Facebook portal review

Facebook's Portal+ is going to be a hard sell

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Facebook Portal Review: A Not

But unlike other smart displays, you have access to your Facebook photo library. And just as Facebook prepared to release the device, the company revealed that a new data breach had compromised the accounts of. For example, we may use the fact that you make lots of video calls to inform some of the ads you see. I splashed some Korma on my Facebook Portal the first day I was using it, and three days of trying to clean it out of these little speaker holes proved unsuccessful. Just from a technical perspective, it was incredible to see how smoothly it all came together. Compared to the Amazon and Google video chat services, Facebook Messenger is a global juggernaut.

Facebook Portal review: AI makes video calls better

Portal requires you to manually pick your favorite friends one by one, and their images are then included in Superframe. It runs on Facebook Messenger, so you can easily call anyone who you're friends with on Facebook, regardless of whether they have a Portal of their own. As A Piece Of Consumer Technology, It Works As the name suggests, the Portal and Portal+ are designed to make it feel like people in the video chats are in the room with you. Both are put together rather well, with quality plastic materials, bright, responsive touchscreens, and loud speakers that can easily fill a medium to large room with music. It's —who you call, for how long, and their biographies and likes and such —to bundle you up as a product for advertisers on Facebook's site and apps. Facebook says the video calls are end-to-end encrypted, so it cannot watch or use their contents for advertising purposes.

Facebook Portal review: trust fail

If you're fine with those limitations, and you're not bothered by Facebook's handling of user data, the Portal Plus or the Portal could still work for you. However, reviewers are less impressed with its other functions, and concerned about Facebook's use of their recordings. This display also lacks physical buttons apart from the power button on the back. Currently, the Portal is missing some of the video-friendly skills that you see on the Echo Show. You can add up to four Facebook accounts on the Portal, and switch between them. Video calls on a smart display aren't new, but the software Facebook is deploying here is remarkable.

Facebook Portal Plus review: Great video calling at a cost

Several breaches have exposed personal information on millions of its users, and now it's asking its customers to pay money and bring a Facebook product with microphones and cameras into our homes. The Portal+ looks, for lack of a better word, dystopian. I'm comfortable with Workplace, and confident in it because it's a subscription service that's controlled by the companies who subscribe to it. This kind of thing is likely less obvious on the matte black version, but this white model captures just about everything and leaves you wanting to clean it constantly. The case for having a Portal in the office One use case where I do think Portal actually makes a lot of sense — and one Facebook hasn't talked about very much — is not as an in-home video calling gadget, but as a corporate video conferencing tool. This still lets you use the microphone for things such as talking to Alexa. It also made it clear how many of my friends have deleted their accounts or stepped away from Facebook.

Facebook Portal and Portal+ review round

More damning is Engadget's Nicole Lee's of the sound quality of both the Portal and Portal+: As far as sound quality goes, it's not great, but it's not terrible. Like the , the Portal and Portal+ are smart displays with built-in cameras that let you video chat with friends and family, listen to music, and do more. For some insight, we turn to the experts who have been using Facebook's new Portal devices over the last several days. If you don't want to display images from your own Facebook account, that's fine too. See our for more details. It doesn't help that the only way to connect with a portal call is via Messenger app which many are still grumpy about Facebook essentially , though Facebook says support for Messenger.

Facebook Portal review: trust fail

The Portal is available to order on Facebook, Amazon and starting Monday and will ship in early November. Smart Camera can be disorienting for people, however. What's more, despite Facebook trying their darnedest to assure users that, no, the Portal and Portal+ would not invade their privacy, a week after the announcement, Recode's Kurt Wagner got some clarification from Facebook that, indeed, data collected from the Portal and Portal+. As a general-purpose smart display, however, the Portal lags far behind the competition. And it seems Facebook is aware of this, because the Portal has a physical mute button on the top and an actual camera cap to cover the lens when you're not chatting. Messenger's broad reach means the Portal is better for calling a wide range of people than Amazon or Google smart displays. The tablet-like device was designed to remove the inconveniences of video calls, like holding a phone or having to stay in one place in front of a computer.

Facebook Portal is an excellent video chat device held back by Facebook's trust problems

On the inside, both run the same custom processors and software, but on the outside they couldn't look more different. Some higher-quality videos were crisp and clear on the Portal+ 1920 x 1080 screen but had black space on either side , while some lower-quality YouTube videos were a bit grainy from being blown up to such a large size. But the main difference is size. This setup lets the Portal see and hear you no matter where you move around in the room. The Portal and Portal Plus were originally supposed to launch at the start of May. You'll reclaim five minutes from every meeting because you won't be arguing over Skype or Hangouts problems, and its body-tracking technology is perfect for bringing work-from-home employees into meetings, or for bringing conference rooms together.

Facebook Portal review: Good video chat, but better for business

The small Portal gave us 98-100 dB at six inches, while the larger Portal gave us 101-103dB. Facebook says this functionality will be added in the near future. Facebook says it doesn't do that, and it doesn't need to. In fact, I was consistently surprised at just how much I could move around and Portal's camera was still able to find me. Facebook Portal has Amazon's Alexa Yep, the Portal has Alexa which adds an immense amount of value to the device when you're not chatting. Setting up a Portal Plus or a Portal display is easy.

Facebook Portal review: AI makes video calls better

The Portal+ audio easily filled a decent-size office, but it was a bit distorted at maximum volume. And Facebook already has relationships with thousands of companies, thanks to Workplace. No other smart display does this. The Verge's Seifert points out that you can't even use it to browse Facebook. Weirdly, my favorite feature combines all of this cool tech for a kid-friendly bedtime story feature. You can't use the Portal to check in on security cameras or video doorbells, as you can with the Show.

Facebook Portal brings Alexa and Messenger video chats to one device

Let me be clear: This isn't a privacy issue in terms of collecting data. Facebook's marketing for the Portal centers around bringing families together, and its easy-to-use video chat features have given a lot of thought to what families want. It's a much more dynamic experience than the usual fixed-focus conference room cam. Video Calls One limitation when video chatting on a smart display is that you have to sit yourself right in front of the display in order for the other person to see you. It works remarkably well; the camera pans and zooms very smoothly, so the effect isn't jarring. Amazon's Drop In calling only works with other Amazon smart displays.