Actually, I should be exactly the target group for the Playstation Portal. Actually. But after a few days I ask myself: Why should I pay half the price of the Playstation? And who else will do it?
Anyone who has fewer televisions than people in their home is familiar with the debate: Who gets to decide what the big screen shows? Thanks to tablets and streaming, discussions between couples, siblings or roommates have fortunately become significantly less distorted in recent years. If I want to continue playing my new favorite game on the Playse, I still have to endure the stares of my wife peeking out from behind the tablet, who would rather watch her series on the television. That actually makes me the perfect target group for the new Playstation Portal. But it still didn’t convince me in the test.
The idea immediately makes sense: instead of always being tied to the television, the portal allows me to use my Playstation 5 anywhere else in the apartment. The design therefore makes sense at first glance: The portal looks like a Dualsense controller that has been cut in the middle – and then an 8-inch screen is stuck in between. So far, so useful.
Everyday frustration
Compared to a Switch, the portal seems a bit clunkier. However, the idea is not to use it on the go: Unlike the Nintendo console, the new mobile Playstation is not a full-fledged console. The game is further calculated on the PS5 and then streamed to the console via WiFi.
Unfortunately, this has several disadvantages. While the Switch runs completely lag-free even in handheld mode, there is always a tiny delay with the portal because what is displayed has to be transferred from one device to the other. In slow games this is only minimally noticeable. But if things get hectic, incorrect entries quickly occur – for example, if you stress the key a second time because the first press didn’t produce an immediate reaction. If you whirl the camera around quickly, the delay also feels like you’re moving through jelly. Everything is slowing down a bit. The first time I played it, I actually felt a little nauseous, but that didn’t happen again later.
But it’s even more annoying when the connection isn’t stable. And that happened far too often. For reasons I don’t understand, the portal in my home network even has problems maintaining a fast and stable connection right next to the router. When the speed drops, it’s not just the image that becomes more and more pixelated – as is also the case with Netflix streaming over a line that is too slow. The display, the inputs and even the sound then also arrive more and more delayed. The image would regularly freeze for seconds at a time. And suddenly my characters died deaths that certainly wouldn’t have happened to them otherwise.
As soon as the connection weakens, the Playstation Portal only shows pixel mud instead of sharp graphics
© Malte Mansholt / stern
Connection problems
In extreme cases, the connection even broke down completely. Instead of the game there was only an error message. Only after reconnecting did it continue. In single player titles this is just a bit annoying, the Playstation simply pauses the game due to the loss of contact with the controller. But in online games it is often fatal: Because the game continues without me, I can only hope that no opponent appears. And you quickly lose the fun when it does happen.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out where the problems came from. It’s not the WiFi connection itself: Even if the Playstation is connected to it via cable Router is connected and I sit directly next to the portal, there were regular connection problems. That certainly doesn’t mean that every customer will have these problems. However, you should be aware of the risk.
Incidentally, a connection from outside your own WiFi could not be established in the test. The portal tried again and again via a smartphone connection, but in the end it always stopped. I couldn’t be persuaded to connect via networks that require additional input, such as public hotspots. Presumably because the necessary consent window simply could not be obtained.
Total failure: Far too often the Playstation Portal completely loses its connection to the PS5
© Malte Mansholt / stern
Nice technology
The rest of the technical implementation of the portal was actually very successful. The controller halves fit in the hand just as well as the original. The portal also offers numerous great additional functions, thanks to which the controller turned out to be the real highlight of the Playstation 5 in our test (find out more here). The portal supports adaptive triggers, which also react to less pressure and can even generate resistance. The great, highly sensitive vibration system has also been adopted. Supported games therefore feel just like the original.
The 8-inch display is also impressive. Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t use OLED technology, but with 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second, the image is crisp and smooth – if the stream over the network works.
…which is easy to replace
There is a simple reason why I was hoping for more, especially in terms of the delay: With streaming into the apartment, the Portal serves a purpose for which you don’t need a special device. With Sony’s “Playstation Remote” app, which has been available for years, games from PS5 and PS4 have long been able to be streamed to any smartphone, tablet or PC – whether with Android, iOS or Windows. Because the operating systems all support the Dualsense controller, you don’t even need to make an additional purchase. So if you have any tablet, you don’t actually have to buy a portal. Especially since the app often even had a more stable connection in my test. However, this means that the portal essentially loses any added value.
And it simply costs too much for that: Sony charges 220 euros for the portal. That’s too expensive for what’s on offer; after all, you only pay twice as much for a complete PS5. Sure, a Dualsense controller alone costs 70 euros. At least one is already included with the console. Even if you had to buy the tablet, you would get a decent device for 220 euros – which can then also be used for other purposes. If you already have one at home, you can save money anyway.
Sony’s approach to wireless headphones is simply cheeky. The Playstation Portal does not support Bluetooth, instead Sony uses its own standard. The mobile console cannot therefore be paired with any headphones – but only with Sony’s own Pulse 3D. They cost at least 80 euros extra. After all, headsets from other manufacturers can also be connected via the jack plug, but only wired ones.
Conclusion: expectations not met
The Playstation Portal is a stylishly designed device that can hardly be recommended to anyone. This is simply due to the technical weaknesses: If games only play with a delay and the connection can also be lost, you simply cannot get the same feeling as on the console itself. No matter how great the screen and the controller are implemented: here Sony should have simply delivered more.
The recommendation is even more difficult because hardly anyone actually needs the device. Finally, you can replace it with any tablet and the included PS5 controller without major losses.
The Playstation Portal is already on sale and costs from 219 euros.