Honest Thoughts on the PS Portal

[@Forvera]

I wholeheartedly appreciate that you were so transparent about the good and bad right off the getgo (specially because you confidently lead with the cons) most people tend to just glaze the device instead of warning you about the potential turn offs. great video man.

[@bowertendo]

Yeah, I definitely wanted to cover it all since I was initially a HUGE hater on it. Glad I gave it a chance, and I really appreciate the kind words. Rock on, my friend! 🤘

[@mr.nobody9716]

Wow, you did a really great job on cons and pros in this video! Thanks for the upload!

[@bowertendo]

Really appreciate the kind words! Yeah, I was a big hater on the Portal originally, so I was really trying to be fair with it

[@mr.nobody9716]

@@bowertendo I had my problems with it initially but now I am loving it 😆

[@bowertendo]

@mr.nobody9716 glad to hear it! Yeah, it definitely has flaws, but I’m really enjoying it now, as well

[@M_A_R_K_23]

Great for family gatherings hiding in corner. I also have so many single player games I haven’t touched. I think if I buy this I would at least start them. I also travel for work but I don’t know how good hotel WiFi would hold up. Either way I know I would play more because when I’m at my big 4K tv I just want to play multiplayer games or watch tv. Also in my bed room I don’t have a tv so I think this would be the price of a cheap bed room tv I would only use to game on anyway.

[@bowertendo]

Yeah, hotel WiFi is spotty. I will say, though, if your PS5 is connected to good internet, preferably wired, you may be good. When I bought it, I was at my family’s place hundreds of miles from home and they have ok internet - not great, but not bad. This thing was a wonderful first impression for me. So much so that my nephew bought one shortly after, haha. For me, a huge plus is playing those single player games, like you. Right now I’m replaying FF7 Remake (then will play Rebirth), and having the Portal as an option has been a game changer!

[@chadhorak1528]

If your already in the Playstation eco system with a ps5 I would say the portal is a great excesory. I've been knocking out games in my backlog. Just finished yakuza 0...I've had it for a few months. I've experienced some lag and frame drops but very little, I can count on my hands how many times it's happened.

[@bowertendo]

Agree and have experienced all this! I’ve started gaming MUCH more on my PS5 because I love JRPGs and games like the Yakuza series, but I want that portable option. Portal gives me that. Also, I totally didn’t just buy all 7 older Yakuza games because they’re on a deep sale. Nope. Not me

[@JagerLionhunter]

Its not enough just for the ps5 to be hardwired. The portal needs a 5Ghz wifi connection and sadly it needs to be the only one connected to that. All your other wifi connected devices should be connected to your other 2.4ghz one or a completely different router. This setup resolved all my input lag/stream problems and it now works flawlessly. I hope it also works for you.

[@bowertendo]

That hasn’t been the case for me. I have multiple devices on our 5 GHz WiFi and the Portal works most of the time perfectly fine. What’s funny is any times that I’ve experienced lag, NONE of the other devices were connected. I’ve also granted priority access to the Portal via my router, alongside my PS5. The lag does hit every now and then, but I can never make sense of why it’s happening. It’s quite frustrating!

[@bowertendo]

But, thank you for the advice! That was very thoughtful, and I appreciate it

[@JagerLionhunter]

​@@bowertendo i see I hope you figure it out soon! I mostly got tips via the portal subreddit but what might help you fix is the more technical Wifi Latency/Stability stuff which i no longer have the understanding to dabble further into the router settings.

[@ashuggtube]

Yeah, the power and headphone connection locations are annoying on the Switch as well. Must've been a design criterion.

[@bowertendo]

Hahaha, yeah. The Switch I don’t have much of an issue with, except the cartridge slot cover on the OLED. I HATE that thing

[@Jaydizzle23chi]

I can totally relate to my switch taking a backseat. I love this portal device.

[@bowertendo]

It’s turned out to be surprisingly good!

[@75and1]

To me the portal was the 2023 device of the year. I have unsubscribed from so many KZbinrs who clearly never understood what it was for and never really gave it a chance. Everybody was saying”I can already play my ps5 with my phone”. That statement alone says it all. I now know I know gaming much better than most KZbinrs out there

[@bowertendo]

I was a big hater at first. Now, I recognize much of that was because I wanted, and honestly still DO want, a dedicated device that can run games locally from Sony. But after getting the Portal, it’s definitely changed my mind. I use the thing all the time now!

[@75and1]

@ that would be ideal but ONLY if cross-savings/progression is the default. And even so it would be a double dip to own both versions for it and ps5. With the portal I can play the same PS5 game using the same save file

[@timbo1992]

Would you say playing cod is good experience on this? I know it’s not as good as playing console but for me I just wanna play hah I have a steam deck which I love but I miss games I wanna play

[@bowertendo]

Unfortunately, I don’t really play CoD, so didn’t try it out. But, I did try Overwatch 2, Fortnite, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection, and Hell Divers 2. Had a great time with each! A twitchy shooter like CoD may be a little more difficult on the Portal

[@timbo1992]

@@bowertendo agree yea I heard that too thanks man

[@zackenter6436]

Cod is not really good with this too much input lag but single player games run much better

[@javiermartinez8809]

Great video

[@bowertendo]

Thank you! Hopefully it helped in some way

[@kejar31]

heads up.. Your dropouts have nothing to do with your internet unless you are cloud streaming.. If you are streaming directly from your PS5 then its most likely your wifi.. regardless of how close you are to you AP / router if there is interference on the same channel, it will not matter.

[@bowertendo]

Interesting. So, after doing full reboots of the router, and making sure to go into the router settings and give priority to both the PS5 and Portal, what else with WiFi would cause it? I’m not using mesh, either, as I know some oddities happen with that. I have both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz, and my all my other devices work perfectly fine. Thankfully, over the past month or so, the stutters have stopped, but I still never understood why. PS - I’m not being snarky here, I’m legit asking :)

[@kejar31]

@@bowertendo Hard to say without knowing what router you have or what type of wifi you are using.. Do you have both 5ghz and 2.4ghz radios? if you only have 2.4 consider upgrading your router. If you have both try to prioritize 5ghz or possibly turn off your 2.4ghz radios on the router..

[@bowertendo]

@kejar31 gotcha. And yes, we have both and I already have the 5Ghz prioritized. It’s all really odd. Part of me just wants to blame the ISP because they suck, and all of our options suck here, haha

[@CodyTheBeerBear]

mine arrives today with protector and case, so can't really give u my thoughts as yet.

[@bowertendo]

Nice! Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I have 👍

[@Knzos]

It's a controller that allows you to play away from the playstation. It shouldn't have been marketed as a handheld device 🤦‍♂️. I love my portal, I had my playstation since release and hadn't completed a single game until I got my portal. Now I am on my 4th and going strong. If you looking on getting it to play multiplayer games this isnt the device. I also recently got the legion y700 and the gamesir plus been streaming my pc with moonlight/sunshine between the both im complete 😂

[@bowertendo]

Yup, I agree SO MUCH with that statement: it shouldn’t have been marketed as a handheld device. That’s why I hated it at first. And I cannot relate any more than I do with completing games. That’s a HUGE reason I’ve loved my Switch: having the ability to play on the TV, but also being able to play portably was a literal game changer for me. Portal has increased my playtime on PS5 tenfold

[@beach_boy1141]

It was never marketed as a handheld device. It was always marketed as a “remote player” for the PS5 over home WiFi. People took that and turned it into something else. It does exactly what it was advertised to do very well.

[@bowertendo]

@ true that it does what’s it’s supposed to do (mostly) well, but the initial marketing was a “take the power of your PS5 anywhere,” and that’s not necessarily true. You need internet. They didn’t outright lie, but it initially just focused on portability. Later - and current - marketing is so much better. I admit, though: when I initially saw it, I had hoped for a fully I dependent handheld, but that’s on me

[@Iamlegend-c6q]

❤

[@adambullock82]

It’s not good. I sent mine back. The screen is crap and it doesn’t work if anything is downloading on the console. Waste of a great concept.

[@bowertendo]

That’s a bummer! I have downloaded games and played on Portal often; wonder why you had issues. What’s your internet speed? That’s the downside: if a download uses up most of the bandwidth, then yeah, it would make the Portal unusable

[@adambullock82]

⁠ I have 2 gig internet and the console is hard wired. It’s not the connection speed that was causing the issue. A simple update couldn’t be downloading while using remote play. It was ridiculous. The portal would freeze up and disconnect and it wasn’t even when I was playing a game. It was doing it while I was on the home page. Couldn’t even look through the store while I waited for an update. They accepted the return thank god. I also found the screen to be painful to look at and laggy. I love remote play and it works perfectly on all my Apple devices. My favourite way to stream is on my steam deck oled and I rarely get a disconnection on any device I have tried. Remote play works incredibly well for me on other devices but not the device that is designed for it.

[@bowertendo]

@adambullock82 oh, was it a system update? That’s definitely way better than my internet speeds, haha. Yeah, as I mentioned briefly in the video, I’d get those weird hiccups, too. But it was never as bad as you experienced. Sorry to hear about that ☹️

[@adambullock82]

@ I ordered another portal and it arrived today. I updated it and I don’t know what they have done but it works great. Nothing like the disappointment I felt with my first portal. I would actually recommend it now.

[@bowertendo]

@adambullock82 yes! So, I just had another thought: did you get the Portal at launch or close to it? I heard it was AWFUL, especially compared to now. I came in WAY later, so I didn’t experience the bad stuff

[@TheInsanitiesedge]

OUF 30mb UPLOAD?! Homie, you need better internet. 906 download, 780 upload.

[@bowertendo]

I WISH I could even have that as an option. What we have is essentially the best option we can get. These ISPs have strangleholds on areas all over and it enrages me. But, that’s a topic for another day…

[@TheInsanitiesedge]

@bowertendo don't forget to check what's available every few months. It used to be the same out here in my small northern town in AZ, but new companies are moving in and providing new better options :)

[@bowertendo]

@TheInsanitiesedge thanks! Yeah, I do check often because I hate all of our options, haha. Still have hope that maybe one day we will get fiber in our area. Cheers, friend! 🙌

[@donastradamous031]

I wish it was like a psp but still like mine and it's better to play adventures game arcade don't play call of duty in it it's not fun 😂

[@bowertendo]

Yeah, I don’t play twitchy shooter like CoD, but other online games work great! And yeah, I share your same thoughts