PlayStation Portal - DF Tech Review - Decent Hardware But Does Remote Play Cut It?

Sony combines a tablet LCD display with actual DualSense hardware to create a unique remote player for detaching PlayStation 5 gameplay from your main display. In this review, Rich assesses the rather cool hardware and gets to grips with Sony's Remote Play - what's the image quality like and how laggy is it? And does this - or any other review - actually count when so much of the experience is reliant on the integrity, quality and consistency of your WiFi connection?

00:00 Introduction
01:38 Best Practises For Configuring PS5/PS Portal
03:48 PlayStation Portal Hardware Breakdown
06:10 Remote Play Breakdown: Introduction
07:02 Remote Play Breakdown: Latency
09:25 Remote Play Breakdown: Image Quality
12:21 PlayStation Portal Summary
15:11 Features We'd Like To See
16:50 And Now, The Conclusion

[teddyholiday]

No OLED screen, no Bluetooth, no cloud streaming

[Piona]

The lack of a dedicated direct connection to the PS5 apart from WiFi is the biggest joke of this device. Even the Wii U could do it

[IamMarkSmith]

This is as comprehensive as one could make a review. Thank you, Richard!

[joshdreemurr]

The Psvita could connect to your ps4 directly, without having to connect to your router and it had practically no latency.

[HAL]

A direct connection (like Wii U) would have made this incredible! Without it, it’s to expensive.

[Eaglescollectionify]

Many of us thought the newly introduced PS Link Technology was made for the portal to be connected to PS5 console for remote play. But it turns out to be only the barrier for asking you paying more for wireless audio.

[justanotherdave.]

The microstutters you mentioned are because remote play outputs a 59.94hz connection, and the screen on the portal is 60hz. I’ve seen them on all devices i’ve used remote play on, they’re most noticeable when the camera pans or in side-scrolling games. I think this is an issue that can only be fixed Sonys end though with an update to the PS5.

[Cxbrj]

You may already know of this, but if you overlay the screen recording of the native image and then the screen recording of the decoded image using a "difference" blend mode, you will see the pixel-for-pixel comparison between the two images. This would help demonstrate to viewers how different the visual experience is after compression, frame drops, etc.

[johnhargreaves]

The weird thing is that Chiaki on my Steam Deck gives flawless smooth performance and this first party solution just isn't quite as good, so it's clearly possible but for whatever reason they haven't fully optimised it at release. I wonder what the odds are on Sony improving the software for the Portal, because in every other way it's a fantastic device. Great video, very accurate and detailed as ever.

[NoonDragoon]

I really thought about this for awhile, but ended up just saving the money towards a Steam Deck OLED. I even got Chiaki set up on my Deck so it’s a win-win in my book.

[johnnytrash]

I love the PS Portal BUT I acknowledge that I am the very niche group that purchased it to use it in the exact way that it performs optimally. I usually use my Switch to play games in handheld mode while hanging out with my family, in the living room, in front of the TV (which just happens to be about 4 feet from our router). I had already hard wired the PS5 to the router while using the Backbone, and this was essential for me to get solid streaming. The Backbone was ok, but wanted a larger screen and more comfortable grip while also being able to not dedicate my phone to being the screen. I will say that the screen doesn't hold a candle to the Switch OLED. All in all, though, I knew what I was getting for $199 so I am ok with acknowledging it for what it is.

[LittleRedKuma]

I was surprised they didn't have an option to connect it directly to the console, especially if you're in the same room. It would have made it a lot better, with the remote play when away from the console as an added bonus. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just testing grounds from a new handheld in the future, or something similar to the steam deck with local installs but also being able to stream.

[TRYNDAREUS]

If those sticks start drifting, it's a £200 paper weight.

[dnmr]

"Rooter" or "Router" and i imagine John with his aproval face 😂

[enjoylife]

Richard knocked it out of the park with this review. Its just so professional.

[Antares-dwiv]

Given the ridiculous limitations of this device I don't get why they didn't just make this a Dualsense based mobile controller for phones/tablets similar to the Backbone or the Razer Kishi. That way they'd have far and away the best mobile controller, anyone who owns an entry level phone or tablet released in the last couple of years already has a much better display for it, they could keep the price more reasonable and it would be a hell of a lot more portable to boot.

[Liatin]

Unless its significantly more stable than remote play on ios/android, its not worth it

[SirSilverHair]

Playstation Remote Play in itself is a great feature, if your internet connection is up to the task. On my road trip to north cape i used remote play on the hotel wifi while my PS5 was thousands of kilometers away in Germany it was a good experience most of the time. As for latency, with thousand of kilometers between my remote play laptop and the PS5 shooters are out of the question, but Persona 5 was perfectly fine.

[floppa]

Man, the missed potential with this one is crazy. If they went for a slightly more powerful SoC they could run PS1, PS2 and PS Vita games, not to mention Android games locally. Playing games from 4 previous Sony Consoles would have been a great value add.

[DanielAbrahamMontoya]

I hope they can make a mode that mimics the Wii U approach via firmware update! 😅