Facebook Portal Plus - Smart Video Calling 15.6” Touch Screen Display with Alexa - Black

Visually nice on the countertop. Sound is decent. Picture quality is good. Really can’t do too much with it other than use the apps loaded (or go to the web and pull up from there, sometimes). Mine is very glitchy with getting CBS News to come on. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t … just hangs on a blank, dark screen. Glad that when I did decide to give this a try, I bought it when it dropped to $99 briefly back in September. Definitely not worth more than $100, if that. I’d rather go with another Amazon Show 10 (or wait for the new Show that’s due out soon).

Aside from the amazing video and audio quality, I love the zoom in/out feature which follows my children’s movement around the room. An amazing investment!!

First, I think this is a great idea and an exciting product A simple, turnkey piece of hardware for doing Facetime with some great features. The problem is, its a product by Facebook who is only really known for their social media application, not for specialized hardware devices. And theres a world of difference between those two worlds. As applications go social media applications are not terribly demanding nor highly sophisticated programs compared to many other applications. Especially when theyre written in such a way as to function in the browser world. Specialized hardware applications, on the other hand, must take into account not only the dedicated application that runs on it, but also the hardware and device interfaces that allow it to connect the the outside world. This is the stuff that can become very tricky when trying to make those complex hardware interactions appear to be very simple and bulletproof. Given how easily this type of thing has become in these day of WiFi connected smartphones, computers, laptops, and streaming devices its easy to overlook that complexity unless youve been in the hardware world for a while. And this is where this device fails. Right out of the box when this device fires up it presents the user with a list of available WiFi connections. You select the one you want and youre asked to enter your password for that network. It sounds simple, but if it fails you dont get much information about why it failed, so troubleshooting it is a problem. The device doesnt come with any information about where to call for support, so unless you know how to do a Google search and find the support site, youre stuck. Once you get in touch with the support line they run you through some very simplistic troubleshooting steps such as a reset of the device and power cycling your WiFi router (which affects anyone or anything else that happens to be using that router at the time). After those few simple steps it gets beyond what the first level of support can provide and they escalate it to the more advanced support group who, in my case, simply emailed me to send it back to Amazon and get a replacement. Given this experience I determined they really werent ready to be operating in todays more sophisticated hardware environment quite yet and simply sent it back for a refund. The device came with very little in the way of documentation of support information. If youre trying to make it appear to be simple, then it must be bulletproof. Otherwise, its just frustrating and not worth the time. Especially for the price theyre asking for it.

I use this hands free in my kitchen while I’m cooking. I love the speaker on this Portal and this a very solid piece of equipment. Love the “zoom” feature and how it “pans” the room as you move about in the room. If I want to play my Pandora music the speaker is great!! If I want to engage Alexa it’s all there!

I purchased this portal about a year ago to go live to facebook, I used it a few times and it was great. Recently, I went to do a live from it and they have removed the feature. If youre strictly using this for video chats, it is great. That was not what I purchased it for so now I have a facebook portal that does not work for what I purchased it for. Shame on the maker for removing apps that people specifically purchased this device for.

For many of you the reason why you buy this is for an easy way to do a Facebook LIVE but now they have removed that app and you cant even use it for the reason why it was made. I contacted PORTAL, which has now separated off from Facebook and they said it wasnt their department. Ive tried reaching out to Facebook but they have not replied. if you buy it for ZOOM or for Workplaces then go for it, but the main reason why most people buy this device it can no longer provide that service. If I could return it I would!

Its a nice one but the apps that you rwad that could be used on it you can at this time

It is easy to set up

I bought it for my grandma, now she can see pictures of the whole family and all the kids can upload photos anytime via Facebook, we can video call her via Facebook or whatsapp any time and it is great for her!! I love it.

I love the way the camera follows you around. I bought one for my daughter also, and she can carry on a conversation while preparing her dinner. Its almost like being in the same room with her. The picture quality is great. I also like that I can have it show me the news if I miss it on television.