The PlayStation Portal is seen as a joke by most gamers, though actual PS5 owners do seem to enjoy using it for “handheld” play. However, even the most hardcore PS Portal owners will have a hard time defending this device’s airplane mode, which makes it even more useless.
YouTube creator WULFFDEN shared the Portal’s airplane mode in all of its “glory,” leading to a lot of jokes on social media. As most fans know, the PS Portal needs Wi-Fi to play your installed PS5 games, so turning that off with airplane mode just makes it a big hunk of metal.
While we understand why fans would want a PlayStation Portal, it’s hard to wrap our brains around it having an airplane mode. Usually, this mode is used for offline play, but this machine can’t be used for that, making the feature odd.
One could argue that this is so the Portal can focus on either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Systems like the Switch have airplane mode but do allow for Wi-Fi access if activated. However, it’s still a pointless feature for a system that needs Wi-Fi on just to be of use.
Even with this pointless feature, it seems that the PlayStation Portal is a hot commodity amongst the niche PS5 faithful. Sony is aware that the device was only made for hardcore fans, admitting that this machine was made less for profit but for more gaming numbers.
That being said, those who want the Portal really want it. Fans in Japan actually bought a good number of these units, dominating pre-orders at one point. Currently, the portal has become a target of scalpers, with units becoming harder to buy in recent times.
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Considering how ugly and niche the PlayStation Portal is, we’re surprised the system was able to gain such a fanbase. Then again, Steam Deck owners want PS5 games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on the system and one could argue the Portal is the closest we’ll get to that experience, at least for now.