There’s no getting round it. The PlayStation Portal, Sony’s new wi-fi PS5 handheld, could be very weird-looking. Basically a DualSense controller cut up in half with a touchscreen within the center, it’s the hand-held equal of a Hummer became a stretch limousine. Once I noticed the primary photos of this factor on-line, my preliminary thought was somebody had drawn it on a bar serviette, or outgoing PlayStation boss Jim Ryan had misplaced a guess.
As soon as I opened the field, which is somewhat bit smaller than the one you’d get with a pair of Vans, that notion was unchanged. It nonetheless seems to be like somebody made a boomerang out of a Kindle. It has the identical coarse texture on the again of every controller arm. It’s pleasing to the contact, but additionally a grime-magnet.
However regardless of its unusual aesthetics, Sony’s handheld feels awfully good in your fingers. The semi-detached handles shift the middle of gravity towards the center of the display, permitting it to really feel somewhat bit lighter than it really is. The rounded sides are considerably simpler on the palms of your fingers than the squared-off backside edges of the Change or the Steam Deck. It feels extra like holding an precise controller than a giant ol’ rectangle of plastic. Who’da thought?
The handles are roughly an inch shorter than these of the usual DualSense, which I count on may take somewhat little bit of getting used to. My fingers naturally sit somewhat additional ahead of the management sticks on the Portal than the DualSense, and I can think about needing to regulate my grip sometimes whereas I get used to driving this beast.
The Portal is way extra robustly constructed than I anticipated, and there’s no give or torsion when you twist the handles. The underside corners of the display may very well be weak to cracking after a drop—there isn’t a lot in the way in which of a protecting bezel across the decrease third of the display. That stated, the display is solidly mounted to the body in a manner that belies the relatively spindly look of the Portal.
Annoyingly, Sony’s handheld doesn’t include a devoted energy brick—only a USB cable so that you can use with one other adapter or to plug into the entrance of your PS5. The facility cable goes within the center-back of the display, proper underneath the white armature. It’s somewhat fiddly to get to, however not fairly as annoying because the cable housings on the Change dock.
We’ll have a full rundown of Sony’s new handheld subsequent week. PlayStation Portal launches November 15 (see at Finest Purchase).