and a 3.5 mm headphone jack setting up the device is fairly straightforward once the device is powered on you can choose your language then you simply connect to your chosen Wi-Fi download and install the latest software update same again for the latest link software then you can scan this QR code with your phone to log into your PlayStation account then connect to your preferred console and within a few seconds you are all set up and ready to go so the first thing I noticed when I got everything connected and set up is just how good this screen looks it is an 8 in 1080P LCD display which is bigger than devices like the RG Ally Logitech g-cloud and MSI claw and in terms of quality everything looks extremely crisp the colors are nice and vibrant which is something that I always love to see and the brightness is also more than enough for use in most settings even though it has a glossy screen so Reflections are much more prevalent I had absolutely no issues being able to see what I was doing even in a room filled with a lot of light sources scrolling through the menus I noticed no input delay between the controls and the screen everything was smooth and seamless and felt like I was using a regular console and monitor but that's enough of the basics let's see how the portal holds up when gaming as this is a Remote Play device in order to play you will need to have your PlayStation 5 in rest mode and then both the portal and PS5 will need to have active network connections for it to work you can play any of the games that you currently have downloaded onto your console or whichever disc you have inserted at the time which is a real bonus for me cuz I actually have two PS5 consoles a digital only one in my living room and a disc console in my studio so if I'm relaxing in the lounge but want to play on the disc inserted into my studio PS5 I can just boot up the portal and play it comfortably without moving jumping into a few games then again I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of input delay with the portal control controls gaming feels extremely responsive and fluid and I noticed no real stuttering in game everything was lovely and smooth across a variety of titles that being said though I will mention that this was on my home Wi-Fi which has 1 gig speeds up and down and good connectivity so this may vary depending on the quality of your internet the portal comes with all the same features that make the Dual sense controller great like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers which definitely heightens the gaming experience the PS5 controller is for sure the best console controller out there so having those features in a handheld is a real bonus it adds another layer of immersion to your gaming and I honestly had a great time using it I can tell that this is going to be a lot of fun to play all my favorite games when I'm away from my console or the kids are hugging the TV which these days happens more often than not now you may be wondering about the lack of a touchpad because it's been replaced with the screen but don't worry PlayStation haven't forgotten about this you'll notice that if you touch the screen you get these two boxes that come up either side and these are actually the touchpads you can use these in any game that has touchpad compatibility and it's actually been upgraded in the recent update to improve it as a feature I actually really like the way they've done this by locating them on the edges of the screen cuz it means that you can reach the touchpads while still holding on to the grips one thing that you still aren't able to do on the portal however is utilize PlayStation's cloud gaming service other handhelds like the g-cloud and the Ally allow a variety of cloud gaming services in including PlayStation but you can't actually use it on PlayStation's own portal itself which especially with the device having been out for a good while now is still a bit disappointing hopefully this will become available in a future update but we will have to see now in terms of comfort there is absolutely no issues here with the portal because this is designed to mimic the Dual sense controller that is exactly what it feels like to hold the device everything is laid out the same in terms of controls it feels familiar it's comfortable to hold and to use for long periods of time I've been gaming a lot on the Ally X recently which itself has upgraded grips to improve Comfort but they aren't quite the same as holding a controller whereas the portal has this absolutely nailed the device feels nicely balance too it doesn't feel too heavy or too light I think they've got the weight just right having the 8in screen in between the grips doesn't cause any kind of issues and the weight is distributed equally across the device no matter what setting you're playing in whether you're at your Des Des or just playing on your lap the portal does a great job of keeping Comfort levels high as mentioned earlier the portal has two speakers located on the top of the device and these do a fine job of providing decent sound quality whilst gaming obviously they're not going to be incredible quality but for a handheld device they do the job just fine in a normal quiet environment they are more than loud enough to hear everything and in fact I was able to play most games with the volume set to a round about a third to enjoy it fully though you'll likely be better off using headphones and with the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom you can use the portal with any wired headphones or headset of you're choosing however you cannot use wireless headphones as there's no bluetooth support unless you use the official PlayStation pulse earbuds or headset which connect to the portal via PlayStation link this is definitely a shame as I prefer Wireless for more freedom and I don't want to Fork out another chunk of money for the ability to do so so for now I'll either be using wired or the onboard speaker now one area I was impressed with on the portal was the battery life I charged up the battery when I was first setting it up so I'd be able to enjoy some gaming without having to worry about it running out of battery and I was pleasantly surprised at how long I was able to game for on that one battery charge in fact as of yet I've been playing for a few hours and I still haven't had to charge it again since that initial one other handhelds I've used managed about 2 hours before they needed to go uncharge so this is definitely an advantage over those of course the portal is just used for remote play so there's nothing intensive running the battery down and that means that you can enjoy gaming for longer now if you were wanting to use the portal for something other than gaming you'd be out of luck whilst Remote Play will give you access to all of the media apps you have installed on your PlayStation 5 console if you go ahead and try to load any of them up you'll be greeted with the same message that you did when you tried to play cloud gaming again I don't know if this is something that they're going to add in a future update we will just have to wait and see one feature that has been added recently though through an update is the ability to connect to a public Wi-Fi network previously you could only connect to a private home Wi-Fi network as there is no browser on the portal so it was impossible to sign in and connect to a public one however you can now access them by scanning a QR code when connecting and then signing in using your phone I haven't had the chance to test this myself yet but I'm glad that it means I'll be able to take the portal with me and use it pretty much anywhere rather than just at home or via my own hotspot if you need to access the settings for any reason when you touch the screen this little button appears in the top corner and when you press this it brings up a little interface from here you have options to disconnect from your console link headsets change the brightness switch on airplane mode or some more settings which include your network settings system display and brightness and controller so for example if you wanted to update the system software or change the date and time you can do that in here so on to the most important question then is this worth the money well honestly after a few days of using it personally I believe it is the portal costs £200 and a lot of people think that that is a lot of money for what it does you can't play games locally or store them like you can with devices like the RG Ally or MSI claw and you can only play the PlayStation games that you have on your console no cloud gaming options currently which again the other devices offer but those devices are significantly more expensive with the Ally and Claw both upwards of triple the price and even the g-cloud comes in at £330 offering only cloud gaming services with the portal yes you're only paying for remote play but you're getting the ability to play your favorite games wherever you fancy whether you're out and about or the kids are hugging the TV and so long as you've got good connection you're getting great quality too with a device that has the exact same comfort and features as the Dual sense controller and a beautiful 8 in full HD screen which is bigger than most other handhelds is there scope for improvement with the port yes of course and yes I've only been using this for a few days so there are likely issues I could run into that might change my mind but for now I'm happy with my purchase and I'll be using this a lot in the near future of course let me know what you think down in the comments whether you agree or disagree with anything I've said let's have a chat about it and if you enjoyed the video then please make sure to drop a like to help the content get out to more Tekken gaming fans like you don't forget to sub to the channel for more content like this and I'll catch you all in the next video see you later

Channel: Spudd Gaming

Views: 51,807

Keywords: playstation portal, playstation 5, ps portal, handheld gaming, remote play, playstation portal review, playstation portal hands on, playstation portal unboxing, playstation portal screen, playstation portal price, ps5, ps5 portal, best handheld console, gaming handheld, dualsense controller, portable ps5, best gaming handheld in 2024, best gaming accessories, best gaming accessories 2024, spudd gaming, ROG Ally, ROG Ally X, G Cloud, Cloud Gaming, Gaming, Console gaming

Id: sNa0t1TGpL0

Length: 11min 32sec (692 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 06 2024