Buzz
Here's my take on the Facebook Portal Mini. I snagged it for a cool million. Hope this review helps anyone eyeing it up. Drop your queries in the comments below!General Intel on the Facebook Portal Mini
While scouting for an alternative to the Google Nest Hub, stumbled upon this one. Bought it from someone, still in mint condition, for a mere $45, a fraction of its $129 retail price on the Portal website.
Things I Like
Things I Dislike
The mini screen is somewhat small and a bit dim. It's an 8' display.Displaying only FB photos is a downside for me since I'm not big on FB and don't have many photos there. While there's the Portal app to upload photos from my phone, most of my photos aren't stored on my device. Overall, it requires a lot of manual work (probably because Google Photos is too convenient).Horizontal images are fine, but vertical ones have blurry edges. With Nest Hub, you can choose between displaying two vertical images side by side or just showing horizontal ones. But Portal lacks this feature. It only allows hiding unwanted images, which can be inconsistent.After a while, the screen automatically turns off, with the longest stay-on time being about 1 hour. Unlike Nest Hub, which displays the clock in sleep mode, Portal just shuts down. The motion sensor isn't very responsive; sometimes I have to call out or touch the screen to wake it up.No YouTube app. Instead, any missing app is replaced with a direct link that opens in the browser, which feels a bit clunky.Smart home management is not as robust as Nest Hub. Sometimes calling Portal's virtual assistant doesn't even work; I end up calling Alexa for a quicker response.
To Buy or Not to Buy?
It's worth buying... the Nest Hub because most people nowadays, intentionally or unintentionally, have their photos on Google Photos, making it more convenient for use as a digital photo frame.
However, if you're a heavy FB user and frequently post virtual life updates on it, then Portal is definitely the way to go (no argument there).
