PlayStation Portal at $200 or Xbox Series S at $250: Which one's worth your money?

The new PlayStation Portal handheld has been facing a ton of backlash ever since its unveiling a couple of days back. Gamers have slammed the PS5 accessory for exclusively supporting PlayStation Link-certified headphones and removing Bluetooth support. Moreover, the exorbitant $200 price tag has also been criticized by many.

The Portal will launch later this year, and its main selling point is the ability to stream games already installed on the PlayStation 5 remotely over Wi-Fi to any corner of the world. However, there are several other gaming devices available for roughly the same price as this accessory.

For instance, the Nintendo Switch Lite is priced at $200 and the Xbox Series S, which originally debuted for $300, has been discounted to just $250 in some retail stores today.

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The Xbox Series S is often discounted to just $250: Should you buy the PlayStation Portal?

The PlayStation Portal's price has witnessed mixed reception. While some have cited that the $200 price tag is okay because the PlayStation Barebones controller costs $100, others have complained how entire gaming devices are available for about the same price as the Portal.

For instance, the Xbox Series S is often discounted to just $250 at some leading retail stores as part of flash sales. This means the console costs just $50 more than the upcoming Portal handheld. For this minor difference, gamers get a system that can play every modern and demanding video game in the coming years.

Others have commented that the PlayStation Portal is a rabbit hole of spending more on the PS5 ecosystem. X (formerly Twitter) user @KJovian tweeted that gamers will need to spend $700 over the $200 asking price of the handheld to make the most of it. Extra expenses include the PlayStation 5 console and the newly launched $200 PULSE headphones.

The pricing has been mocked by multiple other users on social media platforms, especially with context on how $200 stacks up in front of other handheld gaming machines. @adigaming333 tweeted that the Nintendo Switch Lite costs the same as the PlayStation Portal. However, the Nintendo console is its own system that doesn't require another accessory for the best experience.

Another feature that faced massive criticism is locking the Portal handheld to just PlayStation Link-capable headphones. Sony has been slammed as massively anti-consumer by multiple netizens because of this.

Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, made a short video summarizing the tech. He defined the connectivity features as something "worse than what Apple would do." Do note that Apple is infamous for using anti-consumer tactics to make the maximum profit.

Although the upcoming PlayStation Portal has faced rampant criticism, it is a banger for those living away from their homes. It isn't possible to carry the bulky PS5 around on every vacation and trip, and the upcoming Portal will negate that drawback.