The PlayStation Portal is undoubtedly a cool piece of kit, but it has a few annoying drawbacks. It's a streaming-only device for one, meaning it only works if you've got a PS5 with PS Remote Play installed. The most annoying drawback is its price in Australia: a PlayStation Portal will set you back an eye-watering AU$329.95.
In some ways that price is justified. It comes with its own screen, and has brilliant integrated DualSense controls with dynamic adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. Those nice-to-haves are why it's so expensive, but if you're anything like me, I don't need my portable streaming experience to be as lush as my TV experience. Usually if I'm streaming a game, I can sacrifice fancy haptics for the sake of convenience.
I use the Backbone One 2nd-gen mobile gaming controller for this purpose. You can just slot your phone in, launch the PS Remote Play app, and you've got yourself a portable game streaming device with all the buttons available on the DualSense. Better still, the Backbone One isn't limited to PlayStation: you can use it to stream Xbox games, Steam games and native mobile games as well. It's currently on sale for AU$124.99, down from AU$179.99.
A few caveats. The best model available now is the Backbone One Gen 2, which is compatible with a wider range of phones, and has better buttons. Currently the Lightning connection models of these are sold out, but there's plenty of USB-C stock available. That means this deal is ideal for Android users.
If you do have a Lightning connection (ie, if you do have an iPhone with that connector), the first-gen Backbone One is currently available for even less at AU$89.99. We reviewed that model in 2022 and gave it a five star rating.
Prime Day 2024 has proven very generous, especially here in Australia where it's running a whole six days. Check out our round-up of the best Amazon Prime Day 2024 gaming deals.
