PlayStation Portal Remote Player 5

I love this device. When this was announced, I made fun of it. I was using remote play from my phone very often and had a little thing that clipped on my PS5 controller and held my phone. I thought that the solution with my phone was good enough but I was wrong. This thing rocks! It is very light for the size. Its only streaming so it doesn't get hot at all. Feels comfortable for long play sessions. The charging port is half up the back so there is no chance of messing the port up. Best of all though is the lack of lag. My phone always had a small bit of lag that made racing games challenging but everything else was livable. The Portal I can play anything and feel confident on it. Even when using it away from home there is still no noticeable lag. I do have gig internet speed at home and other places I tried so I cant speak to slower speeds. Would definitely recommend for anyone who does remote play

I use the PlayStation Portal Remote Player daily and it’s been a flawless experience. The connection is smooth, the controls feel just like a DualSense, and the screen is sharp and responsive — it really brings console-quality gaming into my hands no matter where I am at home.Setup was fast and easy, and I’ve had zero issues with lag or interruptions. Whether I'm on the couch, in bed, or even in the kitchen, it lets me enjoy my PS5 without needing the TV.If you're looking for a convenient, high-quality remote play solution, this device delivers exactly what it promises. I couldn’t be happier with how seamlessly it fits into my daily routine.

Performance is network dependent, but works well as a remote play device for the PS5.The latest update no longer requires the use of a PS5, only a PS+ Premium subscription to access and stream games from the collection (not all are available though).In my experience streaming from the game collection and from my PS5 are roughly the same experience.

This thing is wonderful. Flat out. If you have a PS Plus Premium account you can stream games anywhere you have decent Wi-Fi, and if you don't you can still remotely turn your PS5 on from wherever you are and play everything on your storage. I was a little concerned that the screen isn't OLED before buying, but it's not an issue. The Portal's screen is big and bright, and it stays that way from any angle. The graphics look gorgeous and fully detailed in 1080p on a screen that size. The battery lasts longer than a Steam deck or Switch when you're playing with the brightness up. Probably a solid 3 hours with everything cranked to the max and streaming a PS5 first person shooter in full HD, and double that with lower brightness and less resource intensive games. The sound isn't its highest point but it is more than passable. A lot of how good it sounds seems to be game specific, but it never sounds terrible or anything. Headphones sound like they should. I definitely recommend the Portal, I wish I'd gotten one sooner. I mistakenly thought they were pretty much the same thing as playing remotely on my phone with a PS5 controller, and it is not. At all.

Overall the PS Portal is a great device. I’ll list my personal pros and cons but the takeaway I want to leave it is that if you have solid and dependable WiFi, then the device should be considered. If not, even for travel, then it’s not going to be worth it in my opinion. I did try and use this for travel such as airplanes and it was ok for some points but not very dependable. Also, since this device now offers cloud gaming I’ll split my views on both as well.Pros:- Perfect size and lightweight. If you’ve held a PS5 controller then this feels practically the same as far as grip and comfortability.-The screen is up to 1080p and up to 60 fps so pretty clear and smooth as long as you have consistent and strong WiFi.- The power and volume buttons are on the top and easy to access and pretty tactile so you’ll know when they’re pressed down.- Thumbsticks and overall buttons on the controller feel the same as the PS5 controller. Thumb sticks are smaller and more sensitive, so they’ll move around a bit more freely compared to the actual controller.- The system does have haptic feedback, so games that use this feature like Guardians of the Galaxy will use this to the full capability. Feels like you’re much more immersed into the game.- Battery life was good. I was able to get over 4 hours for remote play and for the cloud.- Easy to pick up and play. For remote play, the system picks off whenever you last were, based just off of rest mode on the PS5. You’ll turn on the power button, and depending on how far you are from your PS5 and your overall WiFi it’ll take up to a minute or two in my experience to connect to your PS5. I was able to connect to my PS5 from across the country pretty easily.For cloud, this would be even easier since no PS5 is required. Depending again on your WiFi, this will take up to a minute.- Device price. For $200, having an official ps controller in your hands with a 1080p screen and able to seamlessly play PS5 games is a pretty solid deal for remote play. You can use ps5 remote play with your phone or even other handhelds, but having actual controller trigger and haptic feedback is what makes this system great to me. Now if you’re purchasing this for cloud, I put my opinion as a con.Cons:- WiFi, WiFi, WiFi. If you want to use the system, you have to have solid WiFi that won’t drop in speed or connection. If at any time the connection drops, for remote or for cloud, the game quality significantly drops to pixels, followed by getting disconnected from your PS5 or cloud. You’ll have to go through the process of reconnecting. If your WiFi isn’t strong, this is a repeating cycle and takes away from gaming.- Not for geared for multiplayer games. Cloud does have a few multiplayer games at the moment like dead by daylight, and works pretty good. But multiplayer games for remote play isn’t quite worth it if that’s your reasoning of purchasing the system. Even when sitting right next to the system, there’s a small but noticeable input lag for games. Single player games can get away with this most of the time, but multiplayer games will end up hindering the experience. I tried playing Marvel Rivals through remote play and although the game looked great and was overall smooth, the connection felt much demanding and any movement was a bit delayed. You can definitely continue to play if your WiFi is strong, but I’d stay away from more competitive multiplayer games.- No Bluetooth on the device. This one is pretty shocking considering it is a modern system, but Sony decided the only native Bluetooth headphones you can use are the ones they made specifically for the system. These are a separate purchase, and are the only official way to use Bluetooth headphones. There’s a button on top of the device that’s for connecting to these Sony buds. If you don’t have them, the button does absolutely nothing when pressed. You may be able to get around using Bluetooth headphones if you really want by putting in a Bluetooth adapter into the headphone jack. Otherwise you’ll have to just use the system speakers which aren’t bad, or use the headphone jack which is in the bottom of the screen itself.- Gestures and touchscreen. Gestures don’t really work. I connected remotely to my PS5 and played Detroit become Human on this device, and overall the experience was good but when fast action sequences start, the game thinks you’re playing on a PS5 (technically a PS4 for this specific game) and wants you to turn your “controller” certain ways to dodge or move in-game. The PS Portal does support this but it’s often not smooth as swinging an actual controller. You’ll likely miss events like that from games. Touchscreen is also not designed very well. Games that expect trackpad inputs, you’ll have to touch the screen and deal with your fingerprints smudged on there. Not great, but I guess to keep this price point adding a back touchpad like the PS Vita wasn’t an option.- Cloud pricing. Cloud is great overall, the list of games seems to grow every week at the moment. The games launch quick and are pretty smooth. To note the list of games available is completely different than the cloud games on the PS5. The cloud games on the PS Portal are unique to this system and currently not as many as the PS5. The reason why this is a con for me is its pricing. You’re not only paying for the console, but you’re paying a monthly or yearly subscription to play these games. Sure you don’t have to worry about storage, but paying continuously for a system that quite literally depends on WiFi is a bold move. This wouldn’t be terrible if you really want to take this on the go and are ok with paying extra every year, but when have subscription prices ever dropped for anything? Ps Plus prices will likely and inevitably rise, and that’s something to consider always when purchasing PS Plus.- Travel. I actually bought this as the main intention for travel. Despite more technical reviews I thought I’d give it a shot and took this across the globe with me to a few countries. At airports, this device barely worked. Because you need strong and reliable WiFi, I could only play on this system in lounges and even that was finicky at times. Airplanes? Forget it. Hotels it worked ok, but I disconnected pretty often for remote play, but was ok for cloud gaming, I was mainly getting 720p instead of 1080p. I think the only ok way of travel play would be your mobile hotspot, but this varies completely depending on your plan and connection. Staying over at families and friends and using their WiFi worked pretty good. Remote play in this scenario took about 5 min to connect but the input lag was horrendous, making it unplayable. Cloud worked perfect though.Overall if you want play PS5 games, with the same controller feeling and feedback, while at work in your office or in another room, patio, or family/ mfriends house with dependable and strong WiFi, this system is solid. If cloud is what’s drawing you that’s great, but consider the overall cost again and be comfortable with a sticky, fixed and likely growing subscription. Consider where you’ll be using this system and the WiFi in that area.

I’m honestly surprised by all the negative reviews for the PlayStation Portal—this thing is amazing! With my PlayStation Plus Premium membership, I’m streaming top-tier games through cloud gaming with incredible speed and quality. The Portal runs smoothly, and the visuals are crisp, making games like God of War Ragnarök a blast to play remotely. If you’re having connectivity issues with Remote Play from your PS5, don’t blame the Portal—get an Ethernet cable and connect your PS5 directly to your router. It makes a huge difference for a rock-solid connection. Trust me, this device is a game-changer for portable gaming!