We bought the portal mini, as it was the cheapest of the options. We wanted the portal for the wide angle lens and for the stories feature. Our primary use was to help the kids connect to their grandparents who live far away.
This Device has been a social life saver during Covid 19.
We live far away from our families so having an easy way for our kids to visit with their grand parents, aunts, uncles and cousins has been great for them. my 3 and 5 year old have learned how to use it and call all their favs. When you set up the portal (using a face book account) you can set the people you want to be callable on the device. This prevents your kids from calling your old college room mate or other random people that you are "friends" with on facebook. It really is easy for kids to use.
The smart tracking camera is cool, not perfect. Callers without the portal have no control over the focus feature of the portal camera. So they get random zooming in whenever the camera senses motion.
I hope they continue the wide angle lens on the newer portals. I think this is the best feature as it really allows you to feel like you have a guest over for dinner as apposed to the narrow view of a phone camera.
The wide angle lens is a necessity for kids and a stationary device.
It has no battery at all so it must be plugged in. This is a pro and a con. For kids, it keeps them from dragging it all over the house and abandoning their relatives to stare at the ceiling in a random room. But it also means if you want to take a conversation from the living room into a story time in a bed room, you have to hang up and call back after it bootes up again.
The stories feature is cool, but if you have the portal and the person on the other end of the call does not, they don't see the words to the story. This is a selling point to buy one for the grand parents. But since it's not as portable as a cell phone, grand parents may prefer to use their phone.
The "stand" that comes built in is not great. It sits at a slight up angle. Which is fine most of the time. This stand is also part oft he the power cord, so you can't take it off. You can set it flat on the edge of the device, but it could get bumped and fall forward.
It is also a great digital picture frame! it automatically shows pictures from your facebook account ( the one you used to log onto the device). You can limit the pictures to different albums etc. The pictures show up as a screen saver after a few minutes of inactivity.
It does work with Alexa with some nice features compared to the amazon echo we have in the house. It will add things your shopping list and show you the list at the same time. It will also tell and show the weather. I'm sure these features work the same or better on amazon screen devices.
| Standing screen display size | 8 |
|---|---|
| Graphics Coprocessor | Yes |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 3 years |
| National Stock Number | 899-00077-02 |
