Review | PlayStation Portal – Whenever Sony PlayStation releases new hardware, we always get a healthy feeling of excitement. Whether it’s a new headset, controller or controller: you’re always curious to see what they’ve made this time. This is actually no different now with PlayStation Portal. At first glance it looks like a hand, but the cards are to lie Something different on the table. This is a remote control and we’ll discuss exactly what you can expect from it in this review. Of course, we also tell you whether the product achieves its goal.

It feels absolutely excellent

At first glance, PlayStation Portal resembles a conceptual product you often encounter on the Internet. You know, the tinkerers who make a digital image of the PS Vita 2 or its successor to the PlayStation Portable, which you can wrap, for example. In this case we are dealing with the DualSense controller, which has been divided into two parts with an LCD screen between them. It may seem like handmade, but nothing could be further from the truth. The PlayStation Portal feels very premium when unpacked: the body of the device is very sturdy, and the comfort of the DualSense parts has been adjusted in such a way that they all fit very comfortably in the hand. The device is a bit wider than the Nintendo Switch OLED, making it a rather bulky thing.

The screen is 8 inches and protrudes at the bottom in a way that makes it look like a floating screen. On both sides you have the parts of the DualSense controller and they are designed in such a way that everything feels right. On the left half of the controller you have the Home button and at the bottom of the screen on that side you will find the Microphone Mute button. The curved back is a continuous white surface connecting the parts of the DualSense and the display. In the middle of this you will find a mini-jack connection and a USB-C input for charging the device. At the top of the portal you’ll find the power button with the PlayStation Link button next to it. To the right of this you will find the volume buttons. The package only includes a 2m USB-C cable. That’s all there is in the box, like the adapter.

To return to the DualSense built into PlayStation Portal. We mentioned earlier that these parts have undergone minor modifications. This was done to make the design look as natural and logical as possible. So, there’s not much difference in essence, because of course you also have access to haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. However, the size of the levers is slightly smaller. These also feel like they’re a little louder and have a little less impedance than the regular DualSense. Playing a shooter, for example, is a little more sensitive.

What can PlayStation Portal do?

PlayStation Portal is a remote control device. That actually says it all, because it’s nothing more than that. It’s a device designed specifically for a feature the PS5 offers. This was an add-on on the PlayStation Portable or PlayStation Vita, allowing you to stream games to your mobile device via the PS3 or PS4. Today it is a solution when the TV is busy because your partner wants to watch a series or movie, or when your children are playing on another console on this TV. You can still play your PS5 games via Remote Play via PlayStation Portal. This also means that the PlayStation Portal will be of no use to you without the PlayStation 5. The device itself comes with some standard options: software update, language and time setting, DualSense feedback options, network settings, and display adjustments. So you don’t have the option to install the Geforce Now app or simple mobile games on it, for example. It can only be used for 4 to 5 hours of remote play, after which you have to charge it.

A ‘Wii U tablet’ for parents?

The big question now, of course, is: What is the gaming experience like with PlayStation Portal? First, you must have a good internet connection, as you will be using your PS5 with PlayStation Portal. Assuming you have stable internet, the experience is good, although you shouldn’t expect streaming quality for the Wii U tablet. You can stream your PlayStation 5 experience to PlayStation Portal, as it were, but that technology is fundamentally substandard. It all happens via your router, because the PS5 can’t stream directly to PlayStation Portal – by comparison, the Wii U streams from the console directly to the tablet, without having to go through a router. In the case of PlayStation Portal, the bandwidth is somewhat lower and you constantly get a compressed image. With Gran Turismo 7 testing (time trial), latency appears to be between 70-90ms. Not perfect, but fortunately enough for casual games in particular. However, it is highly recommended that your PS5 be connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, because over Wi-Fi you will notice increased lag and lower image quality even more.

Playing God of War: Ragnarok is an interesting example. The PS5 version runs at 60 frames per second and at high resolution. Unfortunately, everything is greatly downgraded on the portal. This way you can save a performance of 30-40 fps and you won’t have to deal with a compressed image. There is a lot of stuttering. This is the biggest problem with playing on PlayStation Portal: although responsiveness is still manageable, the image quality is very poor. Especially if we start Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and wander around New York. Poor image quality creates a chaotic mess of pixels due to the huge amount of assets used. Playing Bloodborne on PlayStation Portal is also not a recommended experience. Since the game already runs at 30fps and this decreases again via remote play, it detracts from the gaming experience and it’s not fun.

Even when there are a few devices interfering with our Wi-Fi signal, Remote Play struggles to maintain a stable connection. At random times, we lose connection to the PlayStation 5. For example, during times when things are stable, we can casually play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) Remastered, but have difficulty progressing in Armored Core VI: Fires from Rubicon. We simply have to perform too many actions to be able to play it comfortably. With such an active game, you notice that the input lag starts to take its toll. When our PlayStation 5 needs to receive updates, there is no point in playing on PlayStation Portal: it will constantly lose connection.

It’s not just for status

In short, it’s a make-or-break story with remote play. This feature can be very useful in some cases, but years later it is still a technology that needs a lot of work. Take for example the LCD screen, which is very bright at 1080p and 60Hz. It doesn’t have the most vivid colors (a bit washed out), but it does its job because the contrast is regulated. On its own, you can talk about a great screen, but given the consistently poor image quality due to low bandwidth for remote gaming, the overall image experience is simply less good. You may also be wondering: where is the touchpad actually located? The screen offers touch screen support, and when you need touchpad functionality, you touch the screen and two squares will appear. This then acts as the touchpad, which feels a bit clumsy while gaming.

If you still want to mimic the DualSense experience, a touchscreen on the back of the device, as we know it from the PlayStation Vita, wouldn’t be a bad idea. Just as clumsy is how to handle audio using PlayStation Portal. The speakers are integrated into the top of the screen, so the sound is directed away from you. These speakers should actually have been mentioned. The quality of the headphones is substandard, as your tones are not crystal clear and sound very messy. So, ultimately, the combination of low quality and improper speaker placement is something that doesn’t do the PlayStation Portal’s sound any favors. It is therefore advisable to use a separate headphone for this purpose.

The aforementioned mini-jack connection is your best option, as PlayStation Portal does not offer a direct Bluetooth option. It has PlayStation Link, a connectivity option that only works with some Sony products. This is actually a reference to the Pulse Elite and Pulse Explorer (earbuds), of which the Pulse Elite is not available at the time of writing. This is also a big criticism of the PlayStation Portal: being tied to Sony-owned products and not having the freedom to use a third-party headset. For €219.99, you get the Remote Play par excellence, which is very limited when it comes to external options. For example, let’s mention something else that doesn’t work: Are you a PlayStation Plus Premium subscriber and do you want to stream games via the cloud? Not possible, because Remote Play prohibits any form of cloud content. Even though it’s a remote, the native cloud streaming app/functionality certainly wasn’t out of place, which seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.