Meta - Portal Plus - Smart Video Calling 14” Touch Screen with Stereo Speakers - Light Grey

The idea is nice, but in reality this item is a little slow to execute actions. It crashes if you open and close too many apps in a short period of time. That is my main concern. However, the camera is wonderful, it zooms in-out automatically as you move around the area. Super high quality image, and sound too. I would not pay $300+ for this. I think the price is too high. To me, this should cost $250 max. I would not recommend purchasing the less expensive ones, the lack of features on those would drive you crazy.

New second generation Portal+ features a large 14-inch HD display that tilts up and down is a great addition to kitchen countertop for video calling, streaming music (Spotify, Pandora) photo frame, or smart display (Alexa built-in). What’s included: Portal+, Wall adapter. Specifications: 2160 X 1440 14-inch HD Display, 12-megapixel camera, 131-degree field of view, Weighs 4.1 lbs. Design: New Portal+ looks like Nest Hub Max in a large form factor mounted on a rectangular speaker fabric base. Screen display can be titled up or down. A physical camera shutter and a mute button for added privacy is a welcoming feature. Smart AI 12-megapixel camera has 131-degree field of view with Pan and zoom that keeps you in frame when the object moves. Very impressive camera and more in detail below. It has 4 microphone array, two 5-watt speakers and one 20-watt woofer for sound. Setup is straightforward. Just plug the wall adapter and follow onscreen instructions. You will need either Facebook or WhatsApp account to set this device once you select your Wi-Fi details. Once connected, it downloads the software update for over 10-15 minutes before finishing up the device. I decided to setup using WhatsApp account since we use video calling everyday with our international parents and friends. Once you select the WhatsApp selection for account setup, a QR code is displayed on the screen. You will then open your WhatsApp on your mobile phone (iPhone or android) and scan the QR code to add trusted linked device and all your contacts will be displayed on Portal+. You will be asked to select favorites for quick calling from the contacts and that favorites list will be displayed on the home screen. You can call your family or friends directly from portal device, and they don’t need to own portal for audio or video calls instead uses their smartphone. All video or audio calls are end-to-end encrypted. You can also enable Household mode to provide access to a subset of your apps and contacts to everyone in your home. This requires a 4-digit profile passcode. You may also add up to 4 members of your home including you, to share this device and each person will be able to connect their Facebook or WhatsApp accounts by clicking settings menu and selecting profiles. Voice Control with Alexa and Hey Portal: Portal+ supports Alexa voice assistant and all the functionalities can be utilized. You will need to select the voice assistant in settings and link your amazon account. Code will be displayed to add to your account on amazon.com/code to register the new device to your amazon account for voice assistant. Just say “Alexa” keyword to trigger. It controls all your smart home devices, and the same UI of echo show is displayed to control smart devices. Tested with Ring cameras and works flawlessly to stream the video of the Ring doorbell or other cameras. Only drawback is the prime videos don’t play, it does display the movies, play trailer and not the movies. Hey Portal has minimal voice functionality and only works for launching apps, adjusting device volume and few controls. Not the best and we are using the Alexa for all voice interactions. Alexa has slight lag to invoke, and my other Alexa devices respond fast enough compared to portal. Video Calling & Music : Portal’s AI-powered 12-MP Smart Camera is awesome that automatically pans and zooms to keep everyone in the frame. On the video call using WhatsApp, we moved around the room and camera just followed. You do have the option to select the object if you have 2 or more person to keep the object on track. Also, video calling on portal is fun for kids. You can select various backgrounds and AR effects. My daughter was sharing Harry Porter and the Cursed Child curtain during our video calls with her grandparents. Story time option is another feature that can be added during the video call. Select the ‘Story Time’ icon on the bottom of the display while on call and choose the story. Lot of options to select from. My daughter was never interested in video calling and for the past few days, she is addicted to calling using this device with different background and story time feature. Apps: Portal+ doesn’t have many apps like other smart display like Amazon echo or Google Nest. It has few apps like Browser, Calendar, Alexa, CBS News, Facebook Live, Blue Jeans, Food Network, GoToMeeting, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, WebEx Meeting, Zoom, Story Time, PhotoBooth, Newsy, Plex, Sidechef, Workplace Live and few more. Microsoft Teams is not available at the time of this review and planned to be rolled out by this year end. Zoom calls supports up to 25 people in a gallery mode. For $349, apps are very limited and would like to see Netflix, prime video, YouTube apps to fully use the bigger screen and hope this will be rolled out soon by software update. Facebook or Instagram app is not available currently and not sure why. Browser app is good where this display can be used as tablet to browse any sites. It does support YouTube from browser with no issue and the video / audio quality is fantastic. Netflix is not supported even in browser, and it just displays movies after logging to your account. No movies are currently playing. Not sure if there is a compatibility issues with playing. Limited functionality for the price point. If you are purchasing this device for watching movies from Netflix or amazon prime, then you are out of luck currently. Features: Digital Photo Frame, Video Calling using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans, Workplace, WebEx and Zoom, Music (Spotify, pandora, amazon music if Alexa is signed in), Group calls, Watch Together, AR effects & Backgrounds, Photo Booth. Portal+ has good privacy features like physical lens cover shutter for camera that can slide off when needed with visual indication that camera is off. A red light next to the lens indicates that the camera and mic is off. You can also set 4–12-digit screen lock passcode on the portal to control access to device, disable the microphone with single tap. Overall, this is a great alternative from other smart displays that are available on the market with the primary focus on Video calling. With Alexa coming up with the new 15-inch display with much more features and great UI, this device needs improvement with apps other than the video calling. Great design compared to previous generation Portal but can’t really substantiate the price point of $350. Purchase this if you need dedicated video chatting device with AI capabilities.

Easy to setup and use. Alexa, zoom calls. What’s app, and a digital picture frame of my Facebook photos all in one unit. Highly recommend.

I believe that this item is our future for helping people to cope with weather and many other items.

Love this device. I use it for mostly music and video calls with family.

Unboxing the Facebook Portal+, it has a premium feel and in my opinion is the best looking of all the Portal products so far. Initial set up is really simple. Remove the Portal+ and charger from the packaging, and plug it in. There was an update that needed to be done once it was connected to my WiFi. That didn't take too long and then it was on to linking the accounts that I wanted to use on the Portal+. The obvious one was my Facebook Account, followed by my Spotify Account and then my Amazon Account. You have to enter your username, it generates a code, you have to then access your account on a separate device using the link shown on the Portal, and then input the code that you see on the Portal+ into your other device. That then links your accounts and you can access them on the Portal+. You can add up to 4 users on the Portal+ giving them access to their individual accounts. First off, swiping across 14" HD (2160px x 1440px) screen is very nice, slick and responsive. I opened up the Spotify App (which I had linked above) to test out the audio. Using Sabaton's new single which encompasses soft harmonies and heavy guitars was a well rounded choice to start with. The speaker was 'ok' but not incredible. It sounded somewhat decent and bass filled in at lower levels, but as soon as the volume got up there, the sound trebled out and lost its bass. It's not going to rival a Sonos stand alone bluetooth speaker for example, but performed at an acceptable level. Using the included web browser, with a presorted selection of tabs (Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, Yahoo, and ESPN) you can access your Facebook account and scroll through and update it. I don't know why there isn't an actual 'Facebook App' on a 'Facebook Portal', but at least you can access your Facebook Account on the Portal+. The browser was a little laggy at times when accessing my Facebook feed, but it did work, and I was able to update my status. Using the YouTube tab, I ran a recent video I created on my YouTube Channel and it looked nice and crisp and the sound came through well. There wasn't really any delay on having the video load, so I can see watching YouTube videos being very easy and comfortable to do from the Portal+. Next, I tested video calling, using Messenger. The video calling capability DOES NOT REQUIRE a Portal+ on the other end. You can call from a Portal+ to a smart phone or laptop. This worked very well, I was able to clearly hear my wife talking, she could hear me, and a neat little feature is at the 12MP Ultrawide Smart Camera. It is able to track you as you move around the room and even zoom in when you are further away. Clever feature that my son loved to try and duck and dive to outwit it! The Camera has a physical shutter/cover on it, allowing you to select the privacy you want and knowing that the camera won't accidentally trigger. You can feature up to 16 people on a Workplace Rooms call and up to 25 people on screen during a Zoom call in gallery mode! You can also integrate Alexa into the Facebook Portal+, so that it can be easily integrated to your smart home. I use Alexa products through the house, so that was an easy choice to make. Once your account is connected, you can access features you would find using Alexa, including pulling up security cameras on the screen. Simply by saying 'Alexa, show me the Front Door' I was able to view my Ring Doorbell, live in real time on the Portal+. Same happened when choosing any of my other security cameras. Quick and seamless integration there, so very useful. You can also use the integrated assistant by saying 'Hey Portal' to have hands free access to your apps, create timers, view the weather etc. But will my Alexa integration, that is how I'll use it moving forward as I don't have to link anything else to the Portal+. You can use the Portal+ as a photo frame when not making calls, linking to photos on your Facebook account. You can curate the images, so that you know they have 'appropriate content' on them, or just select all the photos from an album. You can also share images from your camera roll on your smart phone as well. You can also take and send photos with fun AR effects on them. You can also voice control these effects by saying 'Hey Portal, remove the effect' or 'Hey Portal, next effect' etc, however, this only works in Messenger. Overall, as the title mentions, this is the best looking Portal device yet, it has a great looking screen that can be angled (but it's not motorized). The sound is 'ok' when using it as a music source, the apps work well, although there are only 12 apps at this time, with plans to expand the line up. The only challenge with this unit is the price point. Depending on how you plan to use this product, it is an expensive solution to a problem you might not even have. However, it is a nice addition to our living room and I will get plenty of use out of it how I have it configured.

Unboxing this unit I was very excited. It looked so good. The size is fantastic and perfect in any room imo. During the setup process, I noticed that the touchscreen response was a little slow, I have both google nest hub and amazon show, show I can give it quite a comparison. I won't bore you with all the technical aspects and just get right to the point. Everything about the Portal is inferior to google and amazon, except the sound. The speakers on this unit is just as good as all my other units. My biggest gripe, and for me this is a big one, there is no physical buttons. I really like being able to turn the screen on and off and volume control on any of my devices. This one has no buttons at all. The interface also is not the most intuitive. Both google and amazon after a couple of minutes of use, is a breeze. It seems to me that the Portal intentionally made everything backwards from the competitors unit. It was frustrating to use. Also, there is a huge lack of apps. One of my favorite apps is the Siriusxm app, and the only way to access it is to go to the browser and listen it that way. I might as well use my computer. I can't recommend this unless you don't have use for many apps and want a big beautiful screen. I read somewhere that this device was marketed towards older people who wanted just to be on the Facebook platform and keeping it simple. I agree, it would be perfect for anyone that just uses FB. If you want to do anything else, forget it.

I was looking for an easy way to have video chats with friends and family then came across this product. I really enjoyed how great the resolution was and the speaker system on it. It was very impressive on the load time and response time when switching through the apps. It has some nice features that are included in addition to the video chats. I really enjoyed playing Spodify music through their speaker along with launching web browsing through it. I sure hope there will be additional apps they will add down the road to the device. It was very easy to setup with Facebook and quickly had all my friends listed to join in a call or conference. It was really nice that the person on the other end does not need a Portal+ and can easily join through cell phone. Overall this is a great fun easy to use product to keep in touch with family and friends who are not technical.