Customer Ratings & Reviews

Best for Hands free video calling if you use messager

Works great.Easy to use.awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was for mother in law who loves using the portal.

Not a bad product. Just wish it did more than it does for this price

I haven’t reviewed it yet, but the price was right.

Works as advertised, I only wish the lens allowed adjustments for lower light scenarios.

The primary function lets you video chat with your Facebook friends. Unlike competitors, you can move about the room and the camera will automatically pan and zoom in and out to keep you in frame. The microphone tunes you in and background noise out. This works really well. The camera tracks well even when moving quickly or moving past other people. The sound is good. A bit hollow, but that may be due to acoustics (hard floors) the person I chatted with had. You can pinch and zoom on the touch screen to magnify a person, or spotlight the focus to someone else at the other end. Of course both parties must have a Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp account to talk. Once your account is setup, anyone can use your ID, there’s no face scan, PIN, or other security to verify your identity. Four people can share a Portal with everyone using their own account. Need to phone home? You can video call the Portal when away from home from your phone. You can video conference with up to 7 other people, 8 total including yourself. Pretty cool, but that many people might be a bit much on a 10” screen. If this is going to be a regular thing for you, there is a Portal camera that uses your TV for a monitor. The camera bar can sit on top of or below your TV. There are also many ‘AR’ special effects that you can add, much like on Instagram, but in a live video stream. You can wear a digital Fedora, glasses, stretch you face like in a funhouse mirror, change your voice, and play AR games. It keeps up when I move head perfectly. I thought there would be some CPU or other video lag, but no lag at all. I was surprised just how well this worked. You can also use this feature called Photo Booth for Selfies to send via Messenger Want to share or discuss new music with someone? You can listen to music via Pandora, Spotify or iHeart radio while on or off a call. The Portal looks like a picture frame, and can act as one too. It seems like a quality piece, but I have some reservations on the ‘plastic stick that plugs in the back with the power cord and props the Portal up. It looks proprietary. If it breaks a few years from now, will you be able to get another one? The stick stand plugs in on one corner and juts out about 4-5”. As its position is fixed, you cannot adjust the angle of the Portal. You can put the Portal in portrait or landscape mode, the screen and camera both adjust. I would prefer a standard power plug and an integrated stand that folds up tight for travel, yet allows the Portal tilt to be adjustable. When you're not on a video call, the Portal has a feature called Superframe that allows it to function as a digital picture frame. It will cycle through the pictures and videos you have on Facebook in albums you choose. You can link to Instagram and can also create an album from your phone's camera roll. Never forget another birthday as you can display birthday reminders, the time, and the weather. There are a number of apps you can download to use by using the touch screen providing additional functionality. Configuring and using the Portal uses different tools, phone app, touch screen, Hey Portal voice commands, and Alexa voice commands. Knowing what feature is controlled by which one takes some getting used to. But it’s not terrible, there is some logic involved to help you. You can setup contacts to call and select the pictures you wish to show in Superframe using the phone app. setting up apps like Pandora, Spotify, CNN, and others are initially downloaded ad setup using the Portal touch screen. But most things are only manageable by using voice commands via Hey Portal or Alexa. Timers, alarms, lists, smart home features like turning lights off/on, are done with Alexa commands. But some Alexa features that compete like announcement, calling, drop in, messaging, and pictures are not supported. With all the privacy concerns surrounding Facebook and others, some consideration seems to have been paid to your privacy. There is a physical slide switch that moves a physical shutter over the camera and mutes the microphone. A physical shutter is the most secure method of locking out the camera, software can’t beat this. However, it would be great if the camera and microphone could be switched off separately as the Alexa and Hey Portal features are disabled without an active microphone. You can control more than used to, but not everything. The service is “free”, but nothing is truly free. You have to give something. Your voice commands that start with Hey Portal are sent to Facebook so they can keep improving the experience. These voice samples are usually anonymized from the reviewers to protect your privacy. But if that creeps you out, you can opt out by turning off voice storage under Settings. Overall I like it alot. As a video phone, it’s a great device that works as well if not better than similar devices. Your friends need a Facebook or WhatsApp account, but they are free to get. And unlike other devices, callers are not tied to a single brand of hardware. They can use the Facebook Messenger app on many different platforms if they don’t have a Portal or are just way from home. There’s plenty of games, AR effects, third party apps, and a Story Time app that works really well. It does allot more than video calls at a very attractive price point. Dick Tracey and the Jetsons used video phones, now you can too.

So far so good.. bought for a 70 something Grandma in assisted living..

Works fine but if she turns away it freezes. Hopefully this will work itself out

We are having fun with this. Plus we use it as a photo frame

For almost $200 I expected it to be better! Echo is way better price for the same thing

Good value due to the price xxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

wife loves it-great christmas present for my wife.

See my review for the white one. Same, but with a black frame. Bought two, got $50 off.

Great way to connect with family only problem is it is from facebook

I bought the 10’inch but decide to return it for the larger size one.

Purchased this twice last year during the holidays. I found some issues that need to be improved. 1) when you log with WhatsApp you can’t configure the device to only call your favorites. I mean. Anybody with access to Portal can call any of your contacts if you don’t manually hide the rest of your contacts. If you have more than 200 contacts you need to hide each contact one by one. 2). WhatsApp calls should allow to video-call more than 4 contacts as on the mobile device (which has a smaller screen and allows 8 contacts). I now that with Facebook messenger you can call more contacts but, I’m not using Facebook with the device. 3) sometimes the device hangs while on video calls (the feature for what I bought the device) especially if you star using the filters.

Very good product would have been great if price a little lower

It's not bad.Really doesn't follow you around to well & sound quality not great

Truly a Best Buy! the purchase satisfied all family members.