The PlayStation Portal is an odd device. Launched in the fall of 2023, the handheld lets you play your PlayStation 5 games without needing the TV on, giving you a bit more freedom to experience Sony’s latest console. Rather than being a full handheld like the PlayStation Vita, which can load its own games and stream the PlayStation 4, the Portal was made first and foremost as a companion device. That has changed a bit since launch, with the PlayStation Portal now a much more interesting proposition, and the latest update has made things even more exciting.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It is worth touching on what the PlayStation Portal actually is and how it is limited. At its core, the PlayStation Portal is a portable device for streaming your games, in a similar vein to the Logitech G Cloud, but only from your own PS5.
It has a very limited Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset at its core, no Bluetooth, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, PlayStation Link for audio, an absolutely stunning eight-inch LCD, 1080p resolution display, a 60 Hz refresh rate, and one of the best button layouts I have seen on a handheld to date. It is built to basically be a DualSense controller with a screen between where you hold your hands. It is comfortable for long play sessions and easy to use, but especially at launch, it was limited.
That was at least until recently, when Sony opened the console up to being more than just a PlayStation 5 companion device and turned it into a true streaming device, tapping into the online PlayStation streaming library to access a range of games on a console that is easy to use. The ability to jump into a large range of games, provided you have a PlayStation Plus Premium account, instantly made the PlayStation Portal something I can see people using, and it is also why we decided it was time to revisit this device and see what it actually can do for gamers wanting a way to play PlayStation titles away from the flatscreen.
First introduced with System Update 4 in beta, the cloud streaming feature acted as a shot in the arm for the Portal. But even from that point, things have changed quite a bit, and the system has only gotten better. In System Update 6, Sony made cloud streaming official, removing the beta tag and making the overall system feel more streamlined around the concept. No longer did it feel like a random feature that did not get attention. It now felt much more like a part of what made the PlayStation Portal work, and why you would invest your money in trying the console.
When you are setting up the PlayStation Portal now, it feels like a unified experience, and it ushers you into the options you have to experience your games. If you have a PlayStation 5 ready to go, it will guide you through getting it all set up, making sure it is connected, and quickly bring you to your system, where you can jump into that PlayStation, giving you a new way to experience your console, all without having the monitor on. It is easy, quick and honestly feels very good as a way to play the PlayStation 5.
I loved the PlayStation Vita, but let’s be honest, it was not the most comfortable control system in the world. It was fine for most situations, but for long play sessions, it could make your hands feel like they had been through a vice. While significantly less feature-rich, the PlayStation Portal is a dream to hold and use. The DualSense controller feels great for long play sessions, and despite its massive 8-inch screen, I find it easy to play for long periods without issue.
“When you are setting up the PlayStation Portal now, it feels like a unified experience, and it ushers you into the options you have to experience your games.”
Providing a solid four to six hours of battery life, the Portal feels well-built and easy to hold and use, even for people who may not love portable gaming. The screen is also absolutely brilliant and, even at just 1080p, is great for showcasing the games you already own. It offers solid black levels and delivers an overall great gaming experience, with colours and contrast feeling fantastic. Games come to life on the screen, and while I would have loved to see 4K, the 1080p 60 Hz display was more than enough for the eight inches of real estate it offers.
But what makes the latest updates to the PlayStation Portal so exciting is that they fundamentally change how you can use the device. Before, you needed access to your PlayStation 5 in order to play a game. If someone was on your system, it meant the Portal was very limited in what it could do. Provided you have PlayStation Plus Premium, the Portal is now much more versatile. Yes, it still does everything it did when the system first hit store shelves, but it now has access to all those titles, and with more than 3,000 games now accessible on the platform, that is a significant number of games you can jump right into and enjoy.
I was a bit concerned the process would be tedious, especially compared with how easy they made the Portal for in-home streaming, but Sony managed to make streaming games outside your home just as easy as streaming within it. In some ways, the process is easier because you do not need to worry about your PS5 being on and connected to a network. You really just have to go to the top menu, make sure you are in the right mode, and you will be presented with a list of potential games you can jump right into.
Even the process of playing the games was ridiculously easy and quick. Provided you have a solid internet connection, jumping into games takes only a few moments, with games loading in under a minute. I did not see any issues playing even the more visually intensive titles, and the input lag was incredibly manageable, so much so that I did not notice it while playing the games I tested, including action-packed titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage or Resident Evil Village.
It is surprising just how smooth the experience was overall, and this is coming from someone who has used GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming and a few other services that have since died. Sony has managed to make something very seamless.
With Version 7.0, the PlayStation Portal feels even more robust, with settings to adjust the quality of your stream. I honestly did not have many issues with the standard setting, but the ability to push the fidelity, provided you have the internet to support it, is great to see, and makes it feel like a much more robust experience overall. The update also brings quality-of-life improvements and cleans up the overall experience, making it feel much more fleshed out and realized. Most of the features are minor tweaks, but if you have been using the Portal since Day 1, you will notice just how fully realized the system feels overall.
Even as impressed as I am, the PlayStation Portal is still very much a companion device, and that is okay. This is not built to be the next PS Vita, and it very much is not that. The Portal does what it was built to do, and it does it well, and this new update makes it much more of a device you can enjoy even without your PS5 sitting with you at home. But even with cloud streaming, I would not advise someone to buy the Portal unless they are part of the Sony ecosystem.
The system is at its best when it enhances how you experience your PS5 games, but if you do not have the main console, the price of PlayStation Plus Premium, at roughly $159.99 US a year, is a steep ask. If you are using it for online play, the free games it comes with, and to enjoy your home console, it can make sense. Just to play on a portable system that is very much useless without an internet connection is a bit much.
Having said that, with Updates 6 and 7, PlayStation has made the companion device far more compelling. The PlayStation Portal is a console I can see people buying and adding to their PlayStation ecosystem in a way that makes sense. It is no longer a simple way to jump into games when your partner is using your main TV, and it feels more like a way to supplement your couch gaming experience.
If you are not currently invested in PlayStation, it is a bit of an odd purchase, but if you are, and want more ways to play, the PlayStation Portal finally makes sense, and is something I may pick up and use more often now that I have seen its potential. I am still holding out hope for a real Vita successor, but we will have to wait and see on that front.
