I’ve always been sceptical of streaming my game, especially since my early experiences of it weren’t great. I always had connection drops, the game would go blurry, it was just frustrating.
When Sony launched the PS Portal, which was a pure streaming device for your PS5, so not a separate system like the PS Vita (Wheres my Vita 2 Sony?), it was more of an accessory, to start with you needed a PS5 before they added the streaming beta from PS+ Premium to it.
I have to admit, I had my serious doubts about, my experience with streaming hadn’t been good and I couldn’t see (for me anyway) the benefits of having one. However, my wife decided to surprise me with one, as I had been trying out Xbox Cloud Streaming as well as streaming my PS5 to my phone, and the smaller screen doesn’t really make for good longer sessions of gaming.
The portal was presented beautifully in it’s packaging and felt good in the hands, but it was time for the moment of truth, was it going to hold up on my internet connection, which I will admit, isn’t bad at around 60Mbps, but it’s not the fastest going like full fibre.
It was the moment of truth, I switched on the device and the set up was simple, it went through any updates that were needed and flawlessly connected to my PS5. I was impressed, very impressed. The screen was impressive, it was bright, vibrant and seemed to be of very good quality. I’ve played on the Steam Deck’s 7.4’ screen as well as the Rog Ally’s 7’ screen and always found those comfortable, so there was no issues with the 8’ screen size on the PlayStation Portal. The feel and the build quality felt good as well, it felt comfortable in my hands and I felt like I could have a decent gaming session without my hands cramping up like they do with the Nintendo Switch.
Now the next part of the experience was what it was bought for, playing games. I will be honest and say that I haven’t had a single issue with streaming from my PS5, I haven’t experience any lag and if I have if it’s been minuscule and I haven’t noticed it. The experience has been so enjoyable, and thats not just playing My PS Portal Experience
I’ve always been sceptical of streaming my game, especially since my early experiences of it weren’t great. I always had connection drops, the game would go blurry, it was just frustrating.
When Sony launched the PS Portal, which was a pure streaming device for your PS5, so not a separate system like the PS Vita (Wheres my Vita 2 Sony?), it was more of an accessory, to start with you needed a PS5 before they added the streaming beta from PS+ Premium to it.
I have to admit, I had my serious doubts about, my experience with streaming hadn’t been good and I couldn’t see (for me anyway) the benefits of having one. However, my wife decided to surprise me with one, as I had been trying out Xbox Cloud Streaming as well as streaming my PS5 to my phone, and the smaller screen doesn’t really make for good longer sessions of gaming.
The portal was presented beautifully in it’s packaging and felt good in the hands, but it was time for the moment of truth, was it going to hold up on my internet connection, which I will admit, isn’t bad at around 60Mbps, but it’s not the fastest going like full fibre.
It was the moment of truth, I switched on the device and the set up was simple, it went through any updates that were needed and flawlessly connected to my PS5. I was impressed, very impressed. The screen was impressive, it was bright, vibrant and seemed to be of very good quality. I’ve played on the Steam Deck’s 7.4’ screen as well as the Rog Ally’s 7’ screen and always found those comfortable, so there was no issues with the 8’ screen size on the PlayStation Portal. The feel and the build quality felt good as well, it felt comfortable in my hands and I felt like I could have a decent gaming session without my hands cramping up like they do with the Nintendo Switch.
Now the next part of the experience was what it was bought for, playing games. I will be honest and say that I haven’t had a single issue with streaming from my PS5, I haven’t experience any lag and if I have if it’s been minuscule and I haven’t noticed it. The experience has been so enjoyable, and thats not just playing single player games, but I’ve been playing multiplayer games like Black Ops 6 as well and haven’t noticed any difference, its was like I was playing the game natively. I have to admit that it certainly exceeded my expectations in terms and I’ve been very pleased with how its performed as well as the build quality, it definitely feels like a decent piece of kit and very well built. The one element of this I haven’t been able to try out yet is how it performs away from my home network. But whenever I get a chance to take it out and about I shall update this article with how it performs.
Another thing that I was impressed with was how you don’t need to own a PS5 to be able to use one. As long as you have PS+ Premium (I believe) you can just stream the current beta catalogue right from the device. I did give this a try and again, it performed very well on my home network, there were some drops in performance from such as the image quality would drop, but again, it didn’t fully close the game because of poor connections, and the games I tested out were still very playable.
So far, the only downside I have come across with my PS Portal is that there is a lack of the touchpad on the device and which has been built into the PS Portals touchscreen and I have found it to be a little lacking in terms of its responsiveness. I have had to press it several times to be able to get it to register something, and when I’m trying to cook meals on Disney Dreamlight Valley and you need to press the touchpad to get the items for cooking, it gets a little annoying when I’m constantly pressing and nothing is happening. I think from what I’ve played of the Portal, that is the only thing that I would change.
Now the question is, would I recommend getting one? For me, it isn’t an essential piece of kit, although I think its all going to come down to your circumstances. Being the father of a 4 year old, this is very handy for me for when she is watching TV and I get some time game. If you don’t have that and the TV is free whenever you want it, then no, I don’t think this would be essential for you as you can play on your TV and a much bigger screen. I think it’s one of those luxuries that will suit certain scenarios like the one above, or if your away on business and the hotel you’re staying in has decent Wifi for you to stream on. single player games, but I’ve been playing multiplayer games like Black Ops 6 as well and haven’t noticed any difference, its was like I was playing the game natively. I have to admit that it certainly exceeded my expectations in terms and I’ve been very pleased with how its performed as well as the build quality, it definitely feels like a decent piece of kit and very well built. The one element of this I haven’t been able to try out yet is how it performs away from my home network. But whenever I get a chance to take it out and about I shall update this article with how it performs.
Another thing that I was impressed with was how you don’t need to own a PS5 to be able to use one. As long as you have PS+ Premium (I believe) you can just stream the current beta catalogue right from the device. I did give this a try and again, it performed very well on my home network, there were some drops in performance from such as the image quality would drop, but again, it didn’t fully close the game because of poor connections, and the games I tested out were still very playable.
So far, the only downside I have come across with my PS Portal is that there is a lack of the touchpad on the device and which has been built into the PS Portals touchscreen and I have found it to be a little lacking in terms of its responsiveness. I have had to press it several times to be able to get it to register something, and when I’m trying to cook meals on Disney Dreamlight Valley and you need to press the touchpad to get the items for cooking, it gets a little annoying when I’m constantly pressing and nothing is happening. I think from what I’ve played of the Portal, that is the only thing that I would change.
Now the question is, would I recommend getting one? For me, it isn’t an essential piece of kit, although I think its all going to come down to your circumstances. Being the father of a 4 year old, this is very handy for me for when she is watching TV and I get some time game. If you don’t have that and the TV is free whenever you want it, then no, I don’t think this would be essential for you as you can play on your TV and a much bigger screen. I think it’s one of those luxuries that will suit certain scenarios like the one above, or if your away on business and the hotel you’re staying in has decent Wifi for you to stream on.
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