PlayStation Portal - DF Tech Review - Decent Hardware But Does Remote Play Cut It?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2024
- 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?
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Jacob R's PlayStation Portal tear down video is here: • PlayStation doesn’t wa...
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 - เกม
No OLED screen, no Bluetooth, no cloud streaming
No wifi 6😂
It will get cloud streaming
"Decent hardware" they say... 😅
A controller with a 1080p screen on it. £200 please
That would be $400 device 😅
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
Exacly.
Agreed but they will keep getting your $ what they would do is the create docks or whatever to do this!!!
Yeah if it had a direct connection similar to a wiiU it might be worth picking up. It's hard to want this device when you can get a steam deck now for around a 100 bucks more(the base one).
Yeah especially when a lot of people will just be using the device as a second screen with the PS5 in the same room. It should have been an option that then hands off to remote play once you get out of range.
I think the Wii U had dedicated hardware for that, or some kind of custom software thing in collaboration with Broadcom. I'm not sure it would be that easy to pull off. What I don't get though, is no support for cloud streaming. That seemed like a no brainer for sure. If this thing had wireless Wii U streaming AND cloud streaming, I'd give it a must buy.
This is as comprehensive as one could make a review. Thank you, Richard!
The Psvita could connect to your ps4 directly, without having to connect to your router and it had practically no latency.
Really wish I had kept my Vita
Nah, the lartency on vita is almost the same with other remote play device, and the image quality varies dramatically.
The portal works great as long as you have good connection, dont listen to this as law. I stream from home to work and its absolutely mint. If it was trash I would say so.
@@Fourier9042 To be fair, the Vita only had 2.4GHz WiFi, so the fact that it had the same latency as a device with 5GHz WiFi is not a great look for the Portal.
@@capcomfan82we all know that it was explained in the video
A direct connection (like Wii U) would have made this incredible! Without it, it’s to expensive.
Nintendo is best
I dont remember. What was the direct connection/tech used?
@@istealpopularnamesforlikes3340The Wii U connection was not very good. It had limited range and was capable of no more than 480p. This is a 1080p remote play device, which works fantastic with any 5 GHz router, with much better range than the Wii U ever had.
@@mmsticknone of that matters when there is latency which the Wii u didn't have
@@Seatanicit was literally wifi direct
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.
Which sucks because then it could have actually been a replacement for the Wii U idea. That's exactly what I was hoping it would be.
Sony's obsession with "exclusivity" is almost astonishing, it seeps into everything, sometimes resulting in disappointments or big question marks. Proprietary mem cards for Vita, DS4 receiver for PC, then this device that can only do exactly one thing and one thing only.
@@biggusotongus1121 ds4 receiver for PC? Huh? It's just Bluetooth
More like 'proprietary' wireless audio smh
It's not bluetooth, it's low latency audio through radio signal as I understand it. Low latency is great for gaming but also this technology has potential for better audio quality at low latency that bluetooth has.
The reason why we don't have this tech in our regular AirPods and such is that it's way more prone to interference. and therefore it's best suited in your home.
So the reason for the dongle is that it's an after though, the PS4 and PS5 does not have a build in transmitter for these headsets so it's impossible to connect without a dongle.
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.
You can also use it for objective measurements like RMSE and correlation maximizing to measure latency.
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.
"Rooter" or "Router" and i imagine John with his aproval face 😂
10 years ago Wii U did this and more perfectly, no lag, no problems.
well but the wii u pad couldnt start the Wii U in a hotel room, to be fair..
@Coldsilfur4 if you have to sign into the hotel wifi, well your not turning on your ps5 there ether
Yeah 480p 8bit is totally different though
@@Coldsilfur4Wii U actually had exclusives 3 years in 😂😂😂
@@Coldsilfur4to be fair, you could pack the Wii U in a backpack easily.
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.
Moonlight/Sunshine also runs better than Steam Remote Play so it's not odd that first-party solution is worse
After extensive testing in my experience the portal has improved performance over the official remote play app or over Chiaki. So if Chiaki works well for you on a steam deck, the portal will work even better in the same environment.
There isn't much a 3rd party app can do, you can see it in the source code for Chiaki. All they can do is stream a video and send button presses back. There is no magic secret tech that one app can do to make it better than another on the same network. At least the OEM app on iphone and the PSportal can do trigger and haptic feedback.
@@joemamr710how did you know the performance was better? I also have steam deck and steam deck performance was better every single time minus worse controller experience. Did you test is with older firmware and newer firmware or something?
A great and through video as usual, Richie 👍
Unless its significantly more stable than remote play on ios/android, its not worth it
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.
That's definitely the right move. No use wasting money on this thing - save it for a device that can actually play games locally.
Wise choice. More choice of games on Steam Deck, better image quality and ability to play offline as handhelds are meant to do.
@ShadesAway It's been a fun experience so far. I've mostly just fiddled with emulators so far as I don't have a huge Steam library currently, but playing stuff like KH2 and Wind Waker HD on it has been awesome. And I played some LAD Gaiden through Chiaki for a couple hours and had a decent experience.
@ShadesAwayDeck emulates Switch, plays 99% of games you can get on PS5/XSX, and has a wealth of PC exclusives.
Steam Deck just does more, has OLED, and frankly, Valve deserves the support over SOYny.
@@JohnSmith-ff2pbDeck oled is also 560 euros, it has a 800p screen, way worse battery live, lacks haptics and adaptive triggers to play PS5 remote, is heavier, has a way worse ergonomics : buttons are small, d-pad is excentred and not good etc. I ended up stopping using chiaki on my deck for ps remote, and just started using a dual sense and the ps remote app on my laptop.
Don't get me wrong, I have the steam deck lcd, and I love it. I just wanna point out how these compairisons are stupid. It's two totally different devices, with different purposes and different price tags. Steam decks is way more versatile yes. But it's also way more expensive and way worse at doing what the PS portail does.
One is an accessory, the other is a console.
Richard knocked it out of the park with this review. Its just so professional.
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.
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.
Depends on what kind of gamer you are. For me, any latency over 100ms is unacceptable and even that's pushing it. Even more modern 4K HDR 120Hz TVs can be problematic, and output with more latency than older, smaller feature set 1080p panels from years ago.
It's probably because I'm old and remember clearly the immediacy of playing cartridge based games on CRT TVs as a kid. Basically no latency and definitely no install times, updates, season passes, horse armour...
Yes. Remote play is a great "feature " but not as a standard alone/core feature of any valued product.
@@user-hx8xe5ev9g That feeling, when thinking about pressing a button in Super Smash Bros. Melee and it happened immediately. You still can get the feeling, VR games must be developed in this way, and there they use high refresh rates and forward rendering. Going back to a triple-buffered 30 fps game on a flatscreen is a pain in comparison.
I played Like a Dragon from start to finish exclusively on my phone. I did it through GamePass but there is something to be said for being able to play turn based RPGs on your phone with all those juicy graphics and 60fps.
@@enriquepinero707 That's right and remote play is an "it depends" feature. It depends completely on circumstances you often can't control. In my case it luckily works great, but I can imagine that it'll be a terrible experience for others with overcrowded wifi or bad internet connections.
If those sticks start drifting, it's a £200 paper weight.
They will. They didn't change the Remote Play protocol for the device, they're not going to have magically put hall effect sticks in, but what they will do is charge an exorbitant amount of money to repair them when they break.
@@user-hx8xe5ev9g This is the only reason that is stopping me from purchasing this.
@@user-hx8xe5ev9g Why would they use Hall effect sensors? Basically no console uses them except the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, and those also have issues when the magnetic field sensor shifts over time.
@@joemamr710I think he was talking about hall effect sensors as a solution to stick drift, not expecting someone to say "yes but eventually they'll have faults too, probably! Nyah! " like it's a point of pride to out-nerd someone (good nerds realise it's not a competition 😂)
Anyway it's not entirely relevant - the sticks have been shown by iFixit to be changeable without major issue, and in an easier way than regular DualSense controllers.
Thanks for review. Really on the fence until now.
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.
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.
is $200 unreasonable?
@@gameskyjumper1721 Yes considering you can get a refurbished Steam Deck for 300 or an Ayn Odin for 200 and one can do full PC gaming and the other can do everything a phone can including emulation and PlayStation cloud streaming, PlayStation remote play, Xbox game pass and Steam remote play where the hell can a device that only streams games fit into that equation?
@@gameskyjumper1721 it is for this junk
@@gameskyjumper1721it is If you're using your phone which you already use for everything else, and all you have to buy is a split or backbone controller.
@@gameskyjumper1721 Given the compromises and artificial limitations with this device, I'd argue yes. At the very least this should be able to be used as a regular controller.
I came here out of mild curiosity about what a more technical channel would say about this device, and I came out of it impressed at how great Nintendo's implementation with the Wii U was. Now I don't even care about the portal and I can't wait to get back home and play a game on my Wii U, lol.
If an 11 year old Nintendo console that was their worst seller outdoes a modern Sony product, yoy know it's bad.
If Nintendo did this with their switch, you would be buying it anyways 🤣
@@EnaTenkiyoGamer I know I'm stupid because I love my Wii U, but I'm not THAT stupid to stream a portable console.
Edit: nevermind, this person uses words they do not appear to even understand. Communication is impossible. I should have anticipated the embarassment a person with "gaming" in their name would produce, but alas.
@leonro cope lol
Edit: Nice that you care, even just for a little bit. 🤣
Lmfao the portal leaps and bounds better. Have fun with WiiU while I’m enjoying next level graphics on the Go with my PlayStation portal
(Edit: love the Portal fyi! Life changing!) Thank you for officially confirming the frame drops in ideal conditions. It appears the threshold of auto selection of bitrate by the ps5 is not adjusted properly, it constantly flip-flops between two 1080p bitrates.
Looking good, Rich!
Gotta say I really appreciate this review. Thank you for taking the time to understand and explain the PP (lol), as well as give advice on how to maximize its performance (lol)
Maximum pp performance is very important.
Thanks for the deep dive on the Portal, Rich. I have been playing it over the Thanksgiving holiday and enjoying it a lot. As you say, it works great as long as the internet connection is strong. When it isnt... its unplayable, literally. Over several days, my connection dropped twice to the point where it disconnected from the console. I am in the same room as my PS5 which is hardwired. Overall, I really like the Portal since the TV is usually in use by my family. However, it is incredibly frustrating to lose connection and therefore the ability to even use the Portal. I will be testing it this weekend at my mother in laws house, some 350 miles away so I hope it performs well on the road. Its a great device but with not so great choices. I give it 7/10.
Dude. Why didn't you just buy another tv? They literally had 55 inch tvs at Walmart for 150. You could have saved 50 bucks and added something more practical to your home
@@sleasy01Why should he? 55" TVs for 150 are trash. To get a good TV with this size you have to spend at least 800.
@@Buzz_1991 dude 200$ portal is trash. To get something decent you need about 600 to get a steam deck. 🤨 Same difference.
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.
680 is really weak. Gonna need something 3-4x powerful to get atleast 90% ps2 games fullspeed. Vita emulator still a work in progress. Unless you mean sony develop their own.
"They could run ps1, ps2 and ps vita games"
Lol, no, they couldn't. You mean you could potentially hack it and run emulators. Sony wouldn't be interested in that though.
Yeah, an official "portable PS2" would've sold me on it a great deal more.. unfortunately, they opted for a "streaming screen" (I won't even justify calling it a tablet)
For $200 that must have been an option without even upping the price point.
Snapdragon 680 should be as fast as Sd820 or 835 which should be more than enough to emulate stuff.
Some 3 years ago I discovered the whole "telescopic controller" paired with an Android device thing via a channel "ETA Prime".
And he really shows that what you want can already be achieved with such a setup. Plus Cloud Play like Game Pass cloud ...
The reality is though: $ony has no benefits from adding more features! As it seems now the idea of this is to buy more single accessory for your PS5! The more accessories the better...
Remote Play is nearly perfect on my phone, only occasionally hiccuping if multiple TVs are streaming 4K. Been logging hours of Skyrim and played half of SM2 with it. If scalpers weren’t destroying the market for these, I’d love to try one myself. My only complaint about remote play on my phone is the screen is too small.
Do you use any nifty controller/phone holder or only screen touch?
I have never tried remoteplay actually. My iphone SE 2nd Gen with 4.7” screen is perhaps too small?
The jitter kills it for me
One of the most egregious things to me is the fact that there's no Bluetooth.
I have a pair of Sony (not PlayStation) WF-1000XM5 earbuds and they WILL NOT WORK with this device.
I'm not defending them, but I personally would never use bluetooth for gaming beacause of the delay. Plus there is also a delay from streaming.
It makes sense when you consider the video and audio is technically not coming from the device itself, it’s coming from the PlayStation. So not only is Bluetooth a bad idea for gaming, but blue tooth + streaming remote play + wifi variability = very bad experience. if you could connect Bluetooth headphones to it, it would absolutely have lag and get out of sync quickly.
@@nezahuatez Then feel blessed, I'm really sensitive to any sort of delay. For example I hate 30 fps.
There's a reason why the ps5 doesn't support Bluetooth for audio.
The latency is TERRIBLE when compared to a 2.4g dongle connection.
And no, anyone can notice it. It's not just weirdo audiophiles playing competitive e-sports games.
@@Lego_Fish Bluetooth is always problematic, drawing tablets that use Bluetooth have noticeable delay.
This should be the de facto review for the PlayStation PORTAL! Thank you so much, Richard and the DF team for your comprehensive analysis of the experience that the Portal offers. Many reviewers skimmed on the surface, and failed to demonstrate how the Portal works under different conditions, which does not help us as consumers at all. You've done an amazing job (EVEN BETTER THAN SONY) detailing not just how it works, but how to optimise its performance as well if you do end up deciding to purchase one!
I feel like I also am one of the very few who fall into the niche this product was designed for. I have multiple PS5 consoles hard wired at home and I frequently do not sleep at my own home due to traveling. This device is not only comfortable, but given I am almost always somewhere with decent WiFi, it really does fit my particular needs quite well.
You can tell this was a quickly-thought-up product that Sony just decided to drop out of nowhere to milk their consumers. No way in hell was this thing planned prior to the PS5's launch.
This would be a much better sell if the PS5 had dedicated hardware in it meant to stream to this thing if you were within a few hundred feet, and would have next to no latency. You know, like how the Wii U pulled off flawlessly when it launched 11 years ago. The Wii U had less range than I just described, but certainly a solution to that could be thought up 11 years later, right?
I didn't knew that someone can create such a useless device, especially big corpo lol
How is it useless when it works as advertised?
I had one pre-ordered for my son for Christmas......it arrived and was returned 2 days later having seen reviews.
Great review. As a Portal owner since launch day I have to agree with pretty much everything you said. I feel like the controllers and the big screen are a great idea by Sony. Having PS5 controllers really make this handheld special giving it the PlayStation touch. But sadly the weakest link is the remote play which is the main focus on this device. I guess Sony just thought their remote play was good because people just accepted it. But I think everyone that has used remote play wishes it was better. The good news is this device is putting a spotlight on remote play not a very good one but hopefully this makes Sony understand its remote play is not good enough for this device they made. Hopefully critiques like the one from digital foundry pointing out the flaws make Sony take notes and revamp its remote play altogether. If remote play becomes the same as streaming on the Wii U pad , and Sony opens the device up for cloud gaming ,and App streaming then we really got something here. I hope Sony can make these improvements in this products life cycle and Portal owners don’t have to wait for another iteration. This is a prime example of companies not trying to improve because people accept the current state of things. People are enjoying the Portal even in its weak state hopefully Sony understands that it has something here and makes improvements to make this device the future of portable gaming.
I’ve been using my Rog Ally to occasionally stream my PS5, and I’ve really enjoyed the experience. I get that it’s quite the price difference but I find it interesting they couldn’t add anything to the kit that separates it from using other devices you might already own. As it stands, I see no reason to spend the money to get one. But, if I didn’t have my Ally, maybe I would feel differently. I at least appreciate they are trying something here, perhaps gauging interest in the concept. If it does well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the PS6 come out with dedicated features for this type of device.
That's the thing, many people are now adopting the portable PCs like your Ally, the Steam Deck, Legion Go, Ayaneo and others. And they vary in price.
Valve's Steam Deck entry price is around $150-200 more than the Sony Portal, but you get a full fledge PC capable of playing its own games as well as streaming.
@@lazarushernandez5827that’s what confused me about the price point. It’s an inferior setup for what people can do with a mediocre tablet. That it requires you to connect to Wi-Fi, but doesn’t access anything outside of your system is so weird. Like, have it come with video streaming at the very least, something.
@@ChrisTedoni Yah you should be able to at least use this thing to watch Netflix n stuff for that price like you can get a frickin used Ayn Odin for 200 and that thing does everything from Netflix to game streaming to remote play to emulation Sony cheaped out and and wanted the same non existent market of gamers as the Logitech g cloud which did MORE than this thing!
They are either testing the waters, or purposefully making a bad handheld so they can say people don't want handheld when we want another PSP.
It's the only explanations I can think of. Either way, not a great product.
@@theninjamaster67 Nobody wants to watch Netflix on a portable gaming device with a built in controller. They will always just use the phone they already have in their pocket 24/7.
About as useful as a inflatable dartboard 😂
About as useful as a chocolate teapot
It’s been incredibly useful for me. I’ve played my PS5 in the last week using the portal far more than I have in the last year.
It’s a great piece of kit that has been pretty flawless for me.
@@JimboDuke890 copium.
It’s genuinely a great device. Have you used one?
Whoa, the lighting makes richard very intimidating here, hahaha.
That dirt in the left corner of Richard device is killing me WHYYYYYU
Hoping PS5 pro in the future could add a dedicated WiFi chip to connect directly to the portal, ensuring a better lag performance just like what WiiU did. WiiU has two WiFi chips, one 2.4 GHz for internet connection and one 5GHz specifically for gamepad video streaming.
If a "PS5 pro" becomes a real product, I'll be amazed at the sheer greed of Sony. Any time people suggest it's possible existence I shudder at the price paired with the absolutely diminished returns it would offer.
There won't be a Pro model this generation.
@@smittyvanjagermanjenson182The sheer greed of having a mid gen refresh that people want? What?
It's not nessesary this time. Games were being downgraded just to work at all on ps4 as early as 2014! Whereas the bottleneck this generation is the lazy developers more than anything else. And trust me, nobody wants a mid gen refresh
@@smittyvanjagermanjenson182i mean if you are not living under a rock the PS5 pro has all been leaked already and 99% happening.
Thank you DF for actually reviewing this device. Other channels praised the IQ and responsiveness, when it was easily apparent (even over YT) that colour banding and dropped frames were a problem.
Now we know that lag is about 5 frames - which is pretty awful to be honest. I was expecting 2-3, something comparable to double buffer. Additional 80ms (on top of system latency) is really not good.
Well DF are technology professionals while other TH-camrs aren’t, they are giving their honest opinions based on their ability to understand the portal. For most it was good because they don’t care about 60 fps or 1080 p only that they can play.
Very few youtubers have the knowledge or tools to make these objetive and detailed technical analysis, it's the kind of content that I don't ever bother to watch if it's not made by DF.
Anything over 40ms ain’t great. 80 is awful.
@@offspringfan89 While normally I'd agree, how hard is it to take a picture of the Portal and the TV to compare the difference? It's not like you need an LDAT or a high speed camera.
Even in the IGN review, dropped frames and hitching are all over the place - all the while the presenter states how smooth the gameplay is.
In my experience the portal only gets about 40ms lag, so about 3 frames.
It doesn't have to be in the same room if you have a proper home network setup with multiple APs providing good Wifi coverage everywhere. But many homes don't have that.
The difference with the Wii U game pad is the console sends the data right to the game pad not through your wifi. This is why I think Sony need to update the Portal so it can also connect directly to the console and not use your wifi. That would probably improve quality of the picture and latency.
I agree, just add a “home” and “on the go” options.
@@BigMidge86 exactly
knowing sony. 😢 not gonna happen
@@qwerty6789x how do you know
The portal already uses fully local communication when at home, so there is no point for an “at home” or “on the go” option.
It switches automatically if it can’t find the PS5 on the same network/LAN.
The gold standard of review channels. As always.
Would be nice if the portal screen would be able to be used in normal games as an inventory or map screen. Just like the WiiU
They could've went the route of the old Xbox app on xb1/360 (can't remember) , using your phone for maps and inventory....
The wii u second screen was a gimmick for me. Not really useful. Still to each their own.
I hope they can make a mode that mimics the Wii U approach via firmware update! 😅
nope
agreed
doubtful, it would probably need a dedicated dongle in the HDMI output
Yeah, you can download some more RAM while your at it.
Great video but some more food for thought. Going to touch on this internet connection and direct connect topic. PS Vita had this feature with the PS4 and I think the Playstation TV did as well. I have both of those devices and used remote play on them a lot. Direct connect or not, it's still using a radio signal so there is going to be latency. Do direct connect limit that, yes to some degree. In the capture of the Wii U gamepad, if you noticed it, there was milliseconds of latency between the pad and Wii U. Yes it was extremely small and will more than likely not be noticeable to most people but no matter what you're playing on, phone, tablet, computer, Steam Deck, Logitech GCloud, if you are using wifi, there will be latency and it should be expected. Cutting your home network out of the equation still won't solve the latency. A lot of that will depend on the hardware and your environment. If using the Portal and you are in the same room as the PS5, just making sure you are on a 5ghz frequency isn't enough. Interference is going to be an issue. You need to know why there is latency since this is going to be key to your experience. You may have to change the channel to one that doesn't have a lot of traffic or interference to reduce the latency. You may have too many devices connected using 5ghz frequency. There are other factors that come into play here. If possible you can install AP's around your home or apartment but you will have to configure those to be on other channels as well. There's some work involved in order to limit the amount of latency you are going to experience. Doesn't matter whether remote play, Xbox Game Pass, etc. A lot of your experience is going to involve having a basic knowledge of networking. It's unfortunate because most people won't. The other item I want to touch on is mobile Hotspot. This again requires some digging and could be "carrier" related. I did some tests over the weekend with a family member. I'm on AT&T and he is on Verizon. Your signal to the closest tower will be a factor and whether or not your phone or Hotspot is getting an ultra wide band signal. My device, was on "5G" but not ultra wide band. There was latency, some frame dips and the image quality was not good. Looked like 480p and was blurry. It was going in and out of a good, clean image and I experienced this every 2-3 minites but my connection never dropped or disconnected causing me to re-connect through remote play. I disconnected from my phones mobile Hotspot and connected to my cousins phone which was picking up an ultra wide band signal. Experience was night and day. I had 1080p image quality and very low latency. Connection was stable for the entirety of the test which was about 30 minutes on both devices playing various games from my console. So, there's another example of the environment being the factor. Tests were done on Samsung Android devices with Mobile Hotspot configured to use 5ghz band and not automatic. You can change that setting on the device itself. So, for me, the device does exactly what it is suppose to do. Stream your PS5 library. Is it disappointing that you can't use Playstation Cloud streaming, no direct connect, no Bluetooth, and no local storage to at least play older games from the PS library. 100%! Again, Sony made it clear that this is just a streaming device, for now, at least or maybe the entirety of its hardware lifecycle. Is it worth the $200 price tag? Probably not to some, but to others it will be. The device is selling which is key to Sony possibly doing more with it or having another handheld better than the portal in the future. Yes there are better options out there but you get the added benefit of having most of the dualsense features you can't or won't get anywhere else. I'm making this comment not to convince anyone otherwise but your home network setup is going to be key to your experience. One last thing. My PS5 is hardwired and I switched it to wifi and used the Portal, no noticeable difference on my end but not everyone is going to have the same network setup as me. I have AP's throughout my home, have them configured on different channels and my AP's are hardwired to a switch in my network closet. Again, not everyone will have this setup, but I wanted to point that out because it takes some digging to figure out where bottlenecks are since this is key to the experience.
Could have had an option to stream from the console directly AND an option over WiFi. Could have had an OLED screen. Could have had Bluetooth and generally be usable as a controller when not streaming. Could have came with a dock that isn’t required to charge it, just an option. All this would have been enough for me to forgive it for not being a stand alone cloud streaming device, as being that on top of it all would have taken the cake, and given Sony a real edge over its competitors.
None of that. In 2023. Wild.
Minimum Effort for Maximum Profits
It's a half-baked product without a unique selling point.
Add to that any number of devices that can already do Remote Play, cost less and have been available for years. You could get a seperate older smartphone and spare DualSense just for Remote Play for example, and it'd still be cheaper.
@@J.A.Z-TheMortal it is 200 dollars, you can’t get oled for that price
The next one... Maybe
@@oo--7714 A lot of people will probably already own a smartphone with a OLED display, these days.
Also not true, OLED phones like the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, Galaxy A32, Poco F3, Honor X40, TCL 20 Pro or Motorola Moto G52 can all be picked up brand new for under $200, now. Hell, if you go second-hand then you can easily snatch up fairly decent but older mid-range OLED phone from 2020-2021, for well under $200.
Admittedly, it would be pushing it with a DualSense controller also bundled in, but then again you should already have one anyway.
This device should have been WiFi 6e with AV1 Encode and Decode. Those 2 things would have really, really made the experience a lot less vulnerable to issues.
does the ps5 even support av1 encoding?
@@legendp2011 Nope. RDNA 2 doesn't support AV1 encoding.
Exactly why I didn’t get one and won’t. Sony really went cheap on the internals and scaled up the price for the tacky ps5 controllers on the sides.
@@ChiBrianXIIIAV1 was finalized after the PS5 start production. 😂
Ummmm. No.
Great review. One question though... what's a rooter?
I've had my portal for 1 week now and I absolutely love it its so dope ❤😊
If this device had a direct connection like the Wii U Gamepad along with an OLED display it would be good. Hell if it was $350 and could work as an independent device with Android it would be great.
It really wouldn't. That is the problem with this device. It's an Uber expensive device that Sony wasn't confident in the product so they didn't commit to contracts to get that price down. PSPortal has to compete with Nintendo Switch and it is already doing a bad job of it being the price of a Switch Lite. It is a gimmick that Sony is selling for $200 because they know that people will just buy it without asking questions and then get offended they got scammed.
Yeah, just like the Vita did amazing at that price point with those features...
I’m enjoying mine, but it’s very niche. I’ve been using it in the living room, mainly for PS4 era games and indie titles. Perfect for those, which tend to look a bit soft and blown out on my big 4K, they look crisp on the small screen. So it’s like a great backlog gaming peripheral. Performance for cutting edge PS5 titles leaves something to be desired for me though.
8:57 lol The Wii U was first released in 2012 with a wireless gamepad using that age's Wifi Tech... Zero Lag, and no loss of visual or audio quality.
There definitely was a loss of image quality on the WiiU gamepad.
First of all, it only streams the video at 480p, which is extremely low resolution. Like dreamcast level resolution literally.
Second, you can see compression artifacts on the WiiU gamepad.
Third, you can ONLY use the WiiU gamepad in the exact same room as the WiiU, within 8 or so feet of it, and not anywhere else at all.
Wii U from 2012 just owned PS Portal in 2023. Amazing!
IGN reviewer said he had the same quality of streaming experience between playing in his house and a cafe across town. I would be more interested in the latter scenario because it's like cloud gaming without paying for a cloud service essentially using your home PS5 as the server.
If I go my PIL’s house, who have the same high end unifi router we have + 1Gbps fiber, remote play on my phone works almost perfect. Input lag/latency is minimal but it occasionally stutters or drops resolution. If I go to my mom’s house, who has a random 802.11ac router with Xfinity 100Mbps, it’s pretty unplayable.
I'm able to use my Portal at work with minimal latency issues, BUT both WiFi connections must be steady and fast (above 100mbps from the tests I've done).
Sony's recommended 15mbps WILL NOT work.
Here's the issue: it doesn't have a web browser so connecting to public wifi is going to a be a crapshoot because you can't sign into the web portal (heh). So you're probably going to be out of luck at a lot of places.
Thanks for the clarification. It's weird that a 1080p 60fps stream for PS Portal requires a good router as well as over 100 mpbs connection. I use Geforce Now for 1080p60 stream on a basic router and 40-50 mpbs connection at it's very much playable .
For me (someone who owns it) Sonys only big miss was using WiFi 5. The experience has significantly more latency and choppiness compared to remote playing on my iPhone with WiFi 6E
There's no benefit Wifi6 has over Wifi5 for this scenario.
Everyone complaining about no Wifi6 doesn't have any actual reason other than 6 is a bigger number.
@@viet0ne that is definitely not correct. 6E is made specifically for low latency and has a huge benefit for remote play. Also it uses different channels so you won’t have interference from the hundreds of other devices nearby using 2.4 and 5ghz bands
@@nicholasjacobs3862 Wifi6 only benefits from congestion if no one else is also on those expanded bands. If everyone around you is also using Wifi6, then the benefit is demonized just as much as Wifi5.
Also, there is no specific low latency mode in Wifi6. Wifi 6 has an improvement over MIMO that improves latency but then you have to get a higher end access point that can utilize it. It's no standard or required to be Wifi6.
Even with all those improvements, you won't gain any noticeable benefit since the portal doesn't even come close to using enough bandwidth where those benefits are usable.
@@viet0ne There's always a better benefit of Wifi 5 over Wifi 6. Mainly the range of the 5GHz, whereas Wifi 6 gives you the range of 2.4GHz using 5GHz. You sir, are spouting drivel.
@@beasthunt Wifi6 doesn't increase range to be equal to what 2.4 provides. Not even close. It's barely better than 5ghz.
Again, prove the benefits in the scenario of the low throughout streaming of the portal or any other streaming.
Wifi6 is mainly to benefit high bandwidth scenarios.
I hear the portal has gotten stability updates. I've had mine for 2 weeks and it's been practically flawless. I think you should do a follow-up video Rich... 🤔👍
So its more or less a build-in remote play OS on a tablet with a PS5 controller.
No, tablets are useful
The lack of direct connect is dizzyingly stupid. The Ps3/PSP could direct connect, and so could the PS4/Vita. Also +1 for british pronunciation of rooter.
Richard, I still don't understand why the PS5 and Portal can't do exactly what the Wii U did already, right now. The PS5's Wifi 6 chip could be switched into a hotspot so long as the system is wired and not using the existing wifi antennae. Once the Portal is connected to the router, the PS5 could activate its Wifi card and put out a call to the Portal to check its signal strength to the PS5. If it is strong, then it could auto switch the Portal to the PS5's wifi chip for a direct connection. Then it could use its own bespoke transfer protocol sent with a future firmware update. The Wifi 6 card in the PS5 should easily be able to handle over 400Mbps to the Portal. Sony manufacturers the J20H100 wireless card in the PS5. Unless it's firmware is burned in they have to be able to send it new drivers and expand its feature set.
We need a DF foundry test on which of these devices work objectively best for remote playe. Meaning least lag.
The chip is strong enough to run PSP games and maybe even Vita. It would be amazing if they re-opened the PSP online store! Great hardware, that doesn't realize its potential.
I could see Sony being Sony and releasing a peripheral for this that connect via the USB-C port that adds a small SSD and some added functionality of some sort for $39.99. Play PSP, PSV, PS1 games natively on the go.
Nah, the chip is to weak, nothing higher than SNES can run, not only that but Sony wanted to close the psp/PS3 store, they don't want to support another one or suppor it for much longer
Would it be possible to have a supporting chip in the add-on hardware to run the games? I don't know much all about hardware stuff, like if the USB-C would have enough viable bandwidth to move data back and forth to run the emulation + system. It sounds hamfisted enough to be right up Sony's alley though hehe
Vita is pretty difficult to emulate, that's why there are no emulators that can play retail Vita games.
Good thing I bought the steam deck oled .
I just realized that Rich has the same GN mousepad as I do! 😆
I use remote play a lot on my PC mainly when playing online with friends. Pretty good experience if you’re not nitpicking on graphics as long as it’s wired. Also much less awkward to talk trash at my desk than in the living room with other people around 😂
Better off just using your phone and a backbone controller. Also at least with your phone you have more functionality.
backbone cost $100
@@KevenLC Still cheaper than getting a PlayStation Portal. You can also link your dualsense up to you phone.
@@Donald_Allan everybody knows that…. Remote play has existed for more than 10 years…
@@KevenLC It sounds like you are a bit pissed for no reason 🤣
@@Donald_Allan no it’s just the whole ´but you can use your phone instead’ argument to be pretty stupid.
It should definitely have cloud streaming. The fact that you need your ps5 running in the background (standby mode) just isn't good enough. Those who know how much the electric bills can be will not be happy . Wish the screen was Oled too.
are you sure that it's only standby mode? i always thought that the ps5 operates normally when using the portal? so ~ 200 W of power consumption?
lol what did you say after the first 2 coherent sentences? Did you get hit in the head or did the drugs kick in after that?
@@williamphillips2671 lol, corrected "have" for "who".
@@wanshurst2416 If that's true then it's even worse. Another reason not to get one i guess.
@@infinitysynthesis The console still has to run the game the exact same way as when you're playing on the PS5 directly, so yeah, it does have to run in full power mode. It'd be a miracle of technology if it could do it in standby, lol.
I have one and absolutely love it. My PS5 is wired to my router in my living room. I have a night hawk gaming router that’s tri band. When on the faster channel my portal has no problems. Only lags when I’m in the slower channel. I think it’s great for anyone that wants to game in a different room from their PS5.
I love my Portal but yeah hopefully software updates could work out the issues
Testing moonlight on many devices I’ve noticed that Qualcomm decoders take significantly more time than AMD and Intels. 20ms vs 4ms. The difference resulting in being unable to play FPS games with mouse and keyboard without feeling the lag.
The PC decoder is likely performing much faster than the portal in your testing
That's why Steam Deck handles streaming much better than the regular android device
Oddly I found that the M2 Ultra Mac Studio decoder was slower than the M2 iPad
Just a point to make about wifi - it's not just the router's signal strength that matters, it's also the device's ability to send data to the router that affects signal quality. You can have the best router available but if the device's transmit power is weak, you'll have issues.
Knowing that it only supports 802.11ac, Sony probably used the cheapest mobile modem they could find.
Good camera, man
Would love to see it compared to steamlink and the steamdeck for remote play quality
What could Sony add to PSP now:
- browser;
- cloud gaming;
- Bluetooth for third party devices.
What could Sony also add to PSP 2:
- direct wired and/or wireless connection to PS6;
- emulator for classic games;
- OLED.
Just make its OS (most likely it’s Android) open to install apps. People will figure out software related limitations
I don't think they want that competition with Nintendo and waste more money on dedicated games for a handheld device can't beat Nintendo in terms of hand held
"PSP"
@@alinepiroutek8932 they don't want that competition with the switch though
@@deflategate1297 I didn't offer them to develop dedicated games for PS Portal.
They should simply improve what they already have.
It makes the Logitech g cloud look good
So would a mesh Wifi system help expand the range you could use it in your home?
My coworker just told me not 5mins ago that he bought one only to immediately go back to playing Mario Golf with me via steam link on our phones
Wifi is difficult to explain to people because of how many factors that affect it. Sony could have mitigated some of it by having a 802.11ax chipset. Wifi 6's traffic cop can be helpful for latency
To me, the visuals on remote play with the steam deck seem a lot better. On my portal, I get a lot more frame drops. I still prefer the portal's formfactor and all, but I would have expected it to work as well/better than my steam deck.
9:03 “I can’t help but wonder if a good solution would have been better than a bad solution” 😅
Nice, another bespoke hardware review!
Decent hardware for 2023: No oled screen, no bluetooth, no native or local gaming, no cloud streaming, low-end 2019 soc, no wifi 6...???
To be honest, the screen is not bad and the controls/ergonomics seems very good, as a ps5 controller should be, but there's no excuses for that much lacking stuff over a new 2023 hardware for the asking price (specially considering that it is an accessory for a already high priced product). And if you want wireless audio it's even more expensive. Why, Sony???
I have really enjoyed this device. It's an RPG lovers' dream.
Your phone wasn't good enough?
@user-pc9mw3lr9e Absolutely not. This Portal has the biggest screen out of any portable. Especially when it comes to the tiny text some of these games use, bigger is always better.
It's a much better experience than a phone/touchscreen/backbone. It's the best Remote Play experience you can get.
Love your reviews Rich. I can't even be mad about this, I'll just go and play Wipeout on my Vita instead :D
Never heard it pronounced rooter until DF this week and again in this video. Cracks me up every time. Guess I haven't talked to any Brits about their network equipment in the past.
My first week was a little iffy. Stuttering etc. I did some tweaking and now have flawless experience with it.
Basically, it’s a handheld PS5. One of the best gadgets I’ve ever bought.
it's definitely not an handheld PS5.
@@AndreaFromTokyo it definitely is, if you want it to be. It’s flawless and I’m playing PS5 games in 1080p, 60fps. All of them.
That’s as good as it gets.
@@MattWiles Copium Maximum.
@@AndreaFromTokyo I guess Matt is in a better position to evaluate his own experience.
Wiseacre maximum.
@@PhilippeCorthout His experience, yes,
Saying that the portal is flawless and it's a portable PS5 no. it's a blatant lie.
This was always going to happen. It's exactly like what I expected. There's really no need to have a device like this for most people. Even for those who use game streaming a lot, you can do this with another device. Got an iPad with a PS5 controller? Good to go. Got a phone? Good to go. This is $200 down the drain for most people since most of us can already experience this with hardware we already own.
This thing even uses Android under the hood. If Sony made you able to actually use the full Android OS (to install apps, and stream whatever), then at $200 or even $250 it would have been a much better buy. Even if the chipset wouldn't allow you to play demanding games well or emulate PS2 and GC/Wii, it would still be a nice deal. Even more so if they had bluetooth and microSD support.
Agreed. I have literally bought TVs and gaming monitors for less than the Portal - less than half in fact - and with a HDMI splitter and long enough cable or whatever, you can second screen your PS5 with very little drama. Mine is hooked up to the living room TV, the gaming room TV and a gaming monitor on my desk. The latency is lower than Remote Play too.
It's been sold out since launch. People want it. Trust me. I've used one for an hour. And it's awesome. Problem is, not everyone has robust enough connections for it
Yet it's sold out everywhere
@@pennywisethedancingclown7139 I think using it for one hour doesn't really give you a very objective opinion on it and gives you bias confirmation anyway. Just because a product sells out short term and is hard to find, doesn't mean it'll become a memorable classic. Just means it's hot now and might be forgotten later, like so many products over the years.
Than you for explaining how this device works relative to wifi at the beginning of this video. I’ve been banging my head on the wall at how ignorant people in general are when it comes to their home network and people focusing too much and talking too much about the internet when using this thing in their house. Most people’s experiences have been poor because they have either a dated routers or are using the one that was given to them by their ISP that is probably intergrated with their modem and relatively weak. Or they probably have a ton of devices connected to their router fighting for bandwith at the same time.
DF as always delivering a high-quality assessment and tests. But I do have to lament at your pronunciation of Chiaki ca. 9:45 - LOL! (It should be "chee-AH-kee", not "chai-EE-kee").
- No direct connection to the PS5
- No Bluetooth support
- Isn't better than the free Remote play latency (which is still inconsistent no matter how fast your internet is)
- Weak battery life (even though it only does streaming)
You can use it as a spare controller, I've been using it today!! 👍
@@WayneCatlin Oh cool! Didnt know that, thanks for letting me know :)
My experience had been very good. Yes, frame drops are there, but not too distracting. Image quality is good, and mine works well pretty much anywhere in the house… which is exactly how I’m using it, to play backlog games when the lounge tv is in use, or in bed. For reference, I’m using Ethernet wired to PS5, and Wi-Fi set to 2.4ghz.
What games are you playing, out of curiosity?
I’ve tried virtually my whole library (which is extensive, I buy a lot of games). That’s why I bought one over a steam deck, I already have a lot of PS4/PS5 games, and can do without another platform/store to spend further money on! lol. It’s hard not to want to see how a game will perform.
But almost everything works fine, the only slight exception so far being GTA5, and that’s only because the image looks a bit blown out/over bright because the display isn’t HDR, and frame skips are more noticeable on hard camera swings (you turn a lot of corners when driving). It’s perfectly playable, just the only one I felt I’d avoid. Weirdly the definitive edition of San Andreas works fantastically, maybe because of the simpler image?
Sure about the 15Mpbs? I get around 50Mbps download on my PS5 when streaming directly from PS Plus (Netherlands), tested on an isolated VLAN just specific for this purpose. Did a short video on it as test, sniffing the port and real-time monitoring included.
I can see that you went into the use case based on high end gaming for PS5 with the gaming selection you tested and the latency response.
I definitely agree with you that any sort of fast twich response games will not be ideal to play on a device like the portal... at least not yet. I can see the possibility for Sony to address software updates to optimize it in the future, we'll have to see on that one.
Personally, I've always looked at Playstation Plus catalog and see a bunch of indies that I wouldn't mind playing on a handheld device, but would blow up to an awkward resolution on a 65" OLED TV.
For instance, I keep hearing about Sea of Stars, and Chained Echos. First of which being free on the service. Everyone tells me how great it is so I've had it on my wishlist on the steam deck. I couldn't bring myself to buy the game there knowing it's free on Playstation Plus.
Right now I'm playing through that game on the Portal, I also picked up "Wizard with a Gun" on a PS Store sale (Love Devolver games) and I have a completely separate playlist I have in mind for when I don't want to turn on the TV or if I don't have a lot of time and just want to spend 15 minutes hanging around the house, playing a game where latency is barely if at all noticed.
Before you say anything, I do recognize that you are looking at this from a purely technical standpoint and I wouldn't argue against any point made, but the technical aspect alone is one thing to consider and I found a lot of other reasons to consider the device... pricewise it really is only slightly more than a dualsense edge so it really isn't something as extreme as a G Cloud in comparison, where you still have to pay for a service after buying the device for 150$ more than the portal.
Should've called it the Playstation Pointless
I was really looking forward to the Portal. I like to play remotely when my wife occupies the TV. Doing that via the remote play app on my Galaxy Tab which works fine. On announcement of the Portal I was convinced that they'd use a bespoke streaming tech or even the WiFi 6 unit from the PS5 to transmit a lag-free and high bitrate stream.
But since i literally get the same tech compared to streaming on my tablet (and I got a larger screen there) I don't need a Portal. Yes, Haptics and trigger feedback don't work on the remote play app but that's not worth 200 € to me...
How likely would software updates be able to add to the portals use cases and inherent value? Is the hardware capable of more?
I am going to take a shot in the dark. The hardware is probably like the Playstation classic edition. A very small arm cpu with limited storage. If the Playstation Portal was capable of more, then it would most likely do more.
I would better spend a bit more and get a refurbished or new steam deck
The deck is excellent at doing exactly what this does and can play natively, plus it's basically a laptop. I agree with you, as cool as the portal looks I don't really understand the point
@@theclawlivesThe point is the full Dualsense being included. It's also the easiest way to achieve remote play. For most PS5 owners it's arguably the best way to use Remote Play.
@@BigDoniel I suppose. I think it's really cool and the screen looks good, I'm surprised it's not OLED though. As someone who remote streams from my PC almost daily, I definitely get the appeal of RS. it's still just odd not having Bluetooth and some type of web browsing capability (so you can use it on public WiFi at, say, a hotel)
I think it would be in Sony's best interests to make it easily adaptable to PC use.
If they don't, homebrew modders will. If it's running Android they have several exploit entry points they can use.
Same for PSVR2 but that's not happening either
@@TheOldest PSVR2 has already gone the way of the Vita. It's a dead product early on in its life cycle. Why Sony spent all that money making it and then not supporting it with games, and worse not making it backward compatible with original PSVR baffles me.
@@user-hx8xe5ev9g Sony did just about everything they could to make sure PSVR2 failed, which considering many people consider the hardware the best VR headset for the price point astonishing.
The easiest thing could've done and still could do is make it compatible with PC ie the biggest ecosystem of VR users. At least it ensure people would buy the product and buy time for them to add first party software to support.
It honestly a head scratcher how badly it being managed and it's not even an old product yet.
@@TheOldestThe PS VR2 is the best VR headset no doubt