90’s kids will remember how cool it was to take our PlayStation Portable (PSP) to school or to a friends house and play multiplayer Peacewalker missions, or hunt some monsters in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Sony knows those 90s kids are now in their mid-30s, have expendable income, but also have families who hog the TV. Sometimes my fiancé is rewatching Dawson’s Creek or Gilmore Girls for the 4th time, and I pretend I’m not watching, but I actually do and get hooked every time.
Fear not, for Sony has introduced the PlayStation Portal, a remote player for the PS5 console that was released in November 2023. In true Kiwi tradition, we “yeah nah”-ed for ages before trying this bad boy out. Can you blame us? It retails for $379 NZD here—quite expensive for a remote player.
Gone is the compact 4.3-inch screen and single joystick setup of the PSP. The PlayStation Portal is quite the behemoth with an 8-inch 1080p 60Hz display and two (double!) joysticks.
It’s bigger, and it’s comfier – sounds perfect, right? Sadly, it is a remote player, so it relies entirely on having access to a good internet connection for both the Portal and the PS5 it is paired to. Not always a simple thing to access here in New Zealand. Sony states it requires at least a 5Mbps internet connection to get a good experience with.
When I opened the box, I don’t know what I was expecting, but my first impression when handling it was that it felt a little cheap. The tablet part especially feels like a cheaper plastic, not as sturdy or nice as the old PSP felt. The PlayStation Portal felt almost like a cheap Android tablet with a DualSense on each side.
Initial setup was incredibly easy. Connect it to the internet, do an update, then pair it to your console. Probably 10 minutes from start to finish. No complaints so far.
The user interface is very simple. A standard on/off button and volume buttons along the top, and the menus have some touchscreen swipe controls to access more settings. I don’t really love touchscreen controls, especially when there is no button alternative to access them, but it’s not exactly a deal breaker.
The unit is comfortable enough to hold. It mostly feels like holding a standard DualSense, and it’s much comfier than the Nintendo Switch or Switch Lite. The joysticks are slightly smaller than on the DualSense, but I didn’t notice until visually comparing to the controller itself—they feel fine to use.
My first remote play session was with Stellar Blade, and I’m happy to report the game ran very smoothly and looked great. No noticeable lag or jittering, and I’m not on an expensive broadband plan. After an hour or two, I switched over to Monster Hunter World, and again, no complaints.
A few weeks pass, and the PlayStation Portal is going great. Being able to grind away the last few trophies on Stellar Blade while casually watching telly was very relaxing. In fact, I give the PlayStation Portal all the credit for getting the platinum trophy in Stellar Blade, something I haven’t bothered to do in a few years for other games. Battery life lasts about 5 hours, which from memory is about the same as the PSP. I wish this were the end of the story, but now, after a few months, I’ve found some problems.
My first complaint is that sometimes the PlayStation Portal will not connect to my PS5. I don’t know why, and restarting the Portal fixes the issue. Bizarre but not overly infuriating. It takes less than a minute to fix, but for the price, wouldn’t you expect better?
The second complaint was not so simple to fix. I went home for my lunch break and decided to use the Portal. Past me was an absolute scumbag who didn’t put it back on charge, so it was at about 30%. Plenty of charge left for just the 30 minutes I wanted. I turn it on and… update required. Ok, sure annoying, but no problem. The download size of the update is very small and was done in less than 30 seconds. Click install, and… the updates can only be done when the battery is 50% or above. Ok, sure annoying, but I can plug it in and install the update while the unit is charging, right? Wrong, you cannot install the update while it’s charging. It must be above 50%. I would have to wait 15-20 minutes for it to charge before I could do the update. The unit wouldn’t connect to the PS5 at all and was effectively useless because of these odd update requirements. I paid nearly four hundred dollars for this and I couldn’t even use it. This really soured me on the unit.
Pros
- It feels comfortable to play on, and the screen is a really nice size
- No lag or jittering, completely smooth gameplay.
- Very easy initial set up.
Cons
- Remote play only. Without internet, its useless
- The price is way too steep for this device
- The plastic feels cheap, and I don’t think it would be very durable if dropped.
Ultimately, I don’t think the unit is worth the price. It’s great in the right scenario and was actually quite comfy to mindlessly grind on a game while watching something on Netflix. Sadly, I also found it to be a useless brick when in the wrong scenario. It still feels a little cheap when I hold it, and I don’t think it would survive many drops. The fact that it has even less functionality than a cheap tablet makes it even harder to justify its hefty price.
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