Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. Display: 10 inches (1280 x 900 pixels) Portal and Portal+ are home video communications devices that make it easier to connect with loved ones, and feel like you’re in the same room, even when you’re far apart. And, by using the Portal, you’re not giving up any more information than you would have otherwise. All rights reserved. Facebook offers the Portal in three versions. Return requests must be completed by end of day on 31 January 2021 (local time) to be eligible. What did TechRadar make of the new Facebook Portal devices? In addition, the Portal+ has two 2-inch tweeters and one four-inch woofer, while the smaller models have less powerful stereo speakers. The same goes for other sites such as YouTube and ESPN. The Facebook Portal TV attaches to your current TV with an HDMI cable. This is especially true if you were considering one of the similar devices from Amazon, like the Echo Show. I’ve had the 10-inch Portal for a week, and having a dedicated videophone ... Adrienne So is a senior writer for WIRED and reviews consumer technology. The back of the Portal is flat and white except for the center, where a fabric woofer domes out slightly. Aside from our trust issues with Facebook, the first Portal just wasn’t a very good smart display, especially compared to the Amazon Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub. $230 AUD) is the original model and has recently been seen a sleeker 'picture frame' design. Despite being in news for all the wrong things for quite a time now, the social media giant still boasts of over 2.6 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2020. There are also other software settings for privacy, including turning off the camera and microphone, as well as a physical mute switch and small camera cover on all of the devices. In this way, you can view your Facebook feed, but it’s not nearly as easy to navigate as it is on a laptop or through a dedicated mobile app. You will receive a verification email shortly. The Portal TV accessory costs $149 / £149, making it cheaper than the $179 / £169 Portal smart display, but a tad more expensive than the $129 / £129 Portal Mini. However, t higher tones, such as Ringo’s cymbal work, felt a little compressed. Is the second-generation Portal a much better device than the original? Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer, Today's best Facebook Portal and Facebook Portal TV deals. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. The Facebook Portal (£119 / $179 / approx. There was a problem. ... UPDATE - April 2020: Since I bought the Portal TV around 5 months ago, the software has been updated. With the evolution of the Facebook reviews system, you can use a platform such as EmbedReviews to help you generate the new recommendations posted on your Facebook Page. Facebook Will Implement Limits Ads Run in 2020. If you’re on either of those platforms — and there’s a good chance you are — then the Portal is a smart display worth considering. It also has a microphone that minimizes background noise. The Facebook Portal changed that. Despite my being in a somewhat dark room, the Portal’s camera produced a bright, colorful image. Create an account or log into Facebook. Tom's Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. The Portal solves that issue by tracking your face and digitally panning and zooming its camera so that you remain in the center of the frame as much as possible. This is essentially the same device, but with a much bigger 15.6-inch display. Microphones: 4 If you spend a lot of time video chatting with your friends and family on Facebook or WhatsApp, then keep read to learn about how much fun the Portal TV is. Bath Of course, the size you choose depends on the space you've got to spare in your home. Yes. The Photo Booth app lets you take both stills and video, and apply the same filters as you would during a video call. While the Portal’s camera-tracking can be a bit sluggish — there’s a delay of about a second from the time you move to the time the camera shifts — it was neat to watch it lock on to me, eventually. The Portal Mini is just like the Portal and Portal Plus, but it has an 8-inch display for smaller rooms and surfaces. Speakers: 10-watt stereo, subwoofer Luckily Facebook has built-in a bunch of privacy features to make users feel a little more comfortable. Fast-forward a year later and Facebook announced a second-generation of Portal devices, including the Portal Mini (£79 / $129 / approx. The Portal TV is a little different. My wife and I spent a few minutes gawking at the virtual cats on our heads. You will receive a verification email shortly. For starters, all Portal video calls are encrypted and, according to Facebook, the AI technology within the camera and microphone run locally on the devices themselves rather than on Facebook's servers. The Portal app helps you manage your Portal devices right from your smartphone. †Extended Holiday Return Period: Products ordered November 16, 2020 through January 1, 2021 on portal.facebook.com are eligible to be returned through January 31, 2021. © TechRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. The Portal is probably the best bet for most people, but the Mini or Plus are also worth checking out if you either want a huge display or have limited space. With its two speakers and rear-facing subwoofer, the Portal turned out pretty good audio for its size. Return requests must be completed by end of day January 31, 2021 (local time) to be eligible. You can even look up recipes and have them show up on-screen, so you can follow them step by step. It's simple to use and has lots of fun features. The Portal comes with two voice assistants: Facebook’s “Hey Portal” and Amazon’s Alexa. Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. Facebook Portal Plus Smart display with the best camera and screen Yes, we'll admit no one really wants to let Facebook put a mic and a camera in their home -- except maybe grandma and grandpa. The “Hey Portal” command can be used to start and end video calls, play music, set timers, and get the weather, but it’s not as functional, nor as accurate, as Alexa. You can also opt not to have the Portal save any recordings whatsoever. However, if you’re already on Facebook, you’ve likely already made this calculus in your head. This social network platform for businesses hosts numerous features, that used correctly, can help companies get rid of some of the most common communication headaches. Because you can’t carry a display around as you would a phone or tablet, you’re usually stuck in one spot, and the person on the other end of the line won’t be able to see you if you move. The second-generation Facebook Portal is a much better device, letting you make video calls not just to Facebook friends but those on WhatsApp, too. ... Portal-to-Portal Facebook calls work brilliantly, and the picture quality is excellent. The first Facebook Portal was an impressive smart display, but its biggest problem was, well, Facebook. Workplace by Facebook is a tool that can very well resolve problems that are inherent in corporate communication. Whereas the Portal TV is a little different. TechRadar weighs up whether Facebook's smart displays are worth your money. Please try again later. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Not only has the design of the device improved — it’s much more subtle, and has a physical switch for the microphone and camera — but its functionality is much closer to that of the best smart displays. Despite our ongoing concerns about privacy, the Facebook Portal is excellent when it comes to video calls via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Does Facebook’s privacy issues still concern me? © The Facebook Portal and larger Facebook Portal Plus smart displays were first released in late 2018. However, you can’t save the photos or video, only send them via Facebook Messenger. The Portal comes with 18 bookmarked webpages, which include Yelp, ESPN, Twitch, Instagram, Google, YouTube, and, of course, Facebook. However, its big draw is video-calling, with a smart camera that moves when you do to make chatting to your friends and family easier. It’s a lot more sophisticated than the cheap plastic clip that served a similar function on the original Portal. Let’s start with Alexa. We'll be updating this section as we spend more time with the new Portal smart screens. A year later, it's clear Facebook is going all-in on its smart displays. W hich brings us to 2019, Portal’s second coming: Portal TV, which turns your television into a video conference call machine. Those two services collectively account for roughly 40 percent of the world’s population, so there’s a good chance you’ll find someone you know. Facebook's Portal ($199) is a supremely capable video calling appliance you shouldn't buy until we're all convinced that Facebook … Give credit where it’s due: With the original Portal, Facebook figured out a problem when making video calls from a smart display. It has Alexa built-in and can be used to play music, check the feed from other smart products (like a Ring video doorbell), display photos, play with AR effects and more. NY 10036. $230 AUD) is the original model and has recently been seen a sleeker 'picture frame' design. The Portal Mini ($129) has an 8-inch display; the Portal ($179) we tested has a 10-inch display; and the Portal+ ($229) has a massive 15.6-inch display that can rotate from portrait to landscape mode. With the Portal, you have two choices: the $199 Portal and $349 Portal+. This makes sense given how popular FaceTime, WhatsApp and Messenger video calls are these days. Yes. Where are all the cheap Xbox Series X and PS5-friendly 4K 120Hz TVs? Both of the smaller Portals have 13MP cameras with a 114-degree field of view, while the Portal+ has a 12.5MP camera with a wider 140-degree view. In the upper left corner of the Portal’s front is the camera, and the top edge above this is a slider that physically blocks the Portal’s camera and shuts off its microphone. But the Facebook Portal does one thing exceptionally well: Video calls using Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Visit our corporate site. More importantly, Alexa visual skills are now available on the Portal, so if you want to turn on your smart lights, a slider will appear on-screen, letting you adjust their brightness. Selecting this option is the best course of action, for this or any other device that records what you say. If the idea of giving Facebook a (quite literal) portal into your living room makes you feel a bit weird, then you're not alone. The features on both are pretty much the same, the main differences being size (the Portal+ is larger and has a slightly better speaker and display) and price. As long as they have Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp on their smartphone or tablet, you're good to go, with up to seven different people on one call. Share photos and videos, send messages and get updates. So far, that’s all they’ve said, and we don’t know more yet. You can add functionality to the Portal by installing apps and websites; currently, there are only 12 apps available, including Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, FB Gaming, ABC News Live, Food Network, Story Time, and a web browser. To date, the only other smart display that can do this is the Google Nest Hub Max. The one thing you can’t do is make voice or video calls using Alexa, but given that Facebook wants you to use its services, is an understandable limitation. When Facebook debuted its Portal video chat devices last year, they were met with a great deal of skepticism. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, $191 AUD). While you can use the Hey Portal command to open the 18 web pages that come pre-bookmarked, you can’t open any other websites by asking the Portal. Please refresh the page and try again. Come and Chill. This is good because there's limited support for home video calls through your TV with other services (especially because Skype shuttered its smart TV app) but in our Facebook Portal review we weren't impressed by the fairly low camera quality. Now, you can view everything that the Portal heard, and delete each recording individually, or all at once. Camera: 13 MP, 114-degree field of view After all, the company doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation on security and privacy. With the exception of its “foot,” which extends about four inches out the back right corner, the Portal is only 0.8 inches thick, and measures 10.2 inches wide by 7 inches tall. We also reviewed the larger Portal+ early last year. The Facebook Portal utilizes Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp to connect you to your friends and family around the world. It's a smart video-calling device that has a 10-inch display and is a rival to the Amazon Echo Show. The Nest Hub Max is more of a well-rounded smart display: It provides you news and weather at a glance, has an equally impressive camera, and lets you stream movies and the like via Chromecast. It also looks nicer than the original, and can do more stuff, especially when you’re using Alexa on the Portal. Facebook Portal TV is designed for TVs, so you can make video calls to your Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp contacts on a big screen. The Facebook Portal Mini is great for smaller spaces and kitchen worktops. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, In fact, it looks more like a digital picture frame than anything else, and acts as such when you’re not using it for video calls. The place is yours :) Facebook Portal is the smaller 10-inch product in the line-up; a series which also includes Portal Mini and a TV-mounted device known as Portal TV. Being the monolithic social networking platform that it is, the Portal lets you make calls not just to Facebook Messenger contacts, but also to people on WhatsApp, which Facebook owns. A year later and Facebook has refreshed its Portal devices and added two more to the Portal family: the Portal Mini and Portal TV. 163 talking about this. Editor's note (October 6, 2020): We've updated this review as Facebook has added new features to the Portal. The Beatles’ I Want to Hold You Hand streamed from Spotify was reproduced accurately with a strong bass. 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