Sony seems obsessed with ways to extend the PlayStation 5 experience beyond your TV. Earlier this year, I reviewed the PlayStation VR 2, an immersive tethered headset that can play PS5 games. The PlayStation Portal, available this week for $200, is a less radical, more affordable proposition. Take your PS5 into another room in your home, but in handheld streaming form.
I’ve had the chance to play with the Portal for the last few days, and though that’s not enough time for a full review, it’s enough to allow me to report that the controls are excellent but the streaming quality is hit or miss. I can also tell you that this thing is flat-out weird. Sony, a game company that made its own handheld consoles like the Vita once upon a time, now has something that looks like a standalone handheld but isn’t. The Portal can’t play games by itself. Instead it streams them from your PS5. Think of it like a PS5 controller that sprouted a screen in the middle.
Taking it out of the box for the first time, I thought it looked goofy. Clean, but goofy. The flat tabletlike display is sandwiched between two halves of a full game controller, with some swooping contour lines that are vintage Sony. The USB-C charging port is tucked underneath, like it’s hiding. It doesn’t look particularly portable. It’s awkwardly shaped and doesn’t have an included case. With its jutting grips, it’s sort of like a Sony Batarang. Then again, it’s not meant to leave your home.
Make sure you watch CNET’s video review by Sean Booker, too, full of additional observations.
Controls make the Portal better than a Backbone
This is Sony’s answer to the Nintendo Wii U GamePad, which in case you’re unfamiliar, was also a way to play games in your home away from the TV screen. It had perfect video quality but needed to be close to the Wii U to work. The Portal can extend anywhere on…
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