5 Things I Hate About The PlayStation Portal

Today we are talking about the PlayStation Portal and whether it is worth buying. We will say that while I am going to tell you five things about the PlayStation Portal I do not like, I do have to say that the PlayStation Portal is an interesting device. It allows you to play your PlayStation 5 games without using a TV, but that is pretty much all this thing offers!

It is cool, feels great in the hands, and is well made, but these are the 5 things I hate about the PlayStation Portal!

It Is Priced Way Too High

200 bucks or pounds is what you are expected to pay for the PlayStation Portal! This is no small chunk of change, nearly half the price of the actual PlayStation 5 console! One of the “pros” that has been thrown around about the PlayStation Portal is that it is great for those who only have one TV! On one hand, I can see that, but you can get a 4K TV for around 250 bucks or pounds these days, and if you have the funds to buy a console and support it with games, the 50 or so you are saving by buying a PlayStation Portal over another 4K TV does not seem all that great. 

Latency Is An Issue

No doubt some people have taken their PlayStation Portal out of the box, played with it all over their house, and had no latency issues at all. Hey, when it works, it is fantastic, but there is no getting away from the fact that this is all about streaming your games and latency is going to be an issue. Some people have reported it being so bad that they flat out could not use the device, others have said that it worked great, after fiddling with their router settings! 

It Does Not Come With A Carrying Case!

With a premium item like this with a screen that could easily be scratched or cracked, a carrying case should have been included. Somewhere to keep this thing safe and sound when it is not being used, rather than just being left on the coffee table or the bedside table should have been in the box. Even a simple, fabric case would have been better than nothing. No doubt the market will start to have cases and solutions for storing your PlayStation Portal on offer, but out of the box, there is nothing to help you keep this safe! That screen for as good as it is does not appear to be the most robust screen around! 

This Is Remote Play Only!

It may sound weird that this needs to be specified, but there is still a bit of confusion regarding what the PlayStation Portal actually is! This is not a PlayStation 5 take on the Nintendo Switch! You cannot play games directly on this thing, even digital ones! This offers remote play and remote play only. There is no way to store games or anything else on this device, it is all about streaming your games from your PlayStation 5 to it and as we have already discussed, this can be problematic! This is not the portable PlayStation 5 that many people were hoping for!

No Streaming Here

Granted this is probably due to some kind of legal issue, but the PlayStation Portal does not allow for any kind of video streaming. This means that you cannot use this to watch stuff like Netflix, Disney Plus, or even YouTube. It would have been neat if you could fire up YouTube on this thing if you were stuck on a game, but that is not the case. The screen looks fantastic too so streaming a movie on this would have looked great. 

Is The PlayStation Portal Worth Buying?

We would have to say no. Look, this thing looks really cool and the controls feel fantastic, just like a PlayStation 5 controller, it is impressive how the Dual Sense has been replicated here. The screen looks great too, playing something like Horizon Forbidden West or Spider-Man 2 on this thing is incredible. However, at the end of the day, for as fun and cool as this is, it is not an essential purchase at all. If you are someone who can easily afford the 200 bucks that this thing is asking for, chances are you have the space to have another TV that you can have your PS5 hooked up to. Had Sony managed to get this out for around 100 bucks, it would have been worth taking a chance on as it is fun and when it works it is awesome. 

However, with a high price tag and it all depending on how good your internet is, there is not enough here to make the PlayStation Portal an essential purchase, unless you are a hardcore PlayStation fan that has to have every PlayStation device.