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

This Facebook Portal Plus system was introduced to my wife by my eldest son. Soon after this we bought the system and have been using this almost daily. We have 3 grandkids and they all love to call us for us to tell them stories almost every day. Later my daughter had her own portal so now our grandkids and we alternately tell stories almost every day. This has excellent Alexa and Portal voice commands features. We read our emails and surf the internet using voice commands. The screen is big enough for watching movies on demand.

This system has already broken twice. Yes portal customer service replaced it, but same thing keeps on happening. The frame picture feature is worthless, no matter how many pictures you upload it always shows the same ones. I wish I would have realized before I purchased it. Tons of people complaining of the same problem all over the internet. On spotify there is no option to write down the song or artist you are looking for which makes it super inconvenient.

I like being a hands free device, I like when it chases me around the area and I like the crisp screen. I dislike that sometimes have to shout Hey Portal to be heard and I dislike when it gets lost in some rare occasions. Overall, I like it and I wish it keeps evolving.

I have a podcast show and it would be a great add to be able to use restream and/or streamyard. Portal plus does not show popup to grant access to camera and microphone. If Facebook Portal plus update their browser to be able to use restream and/or streamyard that would be amazing. I havent used Alexa yet and the touchscreen is a little slow to respond.

I use this for correcting online college papers. Nice display, nice presentation. The base kinda cuts down on the move-it-around-the-desktop-ability, but thats OK.

I bought this for my husband as a fathers dat gift. He was really confused when he opened it, and kinda poo-pooed it. I unboxed it, set it up, logged onto FB, (my account of course as he is on NO social media), connected Alexa and Spotify. Now mind you, he didnt think much of Alexa before this, and couldnt understand why I had bought 6 more dots. I had our son, who is serving a mission for our church away from home, call us on messanger. HUBBY GONE WILD! He adores it!!! We conference with kids, (we have 9), and grandkids, (18 of them spread out everywhere). We can literally be there with them and read a book, say prayers, watch a game, etc., with the Portal. He called everyone he knew on it, just to tell them how cool it was and to show them the zoom and pan features it has. He struts around the kitchen while we make dinner, do dishes, eat breakfast and so on. Then I showed him what Alexa can do, and started a playlist for him on Spotify. He has 1010 songs! In 2 weeks! He has demanded a dot be put in his office and the garage, even by the pool. Dont think about it, just buy it! The Plus is worth the extra money. We are saving up to get each of our kids and parents a Plus for Christmas this year. I trust Amazon, so buying refurbished doesnt scare me one bit.

It is easy to set up

I bought this for my parents who are not tech savvy. The video and audio controls are right above the device handle, which makes them disable/enable audio and video inadvertently which is very annoying. The audio/video controls are tiny and won’t really give any tactile sense when operated, as mentioned by my parents

Pros: perfect picture, sound quality is great and its excellent on zoom. Plus alexa is awesome as always... Cons: outside of the points i just mentioned... NO you cant download or upload and forget about posting pictures or videos especially on Facebook or IG.. Im a IG fanatic but you can only view your page and you cant post anything from this device. Im sorry, its going back! If FB is going to sell this tablet like device for $$$, at least let people post their pictures and stuff. Yup, im sad to say, its just for video calling. I was told it did so much more.. :-(

We love our Portal to spend time with our family that is out of state. I have used Story Time for our granddaughter. Only one concern, we had a Portal+ that only lasted 18 months. A lot of money for only 18 months use. However, we are hoping that it was a fluke and this one lasts for a longer time. We gave the 10” Portals as gifts and they have lasted for a few years.