Customer Ratings & Reviews

Wonderful way to stay in touch with friends and family, though you must convince them to get a What's App or Facebook account. There are some privacy concerns, but it works well for us. However, the ease of use issue is substantial in getting everything to work. Better instructions would be very helpful in all.

My 103-year-old mother loves her Portal. When she's not using it for video calls, she enjoys the slide show of family photos that are posted on her Facebook page. Amazingly clear audio and video. She even wants to learn how to use google.

It works so well and very helpful for the family it bring the family close to each other using video calling via messenger. So much thing to do about this device

It’s a decent smart screen. We like the camera feature and the photo slide show among other popular features. We don’t like that it doesn’t integrate with Alexa drop in capabilities and it doesn’t allow to install some popular apps

A fantastic smart speaker and screen with the functions of all the more popular variants but with a much better sale price and an easy-to-use all-in-one interface.

When we saw the information about the new Portal by Facebook my wife just had to try it. She like video conferencing with her family overseas and we thought this would be a very convenient device to try out. Unboxing and setting up. The Portal is carefully boxed with the the unit itself, power supply / kick stand, manual and that’s about it, pretty simple. The first thing we noticed is this isn’t exactly like a tablet that we thought it would be but more shaped like an electronic picture frame. The frame itself is a good inch thick and it’s surprisingly heavy, something we didn’t expect. There isn’t a battery in the device, “more on that later”, and you have to plug in the power adapter which also happens to have a long plastic end which doubles as a kick stand. Once plugged in the device powers on and starts the setup process. Next you are asked for your WiFi information and it connected to our router without a problem. It also had an update that ran immediately so we waited for that to finish up. You really need a Facebook account to get this set up and after she entered her FB login information and the rest of the guided setup process we started looking around what it could to. “You also have to enter your Amazon Prime account information if you want to use Alexa, which we did”. Using; The 10” screen is really bright and clear, no problem seeing it in any condition on the table where she has it sitting under any lighting day/night. On the back of the Portal there’s a large circular disk that protrudes from the back, according to the manual this is the sub-woofer. She immediately was trying out Prime music and loved it, the sound quality is pretty amazing and the player has an option to turn on the lyrics so you can sing along karaoke style. I Pandora doesn’t have any lyric options but it and I Heart Radio sounded really good. Now came time to test out the video calling, and the first test was to my family overseas, they were using FB messenger and the call connected perfectly, the video was very clear on my end and they said the camera quality there looked great. They really liked the way the camera follows you around and you don’t have to just sit right in front of the device to chat. The second big test was with a friend of ours who also got a unit right away and the two worked perfectly, no computer needed on either end. And we ended up taking longer than we have since we moved. There’s no need to tie up your computer or phone for video chatting it’s just that convenient. We also tried playing a game of chess, and that worked better than expected and realized just how long it’s been since I’ve played a game, “pretty rusty”, but there are also a few more interactive games you can play with your friend like, checkers. I also called my sister in Singapore using WhatsApp, and had a great time chatting with her, we usually chat on our phones but this was so much nicer on my end, she wishes they had them available there. Even being that far away the sound was excellent and she was very impressed with the video quality on her end. Final impressions; The things we really liked are how clear the video is, and how easy it is to call someone on it. After you add your contacts you can just ask Alexa to call them. Alexa also works just like it does on our other Alexa devices and if you ask for the weather it tells you what the weather is going to be along with displaying the full week of weather ahead. They also added a switch to the edge of it so you can turn off the camera, and then further sliding it turns off the microphone. Great idea if you are worried about privacy. You can set the Portal up to sit either landscape or Portrait, I’m using it portrait as I like how the video looks in this better and it’s not super wide showing everything behind me. Landscape would be great if there are a couple of you are sitting side by side. Now being that this doesn’t have any type of battery built in I highly recommend you plug it into a UPS unit. Any power flickers will cause it to reboot and end your call, luckily we have plenty of those around and have tested it to make sure it doesn’t shut down losing power to the UPS itself. I can understand them not putting a battery in it, the device would have to be a lot larger as that big speaker in the back takes up just that much room. The power cord is also pretty short, it would have been nicer if they would have added another 3’ to it but we solved that with an extension cord. And if you look on the back by the speaker, there’s a hidden USB C port, it’s not mentioned anywhere in the manual so I got on the Portal support chat and asked. Support told me that’s going to be used for adding USB devices and for connecting a USB C to HDMI cable so you and add the video to a larger monitor or TV, that will really be sweet if you can hook up a TV and stream video with it, will have to wait for the official adapters that work with it to try it out. The selection of apps is pretty slim and hopefully more will be added like Viki, Netflix and other streaming sites. I’m sure as this catches on more apps will be added, I would really be surprised they weren’t. The camera app is also pretty fun to play with and it can add all kind of animations to the video, kids would love playing with this “ I did :) “. If you do a lot of video conferencing and would like something that doesn’t’ tie up your phone or computer this is ideal for that. It’s sort of like the other smart devices but I really was impressed with how the camera follows you around while chatting, and the quality of the audio while playing music was really surprising. You ‘ll have a great time using this and if you are like me you’ll end up spending a lot more time chatting with friends.

Its located in the kitchen. Wife uses it all the time for music, check the door (ring), chat with mother, and look stuff up. Its connected to Alexa and all the smart house stuff.

Our nearly four year old is infatuated with our portal. She loves to play music from Spotify, check in with her aunt, uncle, and cousin, and call daddy if he's running errands. It's been a fantastic addition to the family.

Did not utilize due to price and can use iPhones for FaceTiming. Spoke with a lady that was utilizing for daughter who was in hospital for 30+ days. Bought for elderly parents, but they rejected since they already know how to FaceTime.

Install is straight forward but will take some time, due to the software update. After this is completed (it is automated), the other install aspects are easy as long as you have your Facebook password and internet passwords.

I love it i had the other one but couldn't take pictures with this one i can i chat a couple times a week from California to pa with my great grand babies ❤️

Love it... this is my 2nd portal, I have the original portal with the big back. Love the new design not the big bump in the back, looks like a picture frame.

I brought this for my work meeting and ao far its good for my meetings. If you need it just for that and video calls on fb then its a must buy.

I have to give this Portal 3 stars because even though it was working perfectly for a year… it stopped working at its anniversary… we tried everything and is still not working…

This works great as advertised. My intention was to possibly replace a couple echo shows I have to make the video streaming better. But the Amazon features though they are built-in do not have the same level of customization. So I ultimately returned this item.

Not missed any call since i bought this, really good if you want to talk more on facebook and whtsapp Video calls. My family enjoyed it a-lot

Perfect for families to chat. It's a great size to sit right under our TV to take calls from the grandparents to talk to the kiddos. Love it!

Great for families who are far away! I have one and sent one to my Son, who is a Marine out of the country with his family. Setup up was fast an easy, Just log in to your Facebook or what’s app (what’s app can be skipped during set up), you can add multiple accounts (4) for each portal. The Portal will then update its firmware (this took about 20 minutes) Once connected I saw a list of all my friends that I was able to connect to. I set up my favorites for easy access to them. Amazon Alexa is also installed on this device for those who would like to enable it. Then I tried the “HEY PORTAL” command and it worked great. I was connected to my son. The clarity was superb, the sound was better than expected with the little speaker in the back, Great bass!, During our talk I had my daughter come in to the room and immediately the camera switched from zoom to wide angle to get her in the picture, Once settled I started talking and the camera zoomed as I talked, then back out when I stopped. The camera zoomed to whomever was talking. I like this feature. The unit must be plugged in at all times and does not have a battery so you are tethered until your call is finished. (Big downer). After connecting to one of my sons I was able to reach out and get his twin on the line (the portal accepts up to 8 people on a call). This is a great feature to have multiple family members on the line at the same time. Additional features include AR effects which is great for kids to add filters (much like certain chat apps on phones) like masks, hats ears etc. there is also a games feature (new ones to be added) that people online can play against each other on the messenger app only. Story time feature lets you interact with the story. I tried this with my grandchildren and they loved it!! My daughter signed in and called one of her friends and they logged in to their Pandora and Spotify accounts and listen to music as the shared gossip. They like this but I think they will probably stick to having their heads buried in their phones instead. When I was finished with all my calls I set the portal app to stream my phone pics and my Facebook pic library. Very neat and makes this device more than just a dust collector when not in use, Photo booth can also be used at this time to capture you and your close ones using the aforementioned AR effects and snap pics. Don’t have use for pictures? You can always download apps listen to your favorite news cast and cooking shows on the Food Network. Plus if you download the Portal’s Browser you can watch YouTube or other sites that have videos, like ESPN. More to come in the future. Like games? You can also download many instant games (Ad free) Forgetful? Set up reminders like Birthdays and anniversaries and have the portal remind you. For those worried about privacy, when installing and setting up the app asks you questions and gives you options to turn things off you might considered crossing the privacy line. The camera also has a block you can slide up to cover the camera and the Mic. In conclusion I would recommend this to friends and family who are apart. This is a great way to stay in touch, even if they don’t have a Portal. This is also great for Birthdays, Christmas and other events where family can’t attend. I feel closer to my son and his family even though he is 7000 miles away.

I bought this for my parents who are in their 80’s. Through these tough times of not being able to visit due to COVID-19, they miss seeing family the most. Now when we call they can see us, they love it.

Greatest item nowadays for anyone including Senior Citizens. This helps you keep up with your family. Thanks go out to Best Buy San Angelo.