PlayStation Portal Remote Player 5

A Must Have for PS5 OwnersThe PS5 Portal blew me away. The screen is crisp, the touch response is fast, and the connection to my PS5 is smooth and nearly lag free. It’s perfect for gaming anywhere in the house without needing a TV.The controls feel just like a DualSense haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are spot on. The build is solid yet lightweight, and the battery holds up well during long sessions.If you want flexibility and a true PS5 experience on the go (at home), this is absolutely worth it. I highly recommend it to any serious PlayStation gamer.

I’ve had the PlayStation Portal for about a year now, and every experience has been positive. It seamlessly extends my PS5 gaming when the TV is in use, delivering smooth 1080p at 60 FPS streaming thanks to the built-in DualSense controls and crisp 8‑inch touchscreen.A key tip: plug your PS5 directly into your router via ethernet. That hardwired connection significantly improves stability and stream quality. For the best experience, I recommend at least a 400 Mbps internet plan, especially if you’re the only one gaming or streaming.With these conditions met — wired PS5 and fast internet — the Portal delivers incredibly reliable remote play. I rarely notice lag, battery life holds strong throughout long sessions, and the feel of the DualSense controls is spot on.

The PS portal is a remote play device that connects to your PS5 allowing you to play games without use of the television. This is what it is advertised as doing, and it does this very well. There has been a recent update to the device that allows you to stream games from the PS Plus library of games if you are a PS Plus subscriber, completely bypassing your PS5. As of this review, the feature is still in beta, however, from my testing it works well. If you have a good connection from your PS5 to your router and have a good WiFi connection outside, you can even remote play your PS5 while you are not at home, such as in a hotel. I suggest using your phone's hot spot on a 5G connection to do this.For a more responsive and lag free experience make sure your PS5 is connected to your router with an Ethernet cable instead of connecting via WiFi. This will provide a stable experience on your PS Portal.Remember that this is not a stand alone console like a Switch or a Steam Deck allowing you to play games directly on the machine. The PS Portal connects to your PS5 or can stream games from the PS Plus library if you are a subscriber.The PS Portal itself has all the functions of the PS5 controller which is awesome. That means when you play a game that makes use of the adaptive triggers, the PS Portal will feel just like your PS5 controllers. For instance, pulling an arrow back on a bow in a game with the actually feels like there is bow string tension in the trigger. This is light years better than just getting a set of controllers that attaches to a phone for remote play. It also has all the buttons like the PS button, screen capture button, and options button. The only thing missing is the touch pad. In order to use the touch pad, you actually touch the screen on the PS Portal and a virtual touch pad pops up on the screen.My favorite feature is that the PS Portal allows you to wake up your PS5 from sleep mode. If someone in the house is using the TV, no problem. Just pick up your PS Portal, connect to your PS5, and starting playing your games!

Although my absolute wish from Sony would be for a dedicated handheld, this will do for now.Form factor and ergonomics - Very comfy to hold and not heavy. Essential a Dualsense controller shopped in half with a screen attached in between. So regular Dualsense users will feel right at home. The only thing that takes getting use to is the PS button and the touch screen for obvious reason. I really like how the power, volume buttons are designed to be away from the top of the screen bezel compared to other handhelds. This prevents accidental button pressing and is easy to reach. And for once, the controller (I'll call it lightbar) is visible while gaming, so seeing games interact with this light is amazing.Playing the Portal (wired internet connection to PS5) - Although the latency is there, most games are very playable. Playing first person shooters are difficult, especially games that require fast reaction times, but playable. Playing games away from my home also works great. It was highly hesitant about playing games with slow latency, but being able to catch up on games while in bed or when the TV is being used is a huge win for me. Current game I am playing is Silent Hill 2 and it runs great on the Portal.Minor downsides - Battery life, I think can be better. I'm getting roughly 3 to 4 hours of game play with full Dualsense features, speakers, and screen brightness high (not full brightness). I think it's a given that if I disable most of the Dualsense features the battery would last longer, although all the features are so nice to have on a portable device. The speakers could also be better, although fairly loud, the clarity and low tones such as bass are missing. At least comparing to Steam Deck, the speakers are much better here, where you can actually here more details in games. With the Portal, I found that it was lacking that clarity, Silent Hill 2 for example, it is hard to hear the ambient background noise, and surrounding enemy direction. The other sounds are amplified such as character grunts and voices.Overall I'm really enjoying this streaming device, and only hope Sony will come out with a dedicated handheld with the same form factor. I will definitely continue using the Portal for a long time coming.