A couple of months ago, when rumors began circulating around the price point of PlayStation’s new handheld console, I proclaimed that Sony would🐭 be out of its collective mind to charge more than $200 for it. Well, lo and behold, the PlayStation Portal, formerly Project Q, will indeed be sold for $200. When I saw the news, I breathed a sigh of relief, for reason had prevailed. Then 𝔉I read the details, and my heart sank as I realized Sony had still managed to devastate me in the end. I hadn’t even considered the possibility that it would create a handheld so barebones that even $200 would seem like too much.
Here’s the deets: for $200 you get an 8-inch LཧCD display that can stream at 1080p and 60fps. It is a remote play device, so you’ll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your PS5 to use it - no native game support whatsoever. You can stream “supported games” to the Portal, which doesn’t include VR games (obviously) or - get this - PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming games. The streaming handheld can’t stream cloud games. This is a real thing Sony is selling.
It also doesn’t have Bluetooth, so forget about using your fancy wireless gaming headsets or earbuds. Good news though, Sony’s new Pulse Elite headset and Pulse Explore earbuds come with a USB adapter you can plug into the Portal so it can utilize PlayStation Link, a new low latency wireless protocol. I wouldn’t complain if both Bluetooth and PlayStation Link were options, but this feels like a move pulled from Apple's 'create a problem, sell the solution’ handbook. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack on the Portal if you want to use a wired headset. I don’t, but maybe you do.
The list of things the Portal can’t do is much longer than the list of things it can. No local gaming, no cloud gaming, no Bluetooth, no streaming apps like Netflix, and apparently the battery is meant to last as long as the Dua💜lSense’s, which seems to always be dead after a couple of hours in my house.
I can imagine a much 🌜cooler version of the Portal. What if it was like the Wii U (stay with me) and you could use it as your gamepad while playing PS5 on your TV. When you walk away to go play on your patio or take a poo, the game seamlessly shifts over to the Portal’s display so you can keep gaming on the go. Of course it would have Bluetooth, because what kind of modern portable device doesn’t? If Sony intends to take cloud gaming as seriously as Xbox, launching new hardware that doesn’t support it at all is a bad move.
I bring this up every time, but there are already fantastic devices that do what the PlayStation Portal does, and a lot more. You can stream your PS5 to a Razer Edge using the remote play app just like the Portal, but it also has Bluetooth, streams Game Pass and GeForce Now, and has full Android OS for local games, media streaming, and whatever else you would want to do with an Android device. Heck, you can just use th🍸e phone you already have, link a DualSense controller to it or buy a Backbone, and stream your PlayStation games.
This seems like a product exclusively for people that are dedicated to buying Sony hardware, which disappoints me, and is another thing that reminds me of Apple’s MO. As a𓃲 streaming enthusiast and sucker for niche hardware I’m the exact target market ꧒for the PlayStation Portal, and it still doesn’t impress me. We’re on the cusp of a portable cloud gaming revolution that’s going to fundamentally change the industry, and the PlayStation Portal makes Sony look out of touch and left behind.