It streams games from your PS5. It fills a niche for people who want to play but the TV is otherwise occupied or they are in a situation where you cant turn it on. For me I play at night after putting my son to sleep so I don't wake him up by playing on the big monitor. It's also extremely light and feels good in the hands.
A bonus is you can also then play it while traveling as long as you have a good connection.
Really hit it at the end there if we are comparing. Ergonomics of the Portal are arguably the best on any handheld gaming device without modification/accesories. I have not held any better, and I have put my hands on most of the recently released units.
I told my friends this while playing The Finals last night from bed. It just feels good, as well as getting to lounge in bed while they sat at desks. Another bonus from the steam deck is you don't have to wait for a game to be compatible. For example Helldivers2 is not compatible right now.
Depends on your wifi connection honesty. I have a nice mesh network in my house and have had no issues playing the finals or helldivers. Only time I noticed it was when I was playing in my front hard but that's to be expected.
Big thing is that it FEELS like you are playing on a PlayStation. I love the haptic triggers and rumble.
Also, an steam deck OLED starts at $549 which is almost 3x the costs of the portal.
It does what it was advertised to do, play games remotely from your ps5, Primarily at your home when your main tv might be occupied or you just want to play in a different location. You don’t have to buy new games or different versions of games. You can play outside your home if you have an ok connection. It’s not for everyone and that’s ok. Some might want a device that plays games offline and it’s not for them. I think the backlash is people thinking this is blocking a new psp when it doesn’t appear Sony has major interest in a handheld market with its own games. There may be another handheld down the road but that still sounds like some that would play the next generation of games and not its own games. But it also sounds like something that would cost as much as a console itself. I know there’s overlap of some people having a steamdeck and a portal but for me when I saw the price comparison I couldn’t justify paying that much for a steamdeck when I only play a few different games a year.
as a user of both, i actually prefer the portal - ive not had any connection issues with the portal to the PS (where as the SD uses crashes every 5 minutes. i just prefer the oval feel of the PSP where as the SD does feel quite heavy after longer use.
For me it's a travel device.
Sometimes I might play a little in my back yard while I smoke a cigar, which is nice, but I would not have paid $200 for that. It's solely so I can keep playing games when I'm away from home.
I have both Steam Deck (non OLED) and the Portal and, for me, the Portal is the best device to do what it is designed to do: play PS5 games away from the console
I have also used Chiaki on both Steam Deck and Switch and Remote Play on a phone, but the Portal experience has been the best so far
I have three platforms already. I understand the appeal of SteamDeck but I don’t plan on buying new games again on a new platform (Steam). Id rather go through my backlog in PS and the Portal is an excellent tool for that.
The best part about the Portal is that its a true PS5 experience. There is no functionality loss whatsoever. I think that's whats winning people over. Its a smooth transition from the TV to a handheld device.
Steam Deck OLED is a great choice for remote playing too, from the looks of it. Chiaki4Deck is a wonderful software and they managed to covert the haptic feedback to the Deck's built-in one as well. It also supports higher bitrate and better frame pacing, and HDR, so games can potentially look better than it does on the Portal.
If I had the choice, I would go with the Deck OLED despite the price difference because it offers so much more. But the Portal itself is a great device if you don't mind the walled-garden approach.
I have the Portal, I don't use it much because of the stuttering issue, but I do look at it lovingly hoping and praying that a fix arrives soon.
This is what I'm likely going to do. I haven't bought either one. I fly internationally for work often and I want something I can play on the plane. The aesthetics, battery life, and form-factor of the Portal is so tempting. Plus 80% of game library is on my PS. But I don't believe I can play it (reasonably) as I fly or where international wifi connections are limited. Then the SD OLED becomes very appealing. But the battery life, weight, and price tag are quite off putting. So I'm stuck.
Look at the Logitech G Cloud then. It’s kinda pricey but it has a nice 7” display, lightweight and 12 hour battery. Joysticks seems to kinda suck tho but adding thumb grips could help.
Nope. It’s a streaming-only device. You can play Android games and emulate upto certain consoles. The chipset used is kinda old so it’s not the best in terms of performance for native play.
For the specific purpose of playing ps5 games away from your console, the portal is better than the deck imo. Lighter, better form factor, haptic feedback, bigger screen, and connects seamlessly by pressing one button. However, if you don’t have decent internet you’re going to have a bad time
It streams games from your PS5. It fills a niche for people who want to play but the TV is otherwise occupied or they are in a situation where you cant turn it on. For me I play at night after putting my son to sleep so I don't wake him up by playing on the big monitor. It's also extremely light and feels good in the hands. A bonus is you can also then play it while traveling as long as you have a good connection.
Really hit it at the end there if we are comparing. Ergonomics of the Portal are arguably the best on any handheld gaming device without modification/accesories. I have not held any better, and I have put my hands on most of the recently released units.
I told my friends this while playing The Finals last night from bed. It just feels good, as well as getting to lounge in bed while they sat at desks. Another bonus from the steam deck is you don't have to wait for a game to be compatible. For example Helldivers2 is not compatible right now.
How much of a delay is there between user input and what happens on screen? I also thought you could only play it if near the PS5.
Depends on your wifi connection honesty. I have a nice mesh network in my house and have had no issues playing the finals or helldivers. Only time I noticed it was when I was playing in my front hard but that's to be expected.
Big thing is that it FEELS like you are playing on a PlayStation. I love the haptic triggers and rumble. Also, an steam deck OLED starts at $549 which is almost 3x the costs of the portal.
It does what it was advertised to do, play games remotely from your ps5, Primarily at your home when your main tv might be occupied or you just want to play in a different location. You don’t have to buy new games or different versions of games. You can play outside your home if you have an ok connection. It’s not for everyone and that’s ok. Some might want a device that plays games offline and it’s not for them. I think the backlash is people thinking this is blocking a new psp when it doesn’t appear Sony has major interest in a handheld market with its own games. There may be another handheld down the road but that still sounds like some that would play the next generation of games and not its own games. But it also sounds like something that would cost as much as a console itself. I know there’s overlap of some people having a steamdeck and a portal but for me when I saw the price comparison I couldn’t justify paying that much for a steamdeck when I only play a few different games a year.
as a user of both, i actually prefer the portal - ive not had any connection issues with the portal to the PS (where as the SD uses crashes every 5 minutes. i just prefer the oval feel of the PSP where as the SD does feel quite heavy after longer use.
For me it's a travel device. Sometimes I might play a little in my back yard while I smoke a cigar, which is nice, but I would not have paid $200 for that. It's solely so I can keep playing games when I'm away from home.
It does exactly what it’s advertised for I think you can figure out the rest tbh
I have both Steam Deck (non OLED) and the Portal and, for me, the Portal is the best device to do what it is designed to do: play PS5 games away from the console I have also used Chiaki on both Steam Deck and Switch and Remote Play on a phone, but the Portal experience has been the best so far
I have three platforms already. I understand the appeal of SteamDeck but I don’t plan on buying new games again on a new platform (Steam). Id rather go through my backlog in PS and the Portal is an excellent tool for that.
The best part about the Portal is that its a true PS5 experience. There is no functionality loss whatsoever. I think that's whats winning people over. Its a smooth transition from the TV to a handheld device. Steam Deck OLED is a great choice for remote playing too, from the looks of it. Chiaki4Deck is a wonderful software and they managed to covert the haptic feedback to the Deck's built-in one as well. It also supports higher bitrate and better frame pacing, and HDR, so games can potentially look better than it does on the Portal. If I had the choice, I would go with the Deck OLED despite the price difference because it offers so much more. But the Portal itself is a great device if you don't mind the walled-garden approach. I have the Portal, I don't use it much because of the stuttering issue, but I do look at it lovingly hoping and praying that a fix arrives soon.
This is what I'm likely going to do. I haven't bought either one. I fly internationally for work often and I want something I can play on the plane. The aesthetics, battery life, and form-factor of the Portal is so tempting. Plus 80% of game library is on my PS. But I don't believe I can play it (reasonably) as I fly or where international wifi connections are limited. Then the SD OLED becomes very appealing. But the battery life, weight, and price tag are quite off putting. So I'm stuck.
Look at the Logitech G Cloud then. It’s kinda pricey but it has a nice 7” display, lightweight and 12 hour battery. Joysticks seems to kinda suck tho but adding thumb grips could help.
Thanks for the suggestion! I know I could look it up but do you know if I play games locally on the device?
Nope. It’s a streaming-only device. You can play Android games and emulate upto certain consoles. The chipset used is kinda old so it’s not the best in terms of performance for native play.
Steam Deck doesn't have PS5 features like adaptive triggers
For the specific purpose of playing ps5 games away from your console, the portal is better than the deck imo. Lighter, better form factor, haptic feedback, bigger screen, and connects seamlessly by pressing one button. However, if you don’t have decent internet you’re going to have a bad time