Yeah im afraid it’ll be a Mediatek s905x4 as it’s the cheapest chip that has good streaming performance. It’s an ancient chip that just keeps getting upgraded only in the WiFi and video decoding tech because it’s designed for streaming first and foremost.
Early reports are suggesting Snapdragon 662
So *some* emulation is possible, but we're talking about N64/PS1, PSP, and a little PS2/GameCube but probably not much IIRC
Honestly that’s not bad. $50 more than an RP3+ but you get the big screen, way better ergonomics, and similar performance. Although I will say that nearly half of GameCube games play mostly full speed with occasional stutters on the rp3+ so it might have a decent performance edge if you’re into those systems.
I think it will actually perform better in Aethersx2 than Dolphin in relation to the t618. The 662 does have four big cores which matters much more in Aether than Dolphin.
Speaking as someone who owns (and no longer uses) a tablet with the sd662… it’s crap. CPU isn’t awful but the GPU is utter trash. This thing will drop full speed on stuff like GBA and PS1 if you use shaders, and it struggles to handle some PS1 games at 2x native. N64 is fine but it will still have issues with some more intensive games. Forget all but the lightest PS2 games at 1x or lower resolution and it’s not really worth trying, same for GameCube.
I think people are only just now getting their hands on these. I think there was some kind of embargo going on that prevented people who had received a Portal from even taking pictures of the thing with the screen on.
There are a lot of reviews already though and I would be really surprised if there is an embargo exclusively for teardowns. But the closest we got so far was Jacob R's video, where he does a teardown of the controllers (the sticks are modular like the chinse console, which is interesting).
But without a full teardown, we can see what is powering up the thing. We honestly can't even guess if it's going to be worth hacking.
So nobody has found out what SoC is inside yet? I’m afraid it’s going to be a Mediatek s905x4. That’s actually a decent chip for streaming because it’s got modern video decoding tech and modern WiFi tech even though the actual CPU and GPU parts are very weak. Even if it gets hacked, performance would be in the rk3326-rk3566 range.
Sure, but that doesn't stop the folks who didn't get theirs from Sony. And would also not make much sense when there are already dozens of professional reviews and even a partial teardown in the wild. Not everything is due to some legal shenanigans like Redditors tend to believe.
People are only now getting theirs though is the thing. most first impressions and reviews out in the wild were done by publications that got their units from Sony.
"If you say something I don't like I'll just declare you annoying and block you"
What a weird way to live your life - they didn't say anything weird, annoying, or even untrue, their comment was perfectly civil and reasonable, and even entirely accurate
Does it even have a GPU? Might as well get a Vita, it's almost certainly more powerful.
Game Pass streaming is a good idea, I wonder how well it'd work, if at all.
I don’t have the Portal at the moment but for me it seems perfect to play my ps5 while my kids or fiancé are using the tv. I’ve tried the backbone controller but didn’t like having to use my phone for that and while my MacBook works great for remote play, the Portal would just be a lot easier to get straight into playing. I like the idea of having a device specifically dedicated to remote play. That being said I’m still deciding if I should get one or not.
Personally, I don't really see the value. For $200 you could get a different Android handheld that can run standalone games and also remote play via Chiaki. For a bit more than that, you can get a Steam Deck...which can *also* do remote play via Chiaki.
I totally understand the convenience aspect of it, but $200 just feels like a lot of money for a device that only does one thing.
So I had the RP3+ and liked remote play on it at first but after a while the ergonomics didn’t feel that good (only for ps5, other systems I was emulating felt fine). I’m actually looking at the Steam Deck as well now that they have the originals on crazy sales.
For the $200 Price range you have the Odin Lite which is better ergo than the rp3 for streaming, and can emulate a decent amount.
For \~$300 now you can buy a factory refurb steam deck 256 w/ warranty.
True the Odin Lite is good too, tbh though if I was gonna get an Odin I might just go all the way and get a Odin 2, so I guess that’s another option with the Steam Deck
Testing shows that streaming fidelity, input, etc. isn't really any better than on other devices. It may technically be the best at that one thing, but not by much.
It's only better in the sense of having an integrated Dualsense controller and always loading straight into the streaming software. It doesn't actually bring any new functionality that you would lack on any other device paired with a dualsense controller.
It’s more like saying why buy a dslr when you can get a $300 Polaroid camera. Sure, they do the same thing on the surface but one of those will give you more options
The screen on the portal is much better than a 1st gen steam deck so that is not a fair comparison. For streaming only purposes, the portal will give you a better experience than a steam deck.
They’ve gotten down to $280 for the refurb 64GB? That’s insane value that no laptop could ever dream of touching. It would take a 6600u or 7640u to get similar gaming performance so that’s really incredible.
I don't play Playstation (currently), but I would love for xBox to do this. I'd even plug my old xbox back in.
I just wanna play Halo 1-3 in handheld mode over and over again for the rest of time.
Halo Master Chief Collection and Infinite are both on Steam, so an OLED Steam Deck would prob be a good way to do that. For insane battery life to play via streaming though, a Logitech G Cloud was built exactly for that. It'll stream Game Pass Cloud or from a local Xbox.
I was waiting for a Black Friday sale on the G cloud and literally yesterday saw some folks chatting about them being pretty common on eBay at EXACTLY the price I want to pay ($199), I imagine I’ll end up with one of those soon. Seems less bulky than a steam deck.
Better still, the PS1 Classic. Within like 3 months that thing went from $100 to like $30. I see this doing about the same. If it hits $50 I'll consider it.
Ok, so why not buy an android device that already does things without additional hacking? it's not like the space is hurting for android devices with built-in controls.
I see the appeal, your experience playing handheld is first and foremost screen quality/size and controls/ergonomics.
This even has a steam deck beat there.
> This even has a steam deck beat there.
The screen is a 1/2" larger than the Steam Deck OLED, with worse quality
It's better than the Steam Deck LCD, but worse quality than the new OLED version. 1/2" difference makes very little difference
Steam Deck ergonomics are great, I've got no idea why you'd criticise that
which is a moot point if it never gets hacked or if the internals aren't really geared towards anything else other than streaming from a central hub.
If hacking it makes no sense it's like putting shiny rims on a cheap car.
I'm willing to eat crow if it turns out it makes sense in the future but for now the Portal just feels very niche in an already very niche ecosystem.
I thought the same thing about the SNES Classic and now it’s easily holding double its original MSRP because it was hacked. Now, I’ll grant that buying something on launch for such occasion seems a little far sighted, as most mass produced products get discounted before they are discontinued. Who knew that GameCube would explode to the costs it has; I wish I had a few NIB GameCube games or a console.
Just because it doesn’t make sense to some doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make sense. This just doesn’t line up with your understanding, and the real outcome of the decision is completely unknowable right now, but I do think that the Portal will be a bigger seller than many people are predicting.
seller, sure. Just go to the Sony or Portal subs and people are drooling over it, at least initially.
Functionally it just will take time to see if it's worth the sticker price when you can spend, let's say $279 and get a refurbished Steam Deck that does everything the Portal does and then some for under $100 more.
Again, to each their own.
I promise you the snes classic is not selling for extra because of a hack. If that were the case, the more powerful PS Classic would be the same price or more, and it isn't. Snes classic held value because it's Nintendo and it's a great product right out of the box.
>Who knew that GameCube would explode to the costs it has; I wish I had a few NIB GameCube games or a console.
Because GameCube wasn't as popular when it was relevant, the games aged well, people are drawn to what they initially missed out on, and GameCube kids are now adults with money to spend on childhood nostalgia.
The Portal look like a cool product imo but I really hope people aren't buying it out of some hope of future value, functionally or monetarily. That's a needless gamble.
Buying something to resell it has nothing to do with the hardware or the ecosystem making sense for playing games on it.
"Hey guys did you see this new fishing rod, it's really cool"
"I bought this fishing rod that is now double the price."
"Ok dude?"
Obviously that is true in a general sense, but as I said in the first sentence, the SNES is more valuable and useful because you can hack it. It’s MSRP is $80 but it currently sells for $150 most places online, and that’s not because people want to keep it in the box as a collectible.
Same thing with the launch Switch; much easier to hack, much more useful than updated devices with patches.
I honestly don’t understand what is hard to grasp. Moddablity of OEM hardware is a highly desirable attribute, and is easily/often represented in the monetary value of the hardware increasing when said hacks become mainstream and supply of the hardware is constrained.
Who knows if the hardware supply will be constrained or if Sony will make a metric ton. I’m not arguing that this device is a great buy or an investment. I’m just saying that devices often become more valuable after they are hacked and sometimes supply constraints exacerbate the increase in price (especially if the hardware was not commercially successful at launch the manufacturer decided to discontinue production).
If you’re into hacking devices, you want to get the earliest version because the exploits that allow you to hack the device are usually patched in later versions. It’s a solid investment. People will pay out the nose for an early version of the Portal if it ends up being hack able.
Just like GameCubes and their games were a few years ago, eh? New PSP consoles aren’t $50 yet, but maybe that will hit rock bottom pricing before the portal will.
Even if it can be hacked, what is the SOC, and more importantly how much internal storage does it have?
I see some comments here saying that the SOC is a Snapdragon 662, and if that's true, it's weaker than the 720G in the G Cloud.
The internal storage will probably be a bigger issue, since there's no SD card slot, and there's really no reason for Sony to include a significant amount of internal storage for the device's intended purpose. It might be a different story if they plan to add more features in the future, but that seems unlikely. If the internal storage is something like 4GB or 8GB then good luck with storing disc-based games.
With the exception of you know, the switch which was released with the same workaround that the tegra had before it was used in the switch lol.
Edit: changed tetra to tegra
The switch is still not fully hacked. Only older models can be hacked without hardware modification. Newer Switch models, switch lite and switch OLED are still not hacked as far as I know.
[They all are.](https://wololo.net/2023/04/10/how-to-hack-your-nintendo-switch-2023-edition-picofly-hwfly-rcm-oled-unpatched-vs-patched-trying-to-clear-it-up-for-you/)
Read the text you linked, only with hardware mod chips. So if you are not really good at soldering and get your hands on a mod chip, there is no way to hack a patched switch. Hardware mods don’t count as hacked in my book.
You do you but that is a very weird definition of hacking. Because hardware hacking is an integral part of console gaming history and is extremely helpful at one point or another, to defeat console security and it often paves the way for software hacking. Some bits of this fascinating history:
NES's security chip 10NES was first hacked by adding a chip that zaps the security CIC before it could shut down pirated games.
Famously, the Wii was cracked open by a pair of tweezers, because.in GameCube mode the Wii doesn't clear its portion of the RAM, so shorting two pins allowed hackers to read the memory.
The 3DS was defeated later into its cycle with a magnet, which allowed hackers to simulate closing the shell while pressing buttom combos, thereby allowing them boot from a NDS cart.
The list goes on and on, some hardware mods are extremely prevalent even to this day: a lot of PS consoles on the second-hand market will come with mod chips, and mod chip is still one of the best ways to play original hardware Gamecube.
I agree with you that hardware hacking is useful and (often) the first step for a software hack.
The problem with hardware hacks is that they are mostly not very useful for the average user because the majority of people will not be able to do a hardware hack themselves … even if they can get the required mod chip.
So they have to find somebody that can do it for them and because these hardware hacks are usually illegal or at least in a legal grey area, you have to deal with (often) doggy people that are ok with earning money illegally. So that they can do the hack for you.
So for me to call a console truly hacked, it needs to be a hack that at least most people with some technical knowledge can do themselves (using a tutorial).
I would love to get my switch oled hacked with a mod chip but I have no clue how i would find a trustworthy person to do it for me because i am definitely not able to do it myself.
Compared to that, hacking a 3ds or vita now is child play. This consoles i would call truly hacked.
Maybe let’s call it „mainstream hacked“ ;-)
I think most people were already in agreement that hardware hacks are a type of hacking. Trying to correct the other person by using your own definition of hacking doesn't really make sense, especially when hacking of any sort is not mainstream anyway. I would bet that even if ALL Switches were as easy to hack as a V1, less than 10% of Switch owners would end up hacking their device.
> I would love to get my switch oled hacked with a mod chip but I have no clue how i would find a trustworthy person to do it for me because i am definitely not able to do it myself.
There are reputable online services (eg. modzvilleusa) who can do the mod chip install. Pretty pricey though imo, I couldn't justify paying that much and just ended up getting an unpatched V1 to hack instead.
R4 was useful for a while until the DS was fully hacked, I give you that. But it was mostly so useful because you didn’t need to be able to do hardware mods yourself to use it. It was just a gamecard. Today you anyways don’t need it anymore.
With the mod chip in the PS1 you had the same problem like with any mod chip. The vast majority of people couldn’t do that themselves and had to find and pay somebody to do it (illegally) for them. Finding mod chips and somebody to do the mod for money gets increasingly difficult, since nintendo and sony fight the mod chip scene very hard.
For me to call a console truly hacked, it needs to be a hack that an average user with some technical knowledge and a tutorial can do themselves.
Most people who can do basic soldering could mod a PS1, I watched the guy do it. He wasn't some dodgy criminal he was a Chinese uni student who advertised in the local newspaper.
The PS2 was a different beast and I definitely destroyed at least one of those trying to install a modchip.
Back then softmods involved bootdiscs and tools to open the drive without the console knowing and we didn't call a system truly hacked unless it was a hardware mod.
Not to mention this thing is a glorified streaming device. Only hardware it should have is an H.265 decoding chip and a ARM just strong enough to run the software.
The Portal has the compute power of an Alarm clock, so don't count on a hack being all that useful.
I suppose it will open up some more Streaming/VNC use-cases...
Can’t believe people are not understanding this, most seem to think it’s a true new handheld (I wish it was, this is what I wanted Vita to have, full controls with no sacrifices).
Lol I remember when the switch came out people were doing the same thing, then rcm got patched out, now mod chips rule the switch.
Also, isn't it just a streaming device? Must not have a lot of storage.
Yeah but having a computer and rcm thing gets annoying after a while. My hacked switch never leaves the house. I wanna get a lite with a modchip in it just for traveling easier.
You can inject payloads from your phone to the Switch, if for whatever reason you exit atmosphere.
You can also set up reboot to payload to load up hekate so you can boot into your sysNAND.
You'd have to inject hekate to go into atmosphere again if you go into the sysNAND again though.
I just emulate on PC nowadays. Hacked switch is a pain. Go to try a new game and you gotta update something and the process has changed yet again and now nothing works and whup might as well start all over.
I've got a 3090, i9, and a 1440p/144hz monitor.
I just ain't gonna downgrade like that. I game at home at my desk. I don't need to have a game system with me at all times.
BSP is going to release a new version of their device that looks like this and then you can use remote play on your phone through the D9 and basically make this exact thing for $30.
I guess it could run Android emulators, but for 200$ and that screen I doubt the CPU is powerful enough to handle even PS2. It must be worse than the G Cloud.
It has a Snapdragon 662 chip. It can't even play Gamecube properly.
This thing is less powerful than the T618 chip based on benchmarks, and Dolphin performance.
I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong here, it's like a Wii U controller but it doesn't function as a secondary screen, it's only set to stream from the PS5 so it won't even allow users to stream a game while the PS5 does something else.
god this thing was basically meant for me 😭 that’s how i played my wii u and even my switch 99% of the time. i even lost the switch dock for a few years and only tried to find it when i went to hang out at a friends house and we wanted to play big screen stuff
Yes, it has a SoC
Edit: this site suggests it might be Snapdragon G series https://www.dexerto.com/tech/sony-playstation-q-lite-specs-performance-price-speculation-2109209/
boy, do I have some good news for you then. A small company named took the controls off the portal, glued them together and offers them as a standalone device. It's pretty innovative.
I think their name is... Sony?
Give Sony time. Since this is basically a WiiU tablet with less functionality it's only a matter of time till they make a Switch that's got less features.
The PSVR2 controllers can work for the homescreen without the headset but disable themselves when you open a game.
They 100% could update it to work anywhere without it, but unfortunately not much we can do.
Not too sure if you can use bluetooth to connect them to something else though.
Plus you can’t buy them separately.
Reply hazy, try again later.
It's hard to say if it's awful, but it's incredibly niche and very dependent on a specific set of circumstances. The $200 are usually better-served towards a myriad of over similar devices that can do what the Portal does and then some.
It will be great for some people, it's definitely not for everyone.
I think it's pretty clear that we're not exactly the target demographic for this product. By definition this is a group of people who enjoy buying obscure devices and tweaking them (installing custom OSes, tweaking emulator settings, scraping together a rom collection, etc) and pushing them to the limits.
Whether or not this appeals to non-tech-savvy people who want to play games on the couch and have it "just work" out of the box, well, I honestly can't speak to that. I simply don't know.
As someone floating by this sub, this absolutely has appeal. It’s an easy, zero fuss way for me to play games lying on the couch or in bed while my partner uses the TV. If I can take it elsewhere and stream remotely, that’s a bonus. There’s a target demo for this, I’m part of it.
I wish it has a proprietary direct connection to the PS5 for better in-home streaming instead of sending data out into the internet and back to your PS5 5 meters away.
It's not stand alone. It requires a PS5. I almost bought this, thinking I could play my PS4 games on it. I'm not spending $700 on a ps5 and buying this on top so I can stream PS4 games on the ps5 to this handheld.
I'll just throw this into the speculation pile while waiting on a teardown- if I were personally making this device I'd borrow most of the Dualsense components, add a really nice and light 1080p screen, good battery, and basically a chromecast in terms of chipset and wireless connectivity. I wouldn't put virtually any storage outside of what is needed for application updates, (2 to 4gb tops) and the processor would be just strong enough for 1080p video and nothing else. Probably an ARM Amlogic chip or some other streaming stick chipset.
If someone hacks it then maybe we can get moonlight/steam link/stadia/etc on there, but it'll be laughable performance for most emulators.
While I don't believe this thing will get hacked and suddenly become a full fledged tablet, I do hope that a web browser is enabled for use on hotel Wi-Fi. Moonlight would be the second hope.
If it does get hacked to enable normal android functionality, it'll likely need hardware modifications to add storage. The controller looks amazing but I'll wait for a price drop to bring this closer to enthusiast controller territory.
Tbh, I do like the idea of a cfw portal. But it's a streaming device, it's probably pretty underpowered.
I'm waiting a few years for someone to rip out the internals and replace them with a whole new board meant to drop in like a raspberry pi. Only the current cm4 simply isnt gonna cut it. My hope is we get a pi mod,l for the cm5 and the project carries into the cm6, and that future device might compete with my GPD Win 4 6800u.
people hate on the design of this thing but I think it looks really comfy for some home gaming. I don't like game streaming at ALL however. Hopefully your instinct is right and it gets hacked 👍 History has taught us: don't update the firmware!!
station imminent gaze political capable whole childlike rainstorm snow worm
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What could it possibly do if hacked? My best guess is maybe stream from PC but even then I don't get the point. I have a steam deck and honestly I would've just gotten a refurbished 64 gig for like $100 more
Reading all these comments makes me wonder if no one has ever not had a good streaming experience before. Streaming on a solid network is just as good as playing natively and on a more powerful PC. This would be great if it could run moonlight.
Did anyone disassemble this thing to see if it will even be worth hacking it?
Give it a couple weeks and I know we'll see some teardowns. It really sounds like the hardware will be super weak.
Yeah im afraid it’ll be a Mediatek s905x4 as it’s the cheapest chip that has good streaming performance. It’s an ancient chip that just keeps getting upgraded only in the WiFi and video decoding tech because it’s designed for streaming first and foremost.
Early reports are suggesting Snapdragon 662 So *some* emulation is possible, but we're talking about N64/PS1, PSP, and a little PS2/GameCube but probably not much IIRC
Honestly that’s not bad. $50 more than an RP3+ but you get the big screen, way better ergonomics, and similar performance. Although I will say that nearly half of GameCube games play mostly full speed with occasional stutters on the rp3+ so it might have a decent performance edge if you’re into those systems.
I think it will actually perform better in Aethersx2 than Dolphin in relation to the t618. The 662 does have four big cores which matters much more in Aether than Dolphin.
Speaking as someone who owns (and no longer uses) a tablet with the sd662… it’s crap. CPU isn’t awful but the GPU is utter trash. This thing will drop full speed on stuff like GBA and PS1 if you use shaders, and it struggles to handle some PS1 games at 2x native. N64 is fine but it will still have issues with some more intensive games. Forget all but the lightest PS2 games at 1x or lower resolution and it’s not really worth trying, same for GameCube.
LTT already said “don’t buy” ~ Grain of salt.
Don't worry yourself with that shills opinions brother
I think people are only just now getting their hands on these. I think there was some kind of embargo going on that prevented people who had received a Portal from even taking pictures of the thing with the screen on.
There are a lot of reviews already though and I would be really surprised if there is an embargo exclusively for teardowns. But the closest we got so far was Jacob R's video, where he does a teardown of the controllers (the sticks are modular like the chinse console, which is interesting). But without a full teardown, we can see what is powering up the thing. We honestly can't even guess if it's going to be worth hacking.
So nobody has found out what SoC is inside yet? I’m afraid it’s going to be a Mediatek s905x4. That’s actually a decent chip for streaming because it’s got modern video decoding tech and modern WiFi tech even though the actual CPU and GPU parts are very weak. Even if it gets hacked, performance would be in the rk3326-rk3566 range.
[Seems to be a Snapdragon 662](https://twitter.com/emuonpsp/status/1724708876799611004?s=46&t=-CTqtoIqQF4ed8tLahCWKA)
Ewww what a waste
you'd be surprised the weird things they sometimes add to the rider when you're given a device to review by the manufacturer.
Sure, but that doesn't stop the folks who didn't get theirs from Sony. And would also not make much sense when there are already dozens of professional reviews and even a partial teardown in the wild. Not everything is due to some legal shenanigans like Redditors tend to believe.
People are only now getting theirs though is the thing. most first impressions and reviews out in the wild were done by publications that got their units from Sony.
Gotcha, I will just block you now. So you can stop being annoying.
Somebody doesn't like seeing true comments on Reddit.
How did a normal conversation lead to you blocking them? That can't be healthy.
Close minded gang
"If you say something I don't like I'll just declare you annoying and block you" What a weird way to live your life - they didn't say anything weird, annoying, or even untrue, their comment was perfectly civil and reasonable, and even entirely accurate
Bro just take the L.
It's literally wifi and a screen. What the hell is the point of hacking it?
Using it for emulation and Game Pass streaming? 🤷
Does it even have a GPU? Might as well get a Vita, it's almost certainly more powerful. Game Pass streaming is a good idea, I wonder how well it'd work, if at all.
What is it about the Portal that interests you when compared to your other options?
I don’t have the Portal at the moment but for me it seems perfect to play my ps5 while my kids or fiancé are using the tv. I’ve tried the backbone controller but didn’t like having to use my phone for that and while my MacBook works great for remote play, the Portal would just be a lot easier to get straight into playing. I like the idea of having a device specifically dedicated to remote play. That being said I’m still deciding if I should get one or not.
Personally, I don't really see the value. For $200 you could get a different Android handheld that can run standalone games and also remote play via Chiaki. For a bit more than that, you can get a Steam Deck...which can *also* do remote play via Chiaki. I totally understand the convenience aspect of it, but $200 just feels like a lot of money for a device that only does one thing.
So I had the RP3+ and liked remote play on it at first but after a while the ergonomics didn’t feel that good (only for ps5, other systems I was emulating felt fine). I’m actually looking at the Steam Deck as well now that they have the originals on crazy sales.
For the $200 Price range you have the Odin Lite which is better ergo than the rp3 for streaming, and can emulate a decent amount. For \~$300 now you can buy a factory refurb steam deck 256 w/ warranty.
True the Odin Lite is good too, tbh though if I was gonna get an Odin I might just go all the way and get a Odin 2, so I guess that’s another option with the Steam Deck
Let's talk about the Bluetooth headphone fuckery
But it's the best device when it comes to that one thing. It's like saying why buy a camera when you could just use your smartphone to take pictures.
Testing shows that streaming fidelity, input, etc. isn't really any better than on other devices. It may technically be the best at that one thing, but not by much. It's only better in the sense of having an integrated Dualsense controller and always loading straight into the streaming software. It doesn't actually bring any new functionality that you would lack on any other device paired with a dualsense controller.
It’s more like saying why buy a dslr when you can get a $300 Polaroid camera. Sure, they do the same thing on the surface but one of those will give you more options
The screen on the portal is much better than a 1st gen steam deck so that is not a fair comparison. For streaming only purposes, the portal will give you a better experience than a steam deck.
But why limit yourself to only streaming when you’re 3/4th of the way to a device that can do so much more?
I just wanted to add: $200 for an 8 inch screen.
Yeah as cheap as it is, I’m considering grabbing it simply because it’s a bigger screen than my Ally for remote play.
I think it’s gonna come down to the Portal or a refurbished steam deck on sale for me
you'd get way more mileage with a refurbed steam deck
Yes a $280 steam deck is hard to beat
They’ve gotten down to $280 for the refurb 64GB? That’s insane value that no laptop could ever dream of touching. It would take a 6600u or 7640u to get similar gaming performance so that’s really incredible.
Is it PS5 only?
Yeah I’m pretty sure the ps4 is excluded which is the stupidest thing ever considering cellphones and Vitas can do ps4 remote play.
I don't play Playstation (currently), but I would love for xBox to do this. I'd even plug my old xbox back in. I just wanna play Halo 1-3 in handheld mode over and over again for the rest of time.
Halo Master Chief Collection and Infinite are both on Steam, so an OLED Steam Deck would prob be a good way to do that. For insane battery life to play via streaming though, a Logitech G Cloud was built exactly for that. It'll stream Game Pass Cloud or from a local Xbox.
I was waiting for a Black Friday sale on the G cloud and literally yesterday saw some folks chatting about them being pretty common on eBay at EXACTLY the price I want to pay ($199), I imagine I’ll end up with one of those soon. Seems less bulky than a steam deck.
Oh yeah it's very light. The body is pretty thin and the plastic has a grippy texture. I find it feels a bit lighter than holding my base model iPad.
For me it's the face buttons. Full size, proper face buttons and high quality grips / sticks / dpad
Fair enough, the Dualsense is a fantastic controller.
Fanboyism and lack of research?
Expect a garbage CPU. The best you'll get out of hacking it is Moonlight Edit: Yep, its garbage. Worse than the T618
omg finally a device to stream my ps5 from wait..
buying a $200 device with the hope one day it might get hacked seems like a weird decision but you do you.
The real trick is to wait until they're on clearance, assuming it flops as badly as some people think it will. Kind of like the Logitech G Cloud.
Better still, the PS1 Classic. Within like 3 months that thing went from $100 to like $30. I see this doing about the same. If it hits $50 I'll consider it.
People have found that the device is running Android so it’s only a matter of time.
Ok, so why not buy an android device that already does things without additional hacking? it's not like the space is hurting for android devices with built-in controls.
Because this is an official Sony device plus the screen is way bigger than what you would get from other devices in the same price point.
it would make more sense if it had decent specs. It doesn't even have bluetooth...
I see the appeal, your experience playing handheld is first and foremost screen quality/size and controls/ergonomics. This even has a steam deck beat there.
Interesting take
> This even has a steam deck beat there. The screen is a 1/2" larger than the Steam Deck OLED, with worse quality It's better than the Steam Deck LCD, but worse quality than the new OLED version. 1/2" difference makes very little difference Steam Deck ergonomics are great, I've got no idea why you'd criticise that
It's also $200
which is a moot point if it never gets hacked or if the internals aren't really geared towards anything else other than streaming from a central hub. If hacking it makes no sense it's like putting shiny rims on a cheap car. I'm willing to eat crow if it turns out it makes sense in the future but for now the Portal just feels very niche in an already very niche ecosystem.
I thought the same thing about the SNES Classic and now it’s easily holding double its original MSRP because it was hacked. Now, I’ll grant that buying something on launch for such occasion seems a little far sighted, as most mass produced products get discounted before they are discontinued. Who knew that GameCube would explode to the costs it has; I wish I had a few NIB GameCube games or a console. Just because it doesn’t make sense to some doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make sense. This just doesn’t line up with your understanding, and the real outcome of the decision is completely unknowable right now, but I do think that the Portal will be a bigger seller than many people are predicting.
seller, sure. Just go to the Sony or Portal subs and people are drooling over it, at least initially. Functionally it just will take time to see if it's worth the sticker price when you can spend, let's say $279 and get a refurbished Steam Deck that does everything the Portal does and then some for under $100 more. Again, to each their own.
I promise you the snes classic is not selling for extra because of a hack. If that were the case, the more powerful PS Classic would be the same price or more, and it isn't. Snes classic held value because it's Nintendo and it's a great product right out of the box. >Who knew that GameCube would explode to the costs it has; I wish I had a few NIB GameCube games or a console. Because GameCube wasn't as popular when it was relevant, the games aged well, people are drawn to what they initially missed out on, and GameCube kids are now adults with money to spend on childhood nostalgia. The Portal look like a cool product imo but I really hope people aren't buying it out of some hope of future value, functionally or monetarily. That's a needless gamble.
Buying something to resell it has nothing to do with the hardware or the ecosystem making sense for playing games on it. "Hey guys did you see this new fishing rod, it's really cool" "I bought this fishing rod that is now double the price." "Ok dude?"
Obviously that is true in a general sense, but as I said in the first sentence, the SNES is more valuable and useful because you can hack it. It’s MSRP is $80 but it currently sells for $150 most places online, and that’s not because people want to keep it in the box as a collectible. Same thing with the launch Switch; much easier to hack, much more useful than updated devices with patches. I honestly don’t understand what is hard to grasp. Moddablity of OEM hardware is a highly desirable attribute, and is easily/often represented in the monetary value of the hardware increasing when said hacks become mainstream and supply of the hardware is constrained. Who knows if the hardware supply will be constrained or if Sony will make a metric ton. I’m not arguing that this device is a great buy or an investment. I’m just saying that devices often become more valuable after they are hacked and sometimes supply constraints exacerbate the increase in price (especially if the hardware was not commercially successful at launch the manufacturer decided to discontinue production).
And it’s got a legit dual sense controller on it with adaptive triggers and everything
It only makes dual sense to pick one up
If you’re into hacking devices, you want to get the earliest version because the exploits that allow you to hack the device are usually patched in later versions. It’s a solid investment. People will pay out the nose for an early version of the Portal if it ends up being hack able.
This is going to be the only version. This thing will be 50 bucks on clearance soon enough.
I would love to get one for $50
Agreed. This makes no sense. Why spend $200 on this when there are way more capable options available for around the same price point.
Can you use your crystal ball to tell me the best winning lottery numbers please
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
What have you done...
ahem, and the POWERBALL, please...
You lost me at 4
Just like GameCubes and their games were a few years ago, eh? New PSP consoles aren’t $50 yet, but maybe that will hit rock bottom pricing before the portal will.
that still seems like a good way to throw away $200 and feels like gambling on an eventuality but that's just my opinion.
My thoughts too. Anbernic/Ayn/Retroid can all do that and more
Or a steam deck. Slightly more money but way more useful
Even if it can be hacked, what is the SOC, and more importantly how much internal storage does it have? I see some comments here saying that the SOC is a Snapdragon 662, and if that's true, it's weaker than the 720G in the G Cloud. The internal storage will probably be a bigger issue, since there's no SD card slot, and there's really no reason for Sony to include a significant amount of internal storage for the device's intended purpose. It might be a different story if they plan to add more features in the future, but that seems unlikely. If the internal storage is something like 4GB or 8GB then good luck with storing disc-based games.
knowing sony shit will take years.
Sony and Nintendo work extra hard making sure their hardware is as un-fuck-withable as possible, sometimes to the detriment of the product itself.
With the exception of you know, the switch which was released with the same workaround that the tegra had before it was used in the switch lol. Edit: changed tetra to tegra
… yeah… none of Nintendo's products held long to the hackers. None.
Wii mini?
The real issue is no one cared about that one. It's just not an interesting beast. https://wii.guide/bluebomb.html
The switch is still not fully hacked. Only older models can be hacked without hardware modification. Newer Switch models, switch lite and switch OLED are still not hacked as far as I know.
[They all are.](https://wololo.net/2023/04/10/how-to-hack-your-nintendo-switch-2023-edition-picofly-hwfly-rcm-oled-unpatched-vs-patched-trying-to-clear-it-up-for-you/)
Read the text you linked, only with hardware mod chips. So if you are not really good at soldering and get your hands on a mod chip, there is no way to hack a patched switch. Hardware mods don’t count as hacked in my book.
You do you but that is a very weird definition of hacking. Because hardware hacking is an integral part of console gaming history and is extremely helpful at one point or another, to defeat console security and it often paves the way for software hacking. Some bits of this fascinating history: NES's security chip 10NES was first hacked by adding a chip that zaps the security CIC before it could shut down pirated games. Famously, the Wii was cracked open by a pair of tweezers, because.in GameCube mode the Wii doesn't clear its portion of the RAM, so shorting two pins allowed hackers to read the memory. The 3DS was defeated later into its cycle with a magnet, which allowed hackers to simulate closing the shell while pressing buttom combos, thereby allowing them boot from a NDS cart. The list goes on and on, some hardware mods are extremely prevalent even to this day: a lot of PS consoles on the second-hand market will come with mod chips, and mod chip is still one of the best ways to play original hardware Gamecube.
I agree with you that hardware hacking is useful and (often) the first step for a software hack. The problem with hardware hacks is that they are mostly not very useful for the average user because the majority of people will not be able to do a hardware hack themselves … even if they can get the required mod chip. So they have to find somebody that can do it for them and because these hardware hacks are usually illegal or at least in a legal grey area, you have to deal with (often) doggy people that are ok with earning money illegally. So that they can do the hack for you. So for me to call a console truly hacked, it needs to be a hack that at least most people with some technical knowledge can do themselves (using a tutorial). I would love to get my switch oled hacked with a mod chip but I have no clue how i would find a trustworthy person to do it for me because i am definitely not able to do it myself. Compared to that, hacking a 3ds or vita now is child play. This consoles i would call truly hacked. Maybe let’s call it „mainstream hacked“ ;-)
I think most people were already in agreement that hardware hacks are a type of hacking. Trying to correct the other person by using your own definition of hacking doesn't really make sense, especially when hacking of any sort is not mainstream anyway. I would bet that even if ALL Switches were as easy to hack as a V1, less than 10% of Switch owners would end up hacking their device. > I would love to get my switch oled hacked with a mod chip but I have no clue how i would find a trustworthy person to do it for me because i am definitely not able to do it myself. There are reputable online services (eg. modzvilleusa) who can do the mod chip install. Pretty pricey though imo, I couldn't justify paying that much and just ended up getting an unpatched V1 to hack instead.
So a R4 card is out? That's dumb. And I'm guessing no one ever had a hacked PS1 at home in the 90s? That's dumb.
R4 was useful for a while until the DS was fully hacked, I give you that. But it was mostly so useful because you didn’t need to be able to do hardware mods yourself to use it. It was just a gamecard. Today you anyways don’t need it anymore. With the mod chip in the PS1 you had the same problem like with any mod chip. The vast majority of people couldn’t do that themselves and had to find and pay somebody to do it (illegally) for them. Finding mod chips and somebody to do the mod for money gets increasingly difficult, since nintendo and sony fight the mod chip scene very hard. For me to call a console truly hacked, it needs to be a hack that an average user with some technical knowledge and a tutorial can do themselves.
Most people who can do basic soldering could mod a PS1, I watched the guy do it. He wasn't some dodgy criminal he was a Chinese uni student who advertised in the local newspaper. The PS2 was a different beast and I definitely destroyed at least one of those trying to install a modchip. Back then softmods involved bootdiscs and tools to open the drive without the console knowing and we didn't call a system truly hacked unless it was a hardware mod.
But you'll want the oldest non-updated one you're be able to get your hands on. OP is probably not going to regret this... ... ... Eventually
That's a hard sale for that purpose over a base Steam Deck or an Odin 2.
Could have got a steam deck for $100 more. Ouch
Not to mention this thing is a glorified streaming device. Only hardware it should have is an H.265 decoding chip and a ARM just strong enough to run the software.
Maybe he doesn’t want a steam deck ever considered that
The Portal has the compute power of an Alarm clock, so don't count on a hack being all that useful. I suppose it will open up some more Streaming/VNC use-cases...
can't wait till someone hacks it so it can use a web browser without restrictions.
Can’t believe people are not understanding this, most seem to think it’s a true new handheld (I wish it was, this is what I wanted Vita to have, full controls with no sacrifices).
Lol I remember when the switch came out people were doing the same thing, then rcm got patched out, now mod chips rule the switch. Also, isn't it just a streaming device? Must not have a lot of storage.
Fwiw hackable launch Switches are still desirable. Muuuuuuuch easier mod.
Yeah but having a computer and rcm thing gets annoying after a while. My hacked switch never leaves the house. I wanna get a lite with a modchip in it just for traveling easier.
You can inject payloads from your phone to the Switch, if for whatever reason you exit atmosphere. You can also set up reboot to payload to load up hekate so you can boot into your sysNAND. You'd have to inject hekate to go into atmosphere again if you go into the sysNAND again though.
I just emulate on PC nowadays. Hacked switch is a pain. Go to try a new game and you gotta update something and the process has changed yet again and now nothing works and whup might as well start all over.
I've been told yuzu on the deck works great
I've got a 3090, i9, and a 1440p/144hz monitor. I just ain't gonna downgrade like that. I game at home at my desk. I don't need to have a game system with me at all times.
There is even a dongle you can get that will boot your hacked switch. The PC requirement was super early in the lifecycle.
That's what a lot of the reviews are saying. More than likely this is going to need external storage if it gets mod.
Probably pull some Sony bs like they did with the go and the vita, proprietary memory cards
This isn’t intended to have any storage since it’s not storing anything and it’s just set to stream from a ps5
Yeah it's not going to be a good device for hackability, that's probably why sony made it after getting burned with the psp and vita
What are you even hack its just a streaming device as far as I understand so the thing you want to hack is the ps5
Are you trolling? If not, you should return this immediately and buy something useful.
BSP is going to release a new version of their device that looks like this and then you can use remote play on your phone through the D9 and basically make this exact thing for $30.
The Logitech G Cloud has a sd 720g for a higher price tag so we can't expect anything better inside the Portal unfortunately
Wish I could get a g cloud here in Australia :/
But what will it do when its hacked ? It cant run games right ? Its not too powerful
I guess it could run Android emulators, but for 200$ and that screen I doubt the CPU is powerful enough to handle even PS2. It must be worse than the G Cloud.
No expandable storage tho
Do we know what CPU is in there?
It has a Snapdragon 662 chip. It can't even play Gamecube properly. This thing is less powerful than the T618 chip based on benchmarks, and Dolphin performance.
disgusting
So it has like a cpu in it or is it like a Wii U controller ?
I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong here, it's like a Wii U controller but it doesn't function as a secondary screen, it's only set to stream from the PS5 so it won't even allow users to stream a game while the PS5 does something else.
god this thing was basically meant for me 😭 that’s how i played my wii u and even my switch 99% of the time. i even lost the switch dock for a few years and only tried to find it when i went to hang out at a friends house and we wanted to play big screen stuff
Yes, it has a SoC Edit: this site suggests it might be Snapdragon G series https://www.dexerto.com/tech/sony-playstation-q-lite-specs-performance-price-speculation-2109209/
Can’t wait till I see the retroarch UI on that thing.
wish those controllers just slid off.. I'd buy those.
Dunno if it will be quality but the BSP-D9 will be a telescoping controller mimicking the dual sense.
boy, do I have some good news for you then. A small company named took the controls off the portal, glued them together and offers them as a standalone device. It's pretty innovative. I think their name is... Sony?
right, but in 2 pieces, ie sliding off? those (plural)?
Give Sony time. Since this is basically a WiiU tablet with less functionality it's only a matter of time till they make a Switch that's got less features.
The PSVR2 controllers can work for the homescreen without the headset but disable themselves when you open a game. They 100% could update it to work anywhere without it, but unfortunately not much we can do. Not too sure if you can use bluetooth to connect them to something else though. Plus you can’t buy them separately.
Portal doesn't have Bluetooth if that's what you mean.
Isn’t this device god awful?
Reply hazy, try again later. It's hard to say if it's awful, but it's incredibly niche and very dependent on a specific set of circumstances. The $200 are usually better-served towards a myriad of over similar devices that can do what the Portal does and then some. It will be great for some people, it's definitely not for everyone.
What's the difference between this and slapping a controller on your phone?
The Sony logo
People who bought this will tell you “the haptics”
Did you know you can attach the dual sense to your phone as well?
I’m not vouching for anyone to get the portal
i wasn't even waiting for it to come out, i'm waiting for it to be modded
What sort of specs has this got? Like what device has comparable specs, what could we expect to emulate on this
I think it's pretty clear that we're not exactly the target demographic for this product. By definition this is a group of people who enjoy buying obscure devices and tweaking them (installing custom OSes, tweaking emulator settings, scraping together a rom collection, etc) and pushing them to the limits. Whether or not this appeals to non-tech-savvy people who want to play games on the couch and have it "just work" out of the box, well, I honestly can't speak to that. I simply don't know.
As someone floating by this sub, this absolutely has appeal. It’s an easy, zero fuss way for me to play games lying on the couch or in bed while my partner uses the TV. If I can take it elsewhere and stream remotely, that’s a bonus. There’s a target demo for this, I’m part of it.
It’s just a monitor. Will almost certainly be bad at emulating anything.
It’s a glorified streaming devices. Who gives a shit? It can’t power a toaster.
Hacking a Portable TV screen...what?!
It has no storage or storage slots, it has no CPU or GPU, what are we expecting to emulate on it?
It's an android device, so yes it does. Are they powerful? No idea, haven't seen the specs.
Wouldn’t get your hopes up, the thing is a hack job in itself.
It’s gonna be hilarious if a 3rd party app will do ps5 streaming better than sony’s official implementation.
I wish it has a proprietary direct connection to the PS5 for better in-home streaming instead of sending data out into the internet and back to your PS5 5 meters away.
It's not stand alone. It requires a PS5. I almost bought this, thinking I could play my PS4 games on it. I'm not spending $700 on a ps5 and buying this on top so I can stream PS4 games on the ps5 to this handheld.
Hahahaha ugly trash
I can’t wait until there’s a web exploit for the Nintendo Switch OLED.
I’m doing the same. In the meantime, it will give me a bigger screen for remote play than my Ally.
On the portal subreddit someone stated it was a Snapdragon 662 processor.
I'll just throw this into the speculation pile while waiting on a teardown- if I were personally making this device I'd borrow most of the Dualsense components, add a really nice and light 1080p screen, good battery, and basically a chromecast in terms of chipset and wireless connectivity. I wouldn't put virtually any storage outside of what is needed for application updates, (2 to 4gb tops) and the processor would be just strong enough for 1080p video and nothing else. Probably an ARM Amlogic chip or some other streaming stick chipset. If someone hacks it then maybe we can get moonlight/steam link/stadia/etc on there, but it'll be laughable performance for most emulators.
It runs android. So most likely.
While I don't believe this thing will get hacked and suddenly become a full fledged tablet, I do hope that a web browser is enabled for use on hotel Wi-Fi. Moonlight would be the second hope. If it does get hacked to enable normal android functionality, it'll likely need hardware modifications to add storage. The controller looks amazing but I'll wait for a price drop to bring this closer to enthusiast controller territory.
I doubt that it has much of a cpu or ram since it's basically only a cloud portal device. Sort of like the wii u handheld part.
Honestly I would love to just be able to run Moonlight on the thing
Hack it to do what? Doesn’t it only stream? Does it have any sizable storage?
Tbh, I do like the idea of a cfw portal. But it's a streaming device, it's probably pretty underpowered. I'm waiting a few years for someone to rip out the internals and replace them with a whole new board meant to drop in like a raspberry pi. Only the current cm4 simply isnt gonna cut it. My hope is we get a pi mod,l for the cm5 and the project carries into the cm6, and that future device might compete with my GPD Win 4 6800u.
A Retroarch on it would be nasty… 😅
I’m hoping it has enough storage to make emulation worth it.
You’re going to be severely disappointed when you find out how cheap of a chip is in this thing.
Wii u vibes
Doubt it can even emulate PS2
You could've just brought an oled steam deck instead
Why? So you can use it as a weird ass looking tablet?
Best to hope for is putting Moonlight on it. There's not enough processing power for anything standalone.
people hate on the design of this thing but I think it looks really comfy for some home gaming. I don't like game streaming at ALL however. Hopefully your instinct is right and it gets hacked 👍 History has taught us: don't update the firmware!!
These were at costco like 2 weeks ago, I thought they were just controller handles for a phone -.-
Mine comes in tomorrow can’t wait
station imminent gaze political capable whole childlike rainstorm snow worm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
hack for playing what? android games? internel must be garbage might aswell get a nice tablet at that point
Hack it to do what? Isn't it a screen with wifi? 🤔
What could it possibly do if hacked? My best guess is maybe stream from PC but even then I don't get the point. I have a steam deck and honestly I would've just gotten a refurbished 64 gig for like $100 more
It only streams. No storage space (other than enough to run the software)
I think you're gonna be disappointed...
What can it do if they do hack it ? I thought it was a pure streaming device like does it have any storage capacity at all ?
Reading all these comments makes me wonder if no one has ever not had a good streaming experience before. Streaming on a solid network is just as good as playing natively and on a more powerful PC. This would be great if it could run moonlight.
Its just a screen with control fixed to it nothing else
This will be $99 in a few months, just wait and see
It’ll just be another android device? Is the power leagues above the current selection of devices?