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

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.

This has been hands down the best purchase in 2020. My grandmother (96) fell and was moved into a nursing home. Due to Covid restrictions we were not able to visit. Calling her on the phone was difficult, she could not hear us well and was confused easily. I ordered the portal + to stay connected. It was the most amazing feeling to actually see her and talk to her! We had a long conversation and I could literally see her face light up. We have FaceTimed everyday since! She has been able to talk to both of her sons and each grandchild and great grandkids. The touch screen set up made it so easy for her to call me and for her to use. The nurse told me that she used it so often she was “going to wear it out”. I am forever grateful for the portal +. It has been a blessing.

We have grandkids in other states and call frequently. Its like being in the same room and interacting with them. I bought this for my husband for Fathers day and he is crazy about it. We listened to music on it last night. Its so handy for weather updates also.

I’m so confused and annoyed! I purchased this and was so excited to try it out. I’ve had the Original Echo Show since it’s been out and I’ve loved it! It’s been acting slow and out of date recently and so I wanted to update to something new and I was going between the Echo Show 10 or the Portal Plus and I decided on the portal plus because I loved the bigger display screen. I get it and I’m in love with it until I started trying to use the basic features that my Echo Show had because the Portal Plus has Alexa built into it. The portal plus is terrible! I asked a few of the basic questions. “ Hey Alexa/Portal, connect to my phone “ It wouldn’t work and I had to go to the device and click on my phone or go to my phone’s Bluetooth settings and click on the device to connect them. “ Hey Alexa/Portal, call whoever “ It said I had to connect my contacts when I already had all my accounts logged in and active. “ Hey Alexa/Portal, play Spotify “ It never worked either. It doesn’t play my music unless I connect it from my phone. So that’s makes this device almost pointless if I can’t even ask for the basic question that everything else can do. It doesn’t even have a drop in feature like the Echo Shows but it has Alexa built in!? Okay… I’ve had this device for about 2 weeks and I get home yesterday to see that my device completely reset and I had to re do everything! So I decided to go ahead and return it and exchange it for the Echo Show 10. I know it’ll do better. Really sad if you ask me. Very disappointed.

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

My two sons and their in-laws all have one, so we got one for Christmas. We put it on a shelf in a bookcase facing the big couch in our family room. What a simple, wonderful way to see, hear and visit with family ... especially grandkids ... more often! And so simple to use ... Just touch the image of the person you wish to see and chat with, or just tell Alexa to call so-and-so! Fantastic picture and sound quality. And the camera follows you if you need to move around the toom. Theres more ... you csn load it with family photos. This is truly a must hav ed item! We love it!

My grandbabies moved out of state and I got 2 of these to keep the connection. We call each other all the time and its so easy to play games. We even get Alexa in on the fun, my grandkids will tell Alexa to play a song and we all just dance all around the house and just like its suppose to the Portal follows us. Sometimes we have to be sneaky when were trying to play hide and seek so Portal doesnt follow us and give up or location before the other peeson is done counting. If you need to stay connected this is an amazing option.

Got this in lieu of the Echo Show because of the bigger screen. For our intended purpose, it was the right move. Ability to sign and chat withn or drag daughter. The larger screen was key here. The level of integration with Alexa isnt what we hoped for (cannot listen to Amazon Prime Music, or we havent figured that ot yet). Im glad we still have our echo devices throughout the house... This was a nice device to compliment what we have. Still need to look into getting an show for the missing/ desired Alexa features.

It is easy to set up

I got this primarily for video calling family members due to its easy to use interface and smart camera feature. It did its primary job very well. In addition to video calling, we also use it to watch cooking videos in the kitchen and listening to music while cooking and washing dishes. The 15.6 screen is good quality. Overall, happy with my purchase.