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Playstation Portal reviews

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
This thin looks to be a bit of a turd.

The G Cloud can play some Android games and such and stream from Cloud services. Granted, it is like $300 to $350.

The Portal is just flat out streaming from your PS5 and that is it. Dual Sense control is really the only unique aspect of it.

G cloud is 30% smaller and has inferior controls and haptics, so its not that clear cut, especially for those focused on ps5 gaming.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Implement second screen features and let us be able to use it as a controller (Wii-U style) and the bang for buck ratio will soar!

As it is, I'd rather buy an old-ass Samsung S8+ or Note, a controller clamp for the dualsense and call it a day.
50% smaller screen, still $100+ cost, more lag, way worse controls, unbalanced, yuck.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I said dock not charger.

Ah, sorry. Yeah, that was sold separately. Charging dock (like the one for Switch or Deck) for Portal would make no sense but something like this would be handy:

01-xl.jpg
 

Zuzu

Member
I like it and hope to get one. Hopefully the latency won’t be significant but I have no current problems streaming from my PS5 to my iPad Pro using a Wifi 5 router & booster on a lowly 50mbps. I recently played a large amount of my first playthrough of Bloodborne like this. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
 
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midnightAI

Member
I like it and hope to get one. Hopefully the latency won’t be significant but I have no current problems streaming from my PS5 to my iPad using a Wifi 5 router & booster on a lowly 50mbps. I recently played a large amount of my first playthrough of Bloodborne like this. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
You wont have problems with Portal if you have no problems with a tablet/mobile
 

Zuzu

Member
You wont have problems with Portal if you have no problems with a tablet/mobile

I just worry a bit that its wifi module might not be as high quality as an iPad Pro’s wifi module (since it’s a lot cheaper than the iPad) which could lead to a worse connection. But I’m sure it’ll be fine.
 
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DosGamer

Member
Anybody know the odds of walking into Target, Best Buy or Walmart on the 15th and getting one of these without a reservation? In other words, anybody know if the brick and mortar stores will have the?
 
Will someone tell all those professional youtubers shills that when reviewing a 1080p60fps device you should also record the friggin' video at 60fps ? What's the friggin' point otherwise ? The "it runs well/fluidly" shtick doesn't cut it, let us be the judge of that by watching the action at 60fps ffs - this holds especially true for the 1st review posted in here where the dude's like "the action is nice and fluid" while showing Spiderman 2 on the portal's screen stuttering like mad, can't ever trust these people, they're just there to sell a product.

Having said all that :
The reception/reviews have been very...lukewarm to say the least, even the shills can't display any (fake or not) enthusiasm and that's saying something...
Don't get me wrong boys, my experience with Remote play has been very good the past few weeks using a good tablet so i know what to expect but, i somehow expected BETTER from a dedicated, 1st party device...
- No Wi-fi 6
- No direct connection to the PS5 (like the Vita used to have)
- No...new/different "anything" really - It's the usual RP that you can have with your phone/tablet, meaning, there's no behind-the-scenes "magic" which renders the whole experience better compared to - again - a good phone/tablet, shit, i was expecting Wi-fi 6 AND a direct-to-console-connection at the very friggin' least.
- PS cloud streaming COULD be coming in the future but for now, it's absent.

Now, i'm not one of those that keep spouting the usual shit like "you can have the same experience on a ChEaP TaBLet !11!" or "why Can't you just use X instead of this ?" 'cause, let me tell you, you absolutely can't have a good Xcloud/Remote play experience on "cheap" products and the culprit is usually the godawful SOCs which have both the BT antenna AND Wi-fi chip on it, meaning, good luck when trying to stream and trying to have your joypad connected at the same, it's S-s-s-s-S-tut-t-ter, macroblock, desync and disconnect-city guaranteed, ask me how i know...
Now, unless we're talking about a "cheap" 400 Eurodollar tablet (like the Xiaomi pad 6)...sure, for 2x the price it can be done - oh wait, the controls are completely borked even on Android 13 which renders the whole experience unplayable.Wanna get a cheaper Redmi pad or the xiaomi pad 5 for 150 Euros less ? Again, tough luck, Dualsense button config is still fooked up and won't likely ever be fixed (this is a Google and not a Sony thing according to the PSPlay dev).
Basically, you're pretty much "locked" to expensive, "commercial" devices like the iPhones and Samsung galaxys' if you want to have a good, normal experience with RP.


So, yes, those of us that already had/have a good experience using RP will most likely be golden with the portal, the rest of the people though that can't connect/have freezes/stutters/connection drops etc even on "good" home networks, well, tough luck - and this is the "problem" with this device, it doesn't change nor makes anything better, again, for the price it should at the very minimum have some kind of direct-to-console connection.

Day one for me (just kidding) :messenger_beaming:


PS : i'm pretty sure that PS Cloud IS coming to the Portal down the line.
PS2 : regarding the "no behind-the-curtain-magic", one reviewer mentioned something interesting : on all of his devices, whenever the connection starts breaking up, he's greeted by the "connection unstable" icon on the top right of the screen and image quality starts deteriorating (macroblocking) and input lag goes to shit - not so on the Portal though which apparently just drops/skips a couple of frames instead of going to input-lag and macroblock shit-city, so maybe in the end Sony did perform some behind the curtain adjustments for the Portal ? Fuck knows.
 
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danklord

Gold Member
G cloud is 30% smaller and has inferior controls and haptics, so its not that clear cut, especially for those focused on ps5 gaming.
It also requires a third party app and the graphical quality isn't great. It works, but it isn't optimal.

Logitech G Cloud should be rebranded as a Geforce Now / Steam Link device, those are it's best uses.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
It also requires a third party app and the graphical quality isn't great. It works, but it isn't optimal.

Logitech G Cloud should be rebranded as a Geforce Now / Steam Link device, those are it's best uses.

The clarity of PSPlay is clearer than the official PS streaming app. No idea what you're talking about.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Uh, I have it and it doesn't look great. So that's the experience I'm referencing. But if the quality works for you, have a blast.

Then you don't have it configured correctly. I'm not the outlier here. Go read around the internet/Reddit, etc..

PSPlay allows your to manually set your bitrate/resolution/encoder/HDR support/etc.. etc.. and it's been time and time again shown to be superior to the official app when configured correctly.
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member

danklord

Gold Member
Then you don't have it configured correctly. I'm not the outlier here. Go read around the internet/Reddit, etc..

PSPlay allows your to manually set your bitrate/resolution/encoder/HDR support/etc.. etc.. and it's been time and time again to be superior to the official app when configured correctly.

Wait, you mean there are settings? This changes everything.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Big PS Vita TV vibes. These will probably be fire sales for sub $50 next year like Vita TVs were too.
Yup.i was excited to get this a month ago. Seeing people say that it has the same lag as remote play on a tablet is eye opening and extremely lame.

I bought a pstv for$50 after a bit and that worked fine, 8 years ago. Maybe I'll pick one up next year when there's a fire sale and then resell it in 2 years when they are collectors items.

Between this and no 1st party support for psvr2 it's been very disappointing for me
 

//DEVIL//

Member
The input delay or lack of is very impressive.
Honestly I would have bought this if it supported a 120Hz for call of duty sessions in the bathroom alone lol
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Yup.i was excited to get this a month ago. Seeing people say that it has the same lag as remote play on a tablet is eye opening and extremely lame.

I bought a pstv for$50 after a bit and that worked fine, 8 years ago. Maybe I'll pick one up next year when there's a fire sale and then resell it in 2 years when they are collectors items.

Between this and no 1st party support for psvr2 it's been very disappointing for me

I think I paid $18 for a brand new Vita TV a year or so after launch. What a bizarre device.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
So it's good at what it's supposed to do? Great! I do wish Sony can push an update to support RP on the media apps in the future though.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
They're two different videos from different sources. You're comparing the latency of their networks instead of the devices. You need the exact same conditions in order to make any comparisons between the devices.
And how do you know that they are COMPLETELY different?
 

Skifi28

Member
And how do you know that they are COMPLETELY different?
If you don't know for a fact they are identical, they are completely different as far as benchmarking goes.

It's like benchmarking a game on two different PCs without knowing their specs and saying "well, you don't know they're completely different, they could be identical for all we know". It just doesn't work this way.
 
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rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
If you don't know for a fact they are identical, they are completely different as far as benchmarking goes.
Things are not 8 or 80 only.

Streaming vs local rendering are very different benchmarks. Guy with portal should be playing on Wifi 5 too.
 
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midnightAI

Member
If you don't know for a fact they are identical, they are completely different as far as benchmarking goes.

It's like benchmarking a game on two different PCs without knowing their specs and saying "well, you don't know they're completely different, they could be identical for all we know". It just doesn't work this way.
There is also no real visual metric, the portal footage shows the TV also
 
So this will be forgotten in like a year. (like VR2 unfortunately)
VR2 likely won’t be forgotten until vr3 comes out. It’s a phenomenal device with great software and a strong following so far.

As for Portal. Whether this is forgotten is irrelevant to its use case. Rather. It’s a device requiring no investment from devs or Sony. It’s also a great value for this type of thing so may do well. Even if it’s niche it serves its purpose perfectly.
 

yurinka

Member
Will someone tell all those professional youtubers shills that when reviewing a 1080p60fps device you should also record the friggin' video at 60fps ? What's the friggin' point otherwise ? The "it runs well/fluidly" shtick doesn't cut it, let us be the judge of that by watching the action at 60fps ffs - this holds especially true for the 1st review posted in here where the dude's like "the action is nice and fluid" while showing Spiderman 2 on the portal's screen stuttering like mad, can't ever trust these people, they're just there to sell a product.

Having said all that :
The reception/reviews have been very...lukewarm to say the least, even the shills can't display any (fake or not) enthusiasm and that's saying something...
Don't get me wrong boys, my experience with Remote play has been very good the past few weeks using a good tablet so i know what to expect but, i somehow expected BETTER from a dedicated, 1st party device...
- No Wi-fi 6
- No direct connection to the PS5 (like the Vita used to have)
- No...new/different "anything" really - It's the usual RP that you can have with your phone/tablet, meaning, there's no behind-the-scenes "magic" which renders the whole experience better compared to - again - a good phone/tablet, shit, i was expecting Wi-fi 6 AND a direct-to-console-connection at the very friggin' least.
- PS cloud streaming COULD be coming in the future but for now, it's absent.

Now, i'm not one of those that keep spouting the usual shit like "you can have the same experience on a ChEaP TaBLet !11!" or "why Can't you just use X instead of this ?" 'cause, let me tell you, you absolutely can't have a good Xcloud/Remote play experience on "cheap" products and the culprit is usually the godawful SOCs which have both the BT antenna AND Wi-fi chip on it, meaning, good luck when trying to stream and trying to have your joypad connected at the same, it's S-s-s-s-S-tut-t-ter, macroblock, desync and disconnect-city guaranteed, ask me how i know...
Now, unless we're talking about a "cheap" 400 Eurodollar tablet (like the Xiaomi pad 6)...sure, for 2x the price it can be done - oh wait, the controls are completely borked even on Android 13 which renders the whole experience unplayable.Wanna get a cheaper Redmi pad or the xiaomi pad 5 for 150 Euros less ? Again, tough luck, Dualsense button config is still fooked up and won't likely ever be fixed (this is a Google and not a Sony thing according to the PSPlay dev).
Basically, you're pretty much "locked" to expensive, "commercial" devices like the iPhones and Samsung galaxys' if you want to have a good, normal experience with RP.


So, yes, those of us that already had/have a good experience using RP will most likely be golden with the portal, the rest of the people though that can't connect/have freezes/stutters/connection drops etc even on "good" home networks, well, tough luck - and this is the "problem" with this device, it doesn't change nor makes anything better, again, for the price it should at the very minimum have some kind of direct-to-console connection.

Day one for me (just kidding) :messenger_beaming:


PS : i'm pretty sure that PS Cloud IS coming to the Portal down the line.
PS2 : regarding the "no behind-the-curtain-magic", one reviewer mentioned something interesting : on all of his devices, whenever the connection starts breaking up, he's greeted by the "connection unstable" icon on the top right of the screen and image quality starts deteriorating (macroblocking) and input lag goes to shit - not so on the Portal though which apparently just drops/skips a couple of frames instead of going to input-lag and macroblock shit-city, so maybe in the end Sony did perform some behind the curtain adjustments for the Portal ? Fuck knows.
I think it would be great if it had wifi6 and an OLED screen even if slightly more expensive.

Regarding potential future firmware improvements they could add not only a PS cloud gaming client (once they have its client ready for Android) but also emulated PS1/PS2/PSP classics (if they make their own Android store to sell them there).
 
Yeah, someone who wants to play while someone watches TV. Someone wants to play while their kids are going to sleep. Someone wants to play but their wife has her girlfriends over for drinks.

Is it that hard to imagine people lead different lives?
None of these are actual problems in your life. Just making fantasy excuses for you to pretend to need this product. "Hey Ive always wanted this thing despite never saying I needed it before it was announced!" If my dad spent all his time hiding away with his little gamer pad instead of riding bikes or something, I would kick his ass. And your wife's girlfriends (and boyfriends) call you a beta!
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
I have no idea what you mean. When you want to benchmark anything, you want the same conditions except for the individual component you are testing. If you don't know for a fact the conditions are identical, then you have no idea what you are testing. This is common sense, I have no idea what there is to disagree with.
They both should be on a Wifi 5+ 100% bandwidth free for them if they want to make a valid review. What other significant conditions may have between them?
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
The input delay or lack of is very impressive.
Honestly I would have bought this if it supported a 120Hz for call of duty sessions in the bathroom alone lol
I mean if you set it to 120fps mode on the game there may be some input latency benefit regardless? Isn't this essentially why Geforce Now Ultimate latency is really good? It's running the games on the server at 120fps+?
 
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