PlayStation Portal: enjoyable despite its flaws
When it comes to creating incredibly comfortable earbuds in the shape of doughnuts or a speaker and lamp combo that, for some reason, looks exactly like a bong, Sony is frequently at its best when it is at its most bizarre. However, the peculiarity of the PlayStation Portal lies not just in its form but also in the fundamental question of “Why does this thing exist?”
“Wait, how is a portable game console a domestic culinary tool? one may wonder. Similar to an air fryer, the Portal is a relatively expensive gadget that only does one thing and does it one way (it streams games from your PS5 via WiFi). However, other multipurpose gadgets can accomplish the same thing (PS5 Remote Play is compatible with Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and even the PS4). Additionally, similar to an air fryer, you probably already own a gadget that performs the same function as the Portal (convection heating, which is how an air fryer cooks, is a feature of many home ovens).
Convenience is the main focus of the Sony PlayStation Portal: you can move your games from your console around your home or even outside. But when you depend too much on WiFi performance, your convenient world collapses the moment you experience poor connectivity or one of the bizarre quirks of the Portal appears.
When you put it like that, it sounds infallible, but the only thing the Portal does when you turn it on is connect. This is where “your mileage may additionally vary” comes into play. It might function well. It might not even try. You might need to adjust the settings for your home network. I’ve been skulking in the r/PlayStationPortal subreddit to get a sense of the community’s attitude, and in between the folks sharing their positive experiences about how well their Portal works even when they’re traveling and the troubleshooting advice, you occasionally see some extreme displeasure.
Despite this, there are still certain areas in my house where connectivity can be a little spotty. Games can freeze and stop for seemingly inexplicable reasons, causing entire gameplay segments to be skipped. I’m never entirely sure if it’s because of a strange anomaly, an additional device on my network using up bandwidth, or increased ISP congestion in the area. You have to accept that occasionally, your axe throws in God of War Ragnarök or your swings in Spider-Man 2 might not go as planned, even though you’ll never really know why. It’s the trade-off of depending on WiFi rather than using the family TV or moving your game into a different room, and it could try your patience at times.
This is one of the major mistakes made by the PlayStation Portal, and it makes you wonder if things could be done better. Only WiFi 5 (802.11ac), which has been available since 2014, is supported by the Portal. Its bandwidth exceeds both the recommended speed of 15Mbps and Sony’s stated minimum requirement of 5Mbps for both download and upload rates. However, why does a new device—one that depends on WiFi—released in late 2023 not come with a WiFi 6 or 6E radio? Although not every home has a WiFi 6E router, those that have ought to be able to use the less crowded 6Ghz band to play their portals. One of the many perplexing omissions in the Portal, particularly in light of the impending release of WiFi 7 devices.
However, the Portal’s nonsensical features extend far beyond its issues with the WiFi standard. There’s an Airplane Mode on this. Why? Without WiFi, it’s just a paperweight. It doesn’t stream any content that isn’t beamed to it from your PS5, nor does it play any games or media from local storage (it doesn’t even indicate how much internal storage it has). In addition, it only allows one user to log in at a time, lacks an auto-brightness adjustment feature, and is devoid of a protective case (the only ones available are from third parties). Do you have numerous accounts within your family, or do you share your PS5 with someone else? If you intend to share the PlayStation Portal as well, be ready to manually log out and back in whenever someone else requests a turn. This includes logging in with 2FA if you have it enabled, which you should.
The Portal feels like a band-aid solution or the skeleton of a larger project whose funding was slashed midway through development because of all these oddities and flaws. However, nothing seems quite as outrageous as Bluetooth audio being absent. The Portal is fortunately equipped with a 3.5mm headphone port; however, if you prefer wireless, your only choice is to use Sony’s new exclusive PlayStation Link audio devices, which are expensive but missing a premium feature: active noise cancellation. Just one of the two headphones that have been disclosed so far, the $199.99 Pulse Explore earphones, has been released thus far (and is still difficult to find in stock). Not until late February is the $149.99 Pulse Elite headset scheduled for release.
Yes, using Sony’s exclusive PlayStation Link connection results in significantly less delay when utilizing the same earphones in Bluetooth mode on a different device that supports Remote Play. Sony’s Pulse Explore earbuds perform admirably on the Portal. However, that in no way justifies leaving Bluetooth out of the Portal completely. Although Bluetooth can be sluggish and ineffective at times, it still functions rather well and is a useful feature that this device, which is all about simplicity and ease, should have. It’s very bad to charge your consumers an additional $150 to $200 to use wireless audio on their $200 remote player, especially considering that some PS5 aficionados may already possess the more costly (and noise-canceling) Sony InZone H9 wireless headset, which isn’t even compatible with its USB dongle. The Portal’s built-in speakers, which don’t sound too tinny, and the option to switch to connected audio, which eliminates delay altogether, are its two main aural saving graces.
In spite of all these annoying idiosyncrasies, the Portal offers a pleasant comprehensive experience. All of those methods are more cumbersome. Alternatively, you can have a more portable experience with a collapsible phone controller like the BackBone One, or you may have a higher quality Remote Play experience on an iPad or laptop with much larger screens. There’s nothing quite like picking up the Portal and flipping it on.
Many owners of Steam Decks and Asus ROG Allies have discovered ways to use Remote Play with free programs such as Chiaki, although setting it up still requires some effort and tweaking.
With the PlayStation Portal, you can get a fairly turnkey, simplified solution by bypassing the hassle and confusion of the first Remote Play setup. If you’re a parent or a busy person trying to fit in quick game sessions while someone else is watching TV, or if you want to up the comfort factor by being able to play in bed, it can be useful in addition to your PS5. However, all of Remote Play’s restrictions and limitations remain in place.
The main advice for anyone thinking about getting a Portal is to first connect your PS5 to an Ethernet port (really, Wi-Fi on either end of this equation ain’t gon’ work), and then use your home Wi-Fi on your laptop, tablet, or phone to test out the PS Remote Play software. If it meets your needs in terms of performance, particularly for the games you enjoy playing, then a Portal might make sense.
If your home Wi-Fi is free of gremlins, Sony’s first handheld since the PlayStation Vita may be an odd, constrained device with just one function, but it does that function admirably. It is hoped that Sony is not just delivering a shoddy product, but rather exploring the possibilities for future developments. Due to the high backorder for Portals, there appears to be a demand (at least for the time being).
