The “plus sign” of the Portal is the combination of a full Dualsense controller and a large (enough) screen placed exactly in the middle. This provides a nearly perfect PS5 experience on my home network no matter where I want to sit, without having to fiddle with my iPad + controller, laptop + controller, my phone on the Backbone One, etc. This last combination worked very well, but I did notice that my phone’s screen was too small for text in many PS5 games, which would expect you to play on a large enough screen (TV, monitor).

This gives me more options when and where I can play, for example allowing me to sit at the kitchen table instead of at my desk while the kids watch TV and allowing me to be with the family. Or I can play for an hour in bed late at night without having to balance my iPad on my knee.

This flexibility means I have more time to play, and in the roughly two months that I’ve had Portal, I’ve actually been able to complete a number of games that I wouldn’t have been able to play without Portal.

If the other combinations of screen + controller + remote app work, you can definitely use them. But from the moment Remote Play became available on PS4, I wanted a controller + display combo with as few compromises as possible. I don’t play many PC games anymore and don’t own a Steamdeck or similar device, so Portal is the simpler option. And yes, $200 is quite expensive, but the Gateway does exactly what I’ve been looking for for a while.

By the way, the combination of Backbone One + iPhone + PPSSPP works great as a PSP emulator and I’ve enjoyed playing some of these games again. But as mentioned earlier, I found my iPhone’s screen to be too small for PS4/PS5 games and found it detracted from my experience.

[Reactie gewijzigd door froggie op 21 juni 2024 20:28]