Customer Ratings & Reviews

We purchased the Portal Mini for my 93 year old mother for Mother's Day, as she does not have a smart phone. We had to set up a Facebook profile for her, and now she is able to communicate with and see the whole family using only verbal commands. We also loaded a lot of family photos so she can see those when she is not communicating with someone. And, with Alexa, she's been listening to music from Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra, to name a few. This product rates five stars for sure, and it was also on sale!

Bought four of these during the Black Friday sale event. Gave them to my three children and my wife for Christmas with the intention of connecting the four households with a great video calling device. So far so good. Set up was very easy as long as you have your Facebook password handy. The smart camera really is a nice feature. It may be a little slow to adjust but it does the job. So far the only problems we have noticed is a couple of dropped calls. I don't know if it is the Facebook system or my lousy internet provider. But I've experienced way more trouble with AT&T with my unlimited cell phone plan. That's another story - one star review.

Bought for my grandmother. Sometimes she doesn’t answer her phone and I like how this keeps ringing until she answers, much longer than her phone. She doesn’t know how to FaceTime, so this works great. I love how it tracks her as she moves around. The picture quality is good too. I haven’t messed around with much else, but for the simple use of calling my Gma, I like it so far!

Love this Facebook portal. So wonderful for keeping in touch with family. Wonderful video and audio quality. Follows you while moving. Easy to use. Amazing

The Portal was super easy to set up. The charging cable only fits one way. There are 3 teeth on it and one is smaller than the other 2. Once the unit has power, you just follow the prompts to set it up. You need your WiFi and Facebook info and password to get through the set up. I don't use WhatsApp, but you can add your account during set up for that app also. So what's great about it. I tried out story time, both in the house without a connection and while connected to my sister. It's pretty cute and works really well. You're able to read the story lines at the top of the screen and the animations come and go along with the story and your movement. I did Itsy Bitsy Spider and the hat and glasses seemed like it would be very entertaining to children. I added Pandora, Iheartradio, Spotify during set up and all the other available apps afterwards. There's not very many and most are web based like Food Network and news channels like CNN. The music audio is pretty good when turned up almost all the way. It isn't as loud as the Harmon Kardon Invoke, but it still sounds good throughout the house. Now what needs some fine tuning. The apps. One there just isn't enough of them available. I'm used to Roku throughout my home, I have 5 and they just have tons of choices. I'm not saying the Portal needs 1000s of apps, but if you're going to add music apps, what about tunedin. I use it to gain access to stations that aren't available on iheartradio. I grew up listening to 96.7 KCAL FM and they stream on tunedin. There's also an oldies station, KOLA 99.9 that I like sometimes. Adding a hundred or so apps would probably get a 5 star from me. My next gripe about the apps is they are limited in their ability to do everything. On Pandora and iheartradio, I couldn't find a way to save my favorites or add a new channel. Pandora has all the channels I've created either through Roku, on my Mac Mini or my PC, but I couldn't find a way to create a new channel or search for an artist through the Portal app. Same with iheartradio, no way to save a favorite station. Worse, on iheartradio, it didn't let me sign in and use my favorites from my account. I couldn't even find a station I've saved through the listed stations. The only way I could listen to my daily station was to ask Alexa to play KGB-FM and iheartradio would fire up KGB out of San Diego. The screen would show the station and the current song, but no way to save the station and it wouldn't show up anywhere the next time I wanted to listen to it. Only through voice command could I hear the station. I haven't tried it through "hey portal". I'm just used to the 3 in my house, Cortana in the living room, Alexa in the kitchen and now living room and Google in the nook and master bedroom. I guess what I'm hoping is that these apps are new to the platform and as suggestions come in, the Portal group will update the apps to perform better. So the next thing was to make a call. It works just as one would like it to. During set up, I was able to add contacts from my Facebook Messenger account. I pressed on my sister's face (icon) and she said she got a message on her Android phone that she had a video call coming in. She hit her Portal and we were face to face. She was sitting and got up, move around and the camera had no issues following her. I could see my brother in law in the background and was even able to converse with him albeit at a lower volume. My sister's voice was kept front and center since she was closest to the Portal. We then wondered how it would work with friends that don't have a Portal and asked my brother in law to turn on messenger in his phone. The Portal is able to do group calls of up to 8 people, so 3 should work. My sister pressed his picture icon and my screen split in 2. He was on one side and my sister was on the other. There is a tiny bit of lag, almost a hiccup or stutter, but it's way better than a smart phone. None of us seemed to step on the other while talking like you might on a cellphone. The only issue my sister had was there was an echo because the two of them were in the same room and fairly close to each other. In my opinion, the group talk and one on one works very well and it's easier to converse as your hands are free (my sister's observation...she talks with her hands) and it's like you're there. All the facial expressions and nuances are present and talking is comfortable....like normal. I didn't try the photo app, but my sister did and she said it works. Most of my photos are in Raw so I'll need to convert a few to jpeg and add them to the Portal. Lastly, privacy settings. First there is a slide on top to turn off audio and video. The slide covers the corner lens and a red light appears. It seems to work as the screen goes dark, but if you're like me, you'll turn the face towards a wall so it doesn't have some poor soul watch you walk by the screen in your birthday suit. One never knows if these gadgets are truly off. I just hope there isn't a hidden back cam, lol! Also I followed the instructions included with my Portal and went to Facebook's privacy settings on my PC and turned off voice storage. Every time you use "hey Portal", Facebook saves a short recording to your activity log. I didn't want that and you may not either. So my overall opinion. It's a great communications device, a good entertainment device and I can see using it quite a bit if my friends will use FB messenger. Some of my friends have turned off messenger or deleted it because they keep getting spammed and they get tired of their phones having ads and issues. It can be a great entertainment platform if more apps are added and current apps are improved. If these types of devices become mainstream, a person will need a make up team just to call in sick to work! Make me look like I'm dying, lol. I can't wait to see what they add to the home screen and app store.

Purchased for parents who are not tech savvy. Perfect solution for Covid quarantine days. Allowed them to see and talk to grandkids. Easy to learn.

I love the 8 - it's a great addition to my craft room, with so much to listen to and research with - easy set up .

Bought this for my mother-in-law and she really likes it. The picture quality is really good and it is easy to use (once you set it up).

I love the Facebook- Portal Mini Smart Video Calling so much I have 2. One for my livingroom and one for my bedroom. that way no matter where I am in my place I can stay connected with love ones. The portal come preinstalled with apps so you can do some much more with it than just facetime. Listen to music and stream movies. you can store your favorite pictures. I love it so much I bought some for family members as gifts

This product meets our needs perfectly. My daughter has special needs and is able to video chat with friends and family without assistance. That gives me peace of mind. I often ask Alexa to remind me of things or set timers. We've been playing music trivia which is fun. The photo rotation is pleasing. I love listening to music with it and I just saw I can watch Prime movies on it if I want. The set up was super simple. The physical lens cover switch makes me feel safe. We are very happy.

People say they can use tablets or phones for the same purpose, but I'd say this is very useful for long distance relationship people (couples or families). I bought this for my long distance partner, and it had made it a lot easier for us to video chat (which is just having us sitting in the frame and do our own things most of the time). First of all, it does not occupy a lot of space so it can be put on the desk like a picture frame. Secondly, the processor would not overheat when video calling for a long time. Also, the microphone is way better than the phone or tablets, so there wouldn't he as much "huh?" in our conversation. The speaker is pretty high quality as well. Most of the chat features (AR/backgrounds) are low quality and dumb as expected, but there are a few that are pretty good. For example, you can use Spotify to simultaneously play music and you wouldn't hear feedback noise. I also like how the lock screen can show the picture slideshows. A few things to improve though. Since the smart camera only focus on motion or face, it is hard to tilt it around if you have some other things you want to show. Also, it is not a mobile device but has to be constantly plugged into power. One last thing I find it inconvenient is you have to use your phone to do certain things such as sharing a picture or loading into photo frames. I expect these issues to be fixed soon in the future generations if the product is to continue, so waiting for a bit to buy is not a bad idea. It serves its purpose though, and for a good price too.

Portal is fantastic. It is 8 inches but as people enter the room you are able to see them. Even on the other side of the room. Watch videos. If you swipe left from the home screen you'll see a selection of apps. You can also control what time someone calls you, add your local weather to the Superframe. Additionally, you can access youtube, zoom, pandora, and Spotify. The purchase price was affordable on sale for $65.

I bought the camera when COVID-19 prevented me from going to visit my new 1 month old granddaughter. While it’s not the same as holding her in my arms, it’s been wonderful having the camera follow her every movement. While all the extra online usage does at time affect the quality of the pictures, I tend to get better reception with the portal than using messenger on my phone. Glad I bought it so I don’t miss out a day on my granddaughters life.

This was even better than I thought, when I purchased it. I had purchased it to video chat with my Mom who is in a nursing home. It was easy to set up and works well. What was unexpected, was that it is also a digital frame, to which we can all send photos from our phones. The pictures scroll through on her screen. Perfect! It will make her very happy during these times we can't see her in person.

We love this. Bought one for my mom who hates technology. She has tried several apps for video calling but is never really able to do them. With this she can now video call her grandkids with ease. The kids love playing the games and doing the filters with her and story time has been a big hit. This device has really helped us stay connected after moving several states away from Family.

I bought this Facebook portal for my in-laws that are not good with any sort of technology. We wanted to be able to see them as they are on the other coast. The instructions for setup were clear and easy. We were able to walk them through it and see them in a matter of minutes. The video feed is clear and crisp. They are so happy with their new gift that we are communicating weekly now.

Bought for my grandma to video chat on Whatsapp good quality and easy to use

Love the mini portal!! Purchased for my 75 year old father who is not so tech saavy and he absolutely loves it! I purchased two more for my in-laws and family friend. Great and easy for grandparents to use to see their grandchildren especially during these quarantine times. Whenever we call their portal, they have a huge smile on their face and you can’t put a price on that!

It is a facebook platform so other applications are not applicable. Also, as with all these types of services, it doesn't enhance the signal strength and quality of each end user. That being said, if the end users' signals are good quality this platform quality is superior for users' seamless appreciation of fidelity of sound, picture and focus. As with all other systems, if the end users' signal is poor, the frustrations of lost services still hold.

love this product; easy to use and great camera functions for the money