New PS Portal Firmware Update Adds Better Wi-Fi Features and More

“BuT nObOdY wAnTs ThE pOrTaL…”

The Wi fi log is much needed and very welcome. Mist hotel hotspots these days are really good and that means more PlayStation time for me!
When announced, I was highly sceptical about the device but since I have had it, it has increased my gaming time.
At home, if TV is being used, I am on the Portal and tbh just feel like I’m playing PS5 in my hands.

It’s got issues and won’t be for everyone , but with more updates, this can get even better for PS gamers everywhere.

Classic case of "Twitter isn't real life." Now if only people knew the Vita did the same thing for PS4 (technically better) back in the day 🤔

Hold on, so can I play this when away from home? I don’t need to be on the same WiFi network as my PS5?

@Boucho11 you can be on any wifi network as long as your PS5 is in rest mode!

I like to take mine down to my parents when visiting as it’s boring there and it works great! About 1.5hr drive from where my PS5 is.

This is actually incredible. I thought it was great before. These are the two missing features (besides real bluetooth) everyone wanted. Its so weird to have Sony actually listening. Haha

I've posted before about my new Portal and how pleased I am with it.

I have more recently discovered inconsistencies between games though.

I understand why the low bit rate can lead to a worse image quality on a very "busy" detailed game like AC Valhalla, versus something older like Fallout 4.

What I don't get is why the performance varies so much between them.

Fallout 4 is as sweet as a nut, even in another persons house using their WiFi, rather than on the same network as my PS5.

Yet Valhalla does seem to have hitching, even when 1m from the posh gaming router than my PS5 is wired too. Both games running in 60fps or 30fps, mode, the gulf in performance between them is the same.

Those are just two examples of good and bad games for the system. There are many others.

@Boucho11 Yep. That's always been the case. 🙂

This is awesome! I have a Portal and I typically play on it every day. It’s been a fantastic device, and I’m happy to see more firmware updates. Hopefully, with the popularity of the Portal, Steam Deck, and Switch, this will show Sony that there is still a huge market for handheld gaming.

Great little machine. My “engagement” with my PS5 is certainly up, as I play in bed a lot now. Good to know I can log in when I go on business trips to hotels without having to tether my phone.

@CrashBandicoat
That’s weird, I’ve never experienced such inconsistency. I don’t have Valhalla. Are there any other particularly bad games I could check out. Ideally some on Extra so it’s more likely I’ll have them.

@WhiteRabbit damn. If I had known this I would have bought one. Thanks for the info

@Boucho11 if you’re ever tempted, maybe wait for a sale, it’s great device!

@invictus4000 I’m clearly an idiot. Gonna pick one up

Kind of odd this wasn't available when the device first came out since [insert any other device that supports Remote Play] has had this ability.

I was really against the Portal when it was announced but I ended up picking one up.
And I love it! I am playing games a lot more now! Good to see it getting updates.

@WhiteRabbit I’ll probably get one from Vinted. Can get one for £150

You know what would be amazing? If they enabled their dedicated Playstation streaming device, that can now play your Playstation over the cloud to play the games they sell you for a monthly subscription fee in the cloud.......Which you would think would be one of the main selling points of their cloud-only handheld and cloud subscription service from the same company.....

Sold mine as lag and grainy picture was driving me made.
Downloaded PSPlay on my legion go and it’s perfect, no lag and fantastic picture quality.
Sorry Sony but a £10 piece of software if far superior to your £200 offering.

@thefourfoldroot1 is Origins on Extra? It wasn't as bad as Valhalla, but did stutter occasionally whereas Fallout 4 was perfect.

I've seen similar inconsistencies on GeForce Now.

AC Syndicate on there for example is utterly catastrophic for no apparent reason, where as Deathloop is magical and runs better than it does natively on PS5/XSX.

Spiderman on Portal feels far less "micro-suttery" than Valhalla for example. In fact it feels really good.

I wonder if Valhalla doesn't quite hit the frame rate target on a TV, but I don't notice because I have VRR. Where as on the portal it causes stutter.

New wi-fi features? How about they make it have a stable connection directly to the console instead 🤦‍♂️

@CrashBandicoat
That may well be the case. I’ll try myself later as I have VRR too. Makes sense it might be this, but then it might just be you are very sensitive to framerate. I can’t tell much difference between 30 and 60 so I might not be the best to look into it. My stream seems very stable.

@NEStalgia
I suspect the fear is that such a device will canabalise sales of the ps5 should streaming take off. Apparently the Portal is capable of it, they just want to keep it tethered to a PS5 machine for now. Maybe the rumoured handheld from MS would force their hand as I presume that will allow for direct streaming.

@WhiteRabbit It has been sold out for months so who exactly was saying that? I'm personally not interested but I want it to succeed incredibly so Sony can follow it up with a PSP2.

@Tecinthebrain there was a very large chunk of naysayers in comment sections in the majority of articles where the Portal was first mentioned.

This may come as a shock, but PS was one of those sites where those very naysayers could be found.

@WhiteRabbit it was weird they they were making out it was the least essential accessory when it is probably the most. Polarising times don’t we know, some say enabled by internetz

@SystemAddict I say made light by the internet. If anything, the internet has put us in an age of “ultra-awareness”

Really enjoy my Portal. I mostly reserve it for turn based games. It feels great in the hands and very much like a DualSense, but precision input heavy gaming is slightly better on an actual DualSense. Also, for me there’s still occasion stutters, but it’s mostly because I’m not hardwired to my router. A small stutter during Dark Souls can be the difference between victory and defeat. 😅

But overall, I love the device. It has increased my engagement. Works great to play while watching sports, or when you’d rather lay down in bed or on the couch.

@thefourfoldroot1 Probably, but....from a business perspective you'd think Sony would rather sell you a $200 portal and continuous annual subscription cloud rental fees than a $500 console they make little money on and risk you buying used games they make no money on. Like...wouldn't customers buying Portal + Plus Premium be more profitable than customers buying a PS5? You'd think they'd put the Portal and Sub advertising at the front of retailers and hide the PS5s in the back lol.

Of course supporting cloud on portal would mean developing an Android client for cloud, and they seem to have an allergic reaction to doing that while also saying they want growth in mobile, instead restricting cloud to PCs...where....they also sell native games... shrug

@Boucho11
they are still available! fast!

Huge win for players who got the portal. The no public wifi was dumb AF

My only issue with the Portal is the Touchpad interface. Double tapping the screen is just very unintuitive and not ideal. I would really like the option to be able to remap it whenever possible.

@3Above Vita was an excellent handheld, but it's big mistake - other than the prohibitively expensive memory cards - was the fact that it didn't have L2 and R2 triggers, forcing the rear touchpad to stand in for them.

@tabris95 Yeah, it was almost impossible for me to play Alan Wake 2 on the portal, because that game splits the touchpad into two buttons. Very challenging to replicate that on the Portal's touchscreen.

@Daz1380 yep did the same, shame really, nice tech let down by wi-fi. Well at least mine anyway.

@tabris95 they could at least give you a couple of picoseconds more, it’s not something that should fall into category “nailed it” but if I’m havin a slow day it can take a few taps to.

Sat on a beach 1600 miles away from my PS5 using the 5g hotspot on my iPhone and it’s perfect. GT7 is perfectly playable, ESO plays brilliantly (apart from trying to work out how to call my Mount) and Klenoa 2 is an absolute joy. PsPortal is a stunning piece of kit. I’ve not have a single connection issue for the past 10 days.

With the firmware upgrade allowing me to connect to the hotel WiFi, which extends to the beach, means I won’t use shedloads of my iPhone data.

There’s two things that will make it better - to directly link to the ps5 rather than having to go via your WiFi router for when you are at home and can’t use the tv. The other is to be able to stream all the games that are streamable via ps5 with ps plus subscription - why can I only play downloaded games???

I’m quite disheartened to see all the comments overly praising the PlayStation Portal and mocking those of us who don’t get on with it. As a huge fan of PlayStation, the Portal has been the biggest let down of any of their devices. And yes, I do own one.

I wanted to love my PlayStation Portal, but I simply can’t.

Despite its nice design, at the end of the day, it’s still only a cloud gaming device and cloud gaming still sucks.

Worse than that. It’s an inferior cloud gaming device to my laptop. Without VRR, the connection, frame rate and image quality are noticeably inferior to what I was getting with Remote Play on my laptop.

If the PlayStation Portal had the ability to have a direct connection from the PS5 to it, kind of like a WiiU Gamepad, even if it was via a dongle plugged into my PS5 so that I could have a flawless 1080p/60fps experience in the same room as my PS5, then I’d be willing to overlook its other flaws (no Bluetooth etc). But the fact it cannot just does not cut it to me.

My laptop giving me a better performance in the same room and on the same network as a dedicated device made by Sony because they chose to limit its features to save money is the type of mediocrity I refuse to accept.

It doesn’t matter what firmware updates they add. This device could and should have been so much better.

Created a login just to write that I am having a blast with the Portal. Would have never played Gone Home, Sea of Stars, or Tunic without it… a backloggers dream. Also beat my fifth Elden Ring boss on it last night. Something about lying in bed at night and being able to play on my PS5 has really worked for me.

Lovely hardware but software is lacking.

I had hoped that using the Portal would be as easy as using the controller in that I could just pick it up, press the PS button, and my PS5 and Sony TV would quickly fire up. Unfortunately this was not so. More often than not, my usual experience is waiting whilst the Portal searches for, then fails to find my PS5 (in Rest mode) whereas my controller never fails. Why is that I wonder?

Next, I'd like it to remember multiple profiles so my wife, my kids, and I can all log-in easily without having to re-input all email/password/2FA every time.

Im very tempted by the PS portal atm but as my connection isnt the greatest in the bedroom and i dont have access to the wifi at work can it and how does it handle being tethered to a mobile hotspot? My phone doesnt support 5g unfortunately. Will this kill my data usage or is it pretty reasonable. Most of my use will be in areas where i will need to connect to my mobile hotspot.

@Kidfunkadelic83 It’s mostly okay with a mobile hotspot but you will want to have unlimited data if you use that. The new Wi fi log in option will be helpful - I can’t for the life of me think why that wasn’t there from the start tbh. PS5 hardwired is essential though. If you haven’t got it on Ethernet, forget it mate.

@BaldBelper78 my console in hard wired and i get 100gb of data a month. I might grab one and if i dont like it just send it back.

I love it, for the most part. But one of the sticks clicks out of place constantly and I have to push it back down. When I contacted Sony, I was literally told "we used sub-par sticks in the build." SMH. Also, the WiFi protocols not allowing us to play cloud-based games is ludicrous. Just add a separate PSN streaming application on the dang thing! I want to play LORDS OF SHADOW again!!!

Where is the update though??? Was supposed to be today but nothing yet and it’s just gone 11pm
BST in the UK. Very strange for an update to be confirmed and then not actually happen. @liamcroft Any news or ideas as to why it’s not been released yet?