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

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!

Absolutely amazing video calling experiencing. My parents dont use Facebook much but with the product they can see most recent photos posted to Facebook automatically on the device. Think of all the electronic photo frames that go useless and boring since they show same stuff over and over, and imagine how much better it can be when it shows fresh photos instead. Hardware definitely is top notch and Im looking forward to see what software improvements come to the product.

Does require reasonable upload speed in order for picture quality to be good (say 5MB+ or so). If you or the other user has DSL, picture quality will be bad.

The portal is very easy to navigate, I use it to talk to my granddaughter who can navigate through with ease as well and she will be 6 on Jan 22. My son wanted one for Christmas, so each house has one and we all enjoy it!!

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.

The Video conferencing is the only reason Im giving this one star otherwise this doesnt even worth the one star, Im upset of it because it lacks a lot of a very basic functionalities that are available on similar products, I use the echo show 2 all the time, and this device cant do 90% of what the echo show 2 can do. How could it be better? well the number one thing that I need to be able to use it is keyboard/mouse support. You can browse the web on this device, but with the touch screen its very annoying with the onscreen keyboard. Apps, very limited apps, not even a Facebook app, come on! Its totally locked, so you cant add apps from other sources. You cant do anything with the Camera, its only for calling someone on your Facebook friends list who also have to be on a mobile device or another portal, you cant communicate with a guy using Facebook from a laptop for example. You cant stream, take a picture, or use it as a mirror, because theres not camera app even. and the price, I got it on discount and Id kill my self if Ive bought it retail because it totally doesnt worth it. So again if you only want to video call someone who happen to have a portal, then this might be a good device for you if you intended to do a lot of video calls other wise dont bother.

One of the best product in a sense of video calling. Amazing video quality big screen and best thing it covers you as needed. If you are sitting with family it covers complete family and if your children moving around it focus them specially and also keep moving the camera where they go. My mother was happy to see all of the faces in single screen and even can see the whole room with just one device. It can be connected with Facebook and WhatsApp calling. I am not sure about others. But apps are very few in this device which I don’t need though. Spotify , Pandora ,Alexa , and portal app is integrated. It can be used as a photo frame too. Wow I love it and hope you will love it too.

So i use Facebook messenger and whats up app a lot(daily) so this is an amazing devise for me. It is so cool, it moves when you move (moderate speed, so dont run) and it zooms in and out (for example if you were in a room talking and someone else comes in it zooms out to catch that person and vise versa when that person leaves it zooms back in on you). Also if there is a sound in the background it concentrates on your voice so the person on the other line does not get distracted. Also on messenger you can tell stories (kids stories). Now for Alexa app, its good but not perfect let me explain more so it does pull up recipes and turns on and off the lights but it doesnt save the recipe like the other Alexa apps and it doesnt show you the feed to your cameras but other than that its great and very useful to not have you holding your phone all the time and can multi task while youre chatting... i love it. My advice to you if you dont use the messenger and whats up apps regularly it wouldnt be useful to you. Hope this review helps your decision.

Being a technophile I think this is better quality than anything Amazon has put out. I purchased 2 portal pluss and while I wish I could call people also on Echo or Skype, the hardware is far better than Echo show (which I also own). Im not a huge fan of Facebook but the tech is sound and of great quality ( once again comparing to echo show) this is so far a better product than anything currently available and I hope that Google and Amazon take notice. The ability to transfer my call immediately to my phone is on awesome when I leave the room. Its quick and instantaneous and I dont have to think about it. If you dislike Facebook, I can empathize but great tech is great tech and this piece of hardware is fantastic albeit in this day and age I also dont like being locked in to a single communication system but I dont necessarily think thats Facebook fault. I want my hardware independent from any corp and let it speak on its own merit. We dont live in the 20th century after all.

Moved to another city and being separate from my girlfriend recently. This device just makes it much easier for us to stay connected and feel being together with the high-quality camera and sound. The camera can be covered up when I am not using it. So I dont concern much about the privacy issue. It would be a great present for your remote friends, family, and lover.