• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PlayStation Portal has sold out two days after launch | Listings with inflated prices have started to appear online

PaintTinJr

Member
I never claimed it uses the GPU for anything other then decoding. But if somebody was to jailbreak the device it will be capable enough to run Android and even some Android games or emulation. Call of Duty mobile and Fortnite both work well enough on it. The hardware is there after all. The GPU and CPU are integrated onto the 680 SoC, you can't have a Snapdragon 680 without a working GPU.

As for the CPU the primary cluster is a Cortex-A73 quad core setup, the Raspberry Pi 4B is Cortex-A72 which is the previous years model from ARM so it will be slightly slower, even at the same clock speeds. The Snapdragon then has the entire other quad core cluster as well.

The SoC in the Logitech G Cloud is also quite powerful, it's the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, so this isn't unusual.
You are talking about the device as a thick client - in a jailbreak situation - so implicitly you are talking about exploiting the full snapdragon GPU.

Here is a question for you in such a hypothetical jailbreak scenario: what impact do you believe using most of the GPU in a portal chipset would do to battery life?

In a mobile phone, battery drain is screen, GPU compute, CPU compute and speaker audio out. The portal as a thin client has been designed around Screen then haptics and speaker output draining battery with compute being a smaller consideration on CPU/GPU ASICS/CPU ASICS. So even if someone puts in lots of effort to jailbreak a measly Sony Xperia XA class phone would that be considered a success if the device then ran for less than an hour ?
 

Zathalus

Member
You are talking about the device as a thick client - in a jailbreak situation - so implicitly you are talking about exploiting the full snapdragon GPU.

Here is a question for you in such a hypothetical jailbreak scenario: what impact do you believe using most of the GPU in a portal chipset would do to battery life?

In a mobile phone, battery drain is screen, GPU compute, CPU compute and speaker audio out. The portal as a thin client has been designed around Screen then haptics and speaker output draining battery with compute being a smaller consideration on CPU/GPU ASICS/CPU ASICS. So even if someone puts in lots of effort to jailbreak a measly Sony Xperia XA class phone would that be considered a success if the device then ran for less than an hour ?
It should be alright, the Snapdragon 680 is a 6nm chip that doesn't use much power at all. Assuming you turn down the haptics I don't see battery life being worse then it would be on a phone. It has a 4500mAh battery which is the equivalent of most high endish phones these days. That's a bigger battery with a way more efficient SoC then the Switch for example.

I wouldn't recommend jailbreaking the Portal myself, just that if somebody could it would basically be a regular Android tablet with a mid level SoC.
 
Last edited:

Three

Member
Not sure why you’re all so sensitive about this product.

I was one of the people that bought it on day one. I just think it’s underwhelming and, having spent a couple of weeks with it, the criticisms about the choices Sony have made are entirely valid.
What choices?
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Not sure why you’re all so sensitive about this product.

I was one of the people that bought it on day one. I just think it’s underwhelming and, having spent a couple of weeks with it, the criticisms about the choices Sony have made are entirely valid.
Who is sensitive about it? Stating facts is sensitive now?

You may think it's underwhelming but the market (the majority of buyers) doesn't think it is underwhelming. Otherwise, it wouldn't be selling out everywhere in the world.

And Sony clearly outlined the features you'll get for buying this product. So if anybody bought thinking otherwise or more, it is on them. But if people are flocking to buy this product, knowing what it does and what it doesn't, it just proves that folks wanted exactly this kind of product that Sony is now offering.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Just tried the remote play at my brothers house. definitely not as responsive as it is at home, but i was testing the 30 fps mode. The picture quality was pretty much identical though. Only had time to test wifi.

This thing will definitely work even if you are not home.

P.S Since the PS5 is the one doing the heavy lifting, i wonder if upload speeds matter too.
Upload speeds at home to the internet 100% matters.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
DF haven’t dropped the ball at all. They raised perfectly
valid points. I got the Portal on day 1 and it’s been sat on the shelf for a week or so. It is underwhelming.

That your fundamental experience is determined by your connection speed is not good enough for a company as ubiquitous as Sony. You would expect them to deliver a product that is uniform for all. Or, at the very least, reaches a baseline that is uniform for all. It’s all very well linking to videos of strong performance at certain hot spots. But it can be just as easily countered with dubious performance elsewhere.

I live in London. Have the best internet that BT can provide, but I still get the ever so faint feeing of sluggishness when playing. Having spent the last five or so years playing on Switch and Steam deck, it just doesn’t quite cut it.

As a result, it’s a strange proposition. There’s no situation in which I would rather play on the Portal.

This is insane bro. To say any company should make a device that's internet based and the result should be the same for everyone regardless of internet or network speed is just ignorant and closed-minded.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
This is insane bro. To say any company should make a device that's internet based and the result should be the same for everyone regardless of internet or network speed is just ignorant and closed-minded.
I think he is probably talking about having a dedicated hardware solution for when you are within spitting distance of the console.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I think he is probably talking about having a dedicated hardware solution for when you are within spitting distance of the console.
This is something I imagine could be added in an update. I'd hope Sony could add direct connection to the PS5. But it's OK for it not to be there at launch. Not everything will be there at launch.

It's 2023,we should know this by now.
 

Ogbert

Member
This is insane bro. To say any company should make a device that's internet based and the result should be the same for everyone regardless of internet or network speed is just ignorant and closed-minded.
Again, I’m not saying a streaming product should be the same for everyone. Obviously that’s absurd.

What I do think is, having spent a couple of weeks with it, it’s a shame Sony decided to opt for streaming in the first place. I’d far prefer it to cost three, four times as much and be able to play games locally. Basically, I want Sony to produce a handheld.

For anyone who doesn’t have the Portal yet, my advice would be to keep your expectations in check.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Again, I’m not saying a streaming product should be the same for everyone. Obviously that’s absurd.

What I do think is, having spent a couple of weeks with it, it’s a shame Sony decided to opt for streaming in the first place. I’d far prefer it to cost three, four times as much and be able to play games locally. Basically, I want Sony to produce a handheld.

For anyone who doesn’t have the Portal yet, my advice would be to keep your expectations in check.

Well the Vita showed Sony that making a $500 handheld wouldn't be profitable for them or achieve any goals that they are trying to accomplish.

They'd be forced to make all of their first party and exclusive third party games to run on that Sony handheld. We all know that's a waste of resources for those Developers. The portal is something they can release and it doesn't increase any workload for any developer on planet earth. Remote Play does all the work so any hardware device they sell is pure profit. There's literally no downside if they can find a way to sell more than say a half a million of them.

The only downside would be if it was released and it was a disaster with their own Remote Play networking code in software. And it bombed on the Shelf it would be a huge PR disaster. But as it is now, it's nothing but upside with literally no downsides at this point since it does what it's supposed to do.
 

Three

Member
I think he is probably talking about having a dedicated hardware solution for when you are within spitting distance of the console.
He seems to be talking about using it outside because he mentioned BT which is an internet service provider here in London and being on their fastest package. I'm guessing he has the 1gig package with 110mbs up. This wouldn't help with latency though and ISPs have different latency, he needs to make sure things like BT Web Protect is off and whatever else on his mobile ISP to prevent sending those packets all over the place or losing them.

Don't listen to the silly Digital foundry "33ms" Wii U narrative either. It's nonsense based on absolutely bad science.

No other streaming device whether that's the Sheild, Steam Link, Razer Forge, G Cloud, or anything really connects directly via this mythical "dedicated hardware solution". They use standard networking. You would think somebody would have created some HDMI/display port dongle that used this magical Wii U communication technology that beats standard wifi technology that man has been perfecting for years but it doesn't exist.

A wifi-direct connection will likely help a little with latency but the very short range and quality drop off that comes with it would make the experience worse overall for very little gain. If your network is good (use traceroute to test this) then you're looking at about only a 3ms gain. On PC this would even be trivial to set up and test for yourself to see what the remote play experience would be like. Use Wifi direct or set up an access point on the PC itself to avoid the router and see if you have a better experience. It's usually not a good experience for remote play and you end up with a poorer connection as you move around the house. You would only gain something if your home network is bad or stay very very close for only a 3ms gain.

This narrative will change anyhow and the Wii U comparisons will stop when a cloud based controller releases and the same bunch of folks start talking about "how great latency is" even though this time it's several hops, through your router and over the Internet.
 
Last edited:

Ogbert

Member
Well the Vita showed Sony that making a $500 handheld wouldn't be profitable for them or achieve any goals that they are trying to accomplish.

They'd be forced to make all of their first party and exclusive third party games to run on that Sony handheld. We all know that's a waste of resources for those Developers. The portal is something they can release and it doesn't increase any workload for any developer on planet earth. Remote Play does all the work so any hardware device they sell is pure profit. There's literally no downside if they can find a way to sell more than say a half a million of them.

The only downside would be if it was released and it was a disaster with their own Remote Play networking code in software. And it bombed on the Shelf it would be a huge PR disaster. But as it is now, it's nothing but upside with literally no downsides at this point since it does what it's supposed to do.
Agree - all makes perfect sense.

There’s no downside but, I’d suggest there’s no huge upside either. I think it will sell reasonably well but, as you say yourself, as it means nothing to developers, it’s little more than an accessory.

Again, I appreciate that’s exactly what it is, but the dualsense implementation is so good, it’s just a pity that it’s such a conservative device.
 

Three

Member
What I do think is, having spent a couple of weeks with it, it’s a shame Sony decided to opt for streaming in the first place. I’d far prefer it to cost three, four times as much and be able to play games locally. Basically, I want Sony to produce a handheld.
And then complain about "support" when it ends up like Vita. At the end of the Vitas life I was using it mostly for remote play and wishing it had 2 shoulder buttons. I suspect Sony saw at the end of the Vitas life a lot were using it for remote play and not getting many new games due to developer support.
 
Last edited:

midnightAI

Member
Again, I’m not saying a streaming product should be the same for everyone. Obviously that’s absurd.

What I do think is, having spent a couple of weeks with it, it’s a shame Sony decided to opt for streaming in the first place. I’d far prefer it to cost three, four times as much and be able to play games locally. Basically, I want Sony to produce a handheld.

For anyone who doesn’t have the Portal yet, my advice would be to keep your expectations in check.
People are complaining PS5 games take too long to make now, if they had to make handheld games also then it would take even longer and if they don't make the games then it will die a death. Sony learnt a lot from the PS Vita.

People are also on a gaming enthusiast forum, they most likely know what Portal is or isn't (and they get reminded of that constantly, which is why I find it highly amusing when people keep chipping in with things like 'Portal doesn't have bluetooth? Sony suck' etc. (not naming names but one person saying similar had already posted many times in the Portal review thread spreading hate before saying that so they knew exactly what Portal has or hasnt got))
 

midnightAI

Member
Agree - all makes perfect sense.

There’s no downside but, I’d suggest there’s no huge upside either. I think it will sell reasonably well but, as you say yourself, as it means nothing to developers, it’s little more than an accessory.

Again, I appreciate that’s exactly what it is, but the dualsense implementation is so good, it’s just a pity that it’s such a conservative device.
The original leaked docs for this had it down as Project Q 'Lite', so you never know (although its unlikely)
 

Ogbert

Member
And then complain about "support" when it ends up like Vita. At the end of the Vitas life I was using it mostly for remote play and wishing it had 2 shoulder buttons. I suspect Sony saw at the end of the Vitas life a lot were using it for remote play.
The Vita is in my top 3 consoles of all time. Well, maybe top 5.

I’d love to see another one.
 

Senua

Member
This is something I imagine could be added in an update. I'd hope Sony could add direct connection to the PS5. But it's OK for it not to be there at launch. Not everything will be there at launch.

It's 2023,we should know this by now.
A beaten man.
 

Three

Member
The Vita is in my top 3 consoles of all time. Well, maybe top 5.

I’d love to see another one.
Don't get me wrong, I would be happy if we got a new Vita 2 but the reality of the situation would be that at best it ends up with a mobile compatible SoC that runs mostly third party android games and very few internal studios would end up supporting it with exclusive games due to install base.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
This is insane bro. To say any company should make a device that's internet based and the result should be the same for everyone regardless of internet or network speed is just ignorant and closed-minded.
He's gonna be so pissed when he finds out about how spotty cell phone coverage can be and how ubiquitous companies like Apple are. Really not good enough.
 

playtillyadrop

Neo Member
x8GTUym.jpg
CFichW8.png
nphSkXI.png



Joke post huh, I’ve already tried 1080p before turning it down to 720p. Your settings made everything worse. I tried 2 battles, the 1st one glitched as usual. The 2nd battle was pretty much all green. Let me rephrase it, my PS5 is on wifi and not hard wired.

I like how you logged into an alt with a fail “gotcha”.
I have no idea what your talking about logging with an alt and failed gotcha. What are your speeds using a speed test on your deck in desktop mode and also on your ps5 running the speed test under settings. If these settings don't work it could be an issue with your network. you could try reducing video bitrate a bit lower until you get rid of the green pixelation. Also make sure you have update chiaki4deck flatpak on the desktop.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
He seems to be talking about using it outside because he mentioned BT which is an internet service provider here in London and being on their fastest package. I'm guessing he has the 1gig package with 110mbs up. This wouldn't help with latency though and ISPs have different latency, he needs to make sure things like BT Web Protect is off and whatever else on his mobile ISP to prevent sending those packets all over the place or losing them.

Don't listen to the silly Digital foundry "33ms" Wii U narrative either. It's nonsense based on absolutely bad science.

No other streaming device whether that's the Sheild, Steam Link, Razer Forge, G Cloud, or anything really connects directly via this mythical "dedicated hardware solution". They use standard networking. You would think somebody would have created some HDMI/display port dongle that used this magical Wii U communication technology that beats standard wifi technology that man has been perfecting for years but it doesn't exist.

A wifi-direct connection will likely help a little with latency but the very short range and quality drop off that comes with it would make the experience worse overall for very little gain. If your network is good (use traceroute to test this) then you're looking at about only a 3ms gain. On PC this would even be trivial to set up and test for yourself to see what the remote play experience would be like. Use Wifi direct or set up an access point on the PC itself to avoid the router and see if you have a better experience. It's usually not a good experience for remote play and you end up with a poorer connection as you move around the house. You would only gain something if your home network is bad or stay very very close for only a 3ms gain.

This narrative will change anyhow and the Wii U comparisons will stop when a cloud based controller releases and the same bunch of folks start talking about "how great latency is" even though this time it's several hops, through your router and over the Internet.
I use a dedicated router for streaming VR and regular games, just sits between my main router and my PC. Maybe it's just my set-up, but with someone streaming at 4k on the TV and multiple other devices connected it was the only way to get a consistent reliable connection.
 

MrMephistoX

Member
If anyone’s interested I impulsively bought one for $300 shipped and steam deck runs better DM me if you’d be willing to pay that and it’s yours. Not trying to scalp just trying to recoup what I stupidly paid a scalper $69 plus shipping and tax.
 
Wow have most people here experienced the steam deck streaming better than the portal?

Finally did some streaming on the oled sd and it was good but not great, firgured this would be better since its a dedicated streaming device lol.

I've heard the oppossite from some people but overall it seems to be SD runs it better. Only thing I don't like about SD setup is it all just seems so ghetto. I have to have one connection for when I'm at home and one for when I'm away from home. I also have to turn on my PS5 first from my phone, then disconnect and use my SD when I'm at the office.

The new update seems to have fixed it for some people. A video I saw yesterday didn't have any stutters. I get mine next week so I'll test for myself. If it works great I'll be selling my SD and keeping the portal. If not I'll have to refund it and then wait. I don't want to take a chance and Sony never ends up improving it.
 
Last edited:

MrMephistoX

Member
Wow have most people here experienced the steam deck streaming better than the portal?

Finally did some streaming on the oled sd and it was good but not great, firgured this would be better since its a dedicated streaming device lol.
It’s all about being able to customize the bitrate in Chiaki if they add this for portal it could probably be fine. I just also found it’s easier to swap between XbPlay and Chiaki than swapping devices…only thing I need to figure out is how to do networking to get out of home play working. I’m an outlier though… and honestly portal would be fine if I didn’t own both consoles and a Steam deck.
 
Last edited:

Markio128

Member
It's back in stock on Playstation Direct for anyone interested. I was finally able to snag one

I picked one up from PS Direct a few weeks ago and I’ve used it pretty much every day. There’s something cool about playing PS5 games on a handheld device. I’ve tried GT7, FF7:R, Cyberpunk and Elden Ring and they’ve all played really well, except for the rare wi-fi hiccup.
 

MScarpa

Member
Again, I’m not saying a streaming product should be the same for everyone. Obviously that’s absurd.

What I do think is, having spent a couple of weeks with it, it’s a shame Sony decided to opt for streaming in the first place. I’d far prefer it to cost three, four times as much and be able to play games locally. Basically, I want Sony to produce a handheld.

For anyone who doesn’t have the Portal yet, my advice would be to keep your expectations in check.
I too purchased a Portal, I don't even know if the kids use it anymore. I don't though.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I broke my effing screen weeks ago and I was told by a support rep to email them a bunch of stuff and never got a response s m h.

Had to rant but the portal is dope, highly recommend it
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Well the Vita showed Sony that making a $500 handheld wouldn't be profitable for them or achieve any goals that they are trying to accomplish.

They'd be forced to make all of their first party and exclusive third party games to run on that Sony handheld. We all know that's a waste of resources for those Developers. The portal is something they can release and it doesn't increase any workload for any developer on planet earth. Remote Play does all the work so any hardware device they sell is pure profit. There's literally no downside if they can find a way to sell more than say a half a million of them.

The only downside would be if it was released and it was a disaster with their own Remote Play networking code in software. And it bombed on the Shelf it would be a huge PR disaster. But as it is now, it's nothing but upside with literally no downsides at this point since it does what it's supposed to do.

Why do we keep bringing up the Vita when it has almost no relevance to a modern handheld?

- no crappy control downgrade
- much bigger and usable screen
- no overpriced memory cards
- uses similar architecture so sony doesnt have to dedicate huge amounrs of time and money into new from the ground up games
- day and date with console, all AAA games
- hybrid can be easily hooked to tv
- likely backwards compatibility with ps4 library day one, large library the day it launches

In short, any handheld launched in 2024 by Sony would be completely different than the Vita.
 
Last edited:
I picked one up from PS Direct a few weeks ago and I’ve used it pretty much every day. There’s something cool about playing PS5 games on a handheld device. I’ve tried GT7, FF7:R, Cyberpunk and Elden Ring and they’ve all played really well, except for the rare wi-fi hiccup.
Yeah I have a family now and the Switch handheld mode has been the only thing I've been playing for years. It will be nice upgrade to have a portable PS5.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I broke my effing screen weeks ago and I was told by a support rep to email them a bunch of stuff and never got a response s m h.

Had to rant but the portal is dope, highly recommend it
The one I ordered at launch had a broken screen out of the box and I had to send it back. They refunded me because they didn't have a unit to replace it with. Just bought another one to try again.
 

Topher

Gold Member
When they first was announced I was lost on who the market for this thing was. Recently tried out remote play locally and away from home and am extremely shocked on how good it is. The portal really enhances that experience. Would recommend if people are on the fence.

I'm looking forward to trying it out. I've heard a lot of good things. I just wish they would figure out how to make this thing work with cloud streaming. Also greedy as hell to make folks buy their own earphones for this that cost as much as the hanheld itself. Guess I'll be digging up some wired earbuds.
 

Kings Field

Member
Got my order in. I also use chiaki and while it’s ok I feel like something is off with the screen size or whatever you would call it. Xbplay feels much better for remote play.

How easy are these to use while away from home? My work has great internet and our cabin has pretty good but not the same speed as my home internet.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Got my order in. I also use chiaki and while it’s ok I feel like something is off with the screen size or whatever you would call it. Xbplay feels much better for remote play.

How easy are these to use while away from home? My work has great internet and our cabin has pretty good but not the same speed as my home internet.

We're you using chaiki with steam deck? Pretty sure there is a button changes the scaling since the screen is not 16:9. Unless I'm thinking of xbplay.

Anyhow the portal is nice having the dual sense, and bigger screen. But I will warn you, if you are going from oled to that screen there is a ton more motion blur.
 
Last edited:
Got my order in. I also use chiaki and while it’s ok I feel like something is off with the screen size or whatever you would call it. Xbplay feels much better for remote play.

How easy are these to use while away from home? My work has great internet and our cabin has pretty good but not the same speed as my home internet.
If you don’t like chiaki, ur not gonna like this, it runs the same if not worse, it’s the uneven frame delivery, I just can’t stand,
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
When they first was announced I was lost on who the market for this thing was. Recently tried out remote play locally and away from home and am extremely shocked on how good it is. The portal really enhances that experience. Would recommend if people are on the fence.

Yeah I've seen plenty of people come around on the Portal. It just makes sense.

Man...It's been 4 months since the launch, and we Asian region Ponies STILL got no news when's our turn.

Fucking Sony Soony!

Angry Star Wars GIF

Where in Asia?
 
When they first was announced I was lost on who the market for this thing was. Recently tried out remote play locally and away from home and am extremely shocked on how good it is. The portal really enhances that experience. Would recommend if people are on the fence.
Really glad to hear this. I actually thought the portal was a great idea when it was revealed, but at the time, everyone was shitting on it and I couldn't understand why. To me, the fact you can use it without being on the same network is a great idea. I might actually buy one now that people have positive things to say about it.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Really glad to hear this. I actually thought the portal was a great idea when it was revealed, but at the time, everyone was shitting on it and I couldn't understand why. To me, the fact you can use it without being on the same network is a great idea. I might actually buy one now that people have positive things to say about it.
Regardless of which you need to try if your network gives you a good experience, if not return.
 
Top Bottom