Meta Portal Go - Portable Smart Video Calling 10” Touch Screen with Battery

I cannot explain my frustration just trying to have a simple conversation with my parents via video chat. We live several states apart now and I miss my parents. We have hound, active children and I do not have time to sit and wait while they argue over who’s computer/tablet/phone/video chat app they will use to chat with us. It drives me insane to go through this with every conversation. I’m not kidding, we establish ground rules and what device/chat app will be used and then they forget and we go through it all over again like we’re stuck in a never ending loop. Enter the Meta Portal Go. I did a lot of searching, just trying to find something easy to set up that has very limited function and restricts what can be downloaded onto it. The perk is that this device is Mobil and also pans and zooms in and out on people onscreen. So I can set this device on the counter, call my parents on it and get to work cooking, chasing kids, whatever and still hold a convo without having to apologize constantly. Not once have any of us said “what?” or “huh?” Because they can HEAR me even with my kids being loud and crazy in the background. Honestly they love it and they said they feel like they’re in the room with us. This does have a few apps like zoom, all recipes, etc. you can access YouTube through google and I have had no issues with buffering so I can play music on it or watch a podcast while cooking/doing chores. I highly recommend this to families like ours that live far apart but want to stay close. For our needs, the price was great and it is working wonderfully. I called our husband on this using WhatsApp on his phone and he had a fun midday chat with both of our wild and busy boys.

This updates my first review about buying from this seller. This came with someone else's Facebook profile on it. To reset or add a profile, it asked me to enter the person's FB password which I don't have. I tried the other ways to reset: turning off, hitting up and down volume buttons simultaneously while putting it on the charger. The first time reset came up and I selected it, but when it powered up it still had the other profile. One of the times it reset but came up with the screen in the photo and that was no good. After about the fifth time resetting it, I got the actual start up screen and then things went OK. It does work fine. I know it is used and the price was very good and it came quickly and well packed in the original box, but if someone gets one of these and doesn't know how to reset without the password, they might have problems. There was nothing in the product description that indicated it had a profile on it. I don't know if this one slipped by the seller, or whether the seller routinely sells products with other people's profiles. Just beware. The Portals are great for communicating with someone who doesn't have access to a cell phone or can't use one, and have limited use of their hands but can give verbal prompts. We have a family member like that and this is the only way to keep in touch. Works well with people who don't like or can't use computers and want something simple. I'm sorry Meta (Facebook) has decided not to support this product line and no more are being made so I'm buying up extras.

Love this PortalGo, we visit digitally when we cannot be there in person and we do storytime with our grandkids. It has alot of nice features. The only disappointment is that when listening to music, it times out around twenty minutes. When I want to listen to music for longer periods, I use my sonos system, it never times out.

I purchased this in 2022. It was great we video chat with family members in other countries and states But since the Alexa feature was no longer available and then “ hey portal “ stopped working too. It has been months that it disconnected from my WhatsApp and facebook. Tomorrow I’ll be going to Best Buy “ geek squad “ to see if they can figure how to get it working again. I can’t even access any apps. For what I payed for this I surely hope I don’t have to buy another device !! I’ll post what happens after tomorrow!

Update 2-8-2023: Still using the portal but "hey portal" was recently lobotomized in favor of Alexa, which I did not care for. I don't use Alexa and was happy with simple "hey portal" commands but now it only makes calls via voice and does not give time, weather, or much of anything else. Kind of felt like in the original Planet of the Apes movie when Taylor met up with his astronaut buddies after being separated, "You did it.. you bloody baboon." Also, the wifi issues continue. I made a trouble ticket with Facebook for it and in the end, they said to factory reset the unit (no change) or get another router (tried old one with no change) -- what great ideas. I have noticed that it drops wifi just sitting still in one spot but no rhyme or reason -- just now and then randomly but needs a reboot to fix it. I just live with the wifi issue until something better comes along since I need it and is still better than the phone. Oh well. I bought this to keep in touch with a family member who lives far away. I found my S20 phone not adequate or comfortable for long calls. Upon using this it made a huge difference with very good full range speakers and a nice large screen. It gets used for Spotify but apps are few and limited so I don't use it for much else. Battery life is decent with 5 or so hours of continuous video calling but would predera bit more. Messenger works but I don't see a way to see text messages too like on my phone app. The downside to this device is buggy software in the wifi. I have tested this unit with different routers and it drops calls sometimes at random whenever signal gets weak. It also does not reconnect to wifi and needs to be rebooted to work again. This is semi random but mostly when signal gets weak or has to hand off in a mesh router setup. I am hopeful that a software update fixes this soon. If it did better not dropping long calls it would be great. It's still useful to me with limitations in range from routers and offers a great video calling experience much better than phones or tablets.

So far this is a neat little device. Not hard to set up and it is battery operated so it has the portability my wife likes. Very good sound. Haven't tried all the features yet though. I would recommend. One downside to his order. We ordered and paid for this portal from Amazon, now the seller is Mayhey whom we had no contacts with. Yet Meta, the manufacturer of these portals attempted to charge the account used to pay Amazon. The troubling part is we had no contact with Meta nor do we have an account with Meta prior to this incident. We contacted Meta to find out what the charge was for. But because we did not have an account, we were told they couldn't help us and to contact Amazon. Amazon couldn't help because they buy from Mayhey. Therefore, Amazon had to have supplied the account info to Mayhey who intern supplied this information to Meta. I see no reason for Meta to have our account information so who supplied them with the information?

I bought 2 pieces because I am seperating with family for a while for a job. This is wonderful device for video calling. 1. Great sound quality. 2. Great video quality. Even in low light. And the camera automatically track and zoom in to people. Very smart, put people large in the screen center. 3. Fast speed. Very responsive screen. Which is much better than amazon echo show 8. I purchase 2 pieces of echo show 8. But it was so slow in response and complicated for operating. I had to return them. 4. With build in battery, you don't need to sit in one spot for video calling. You can take the device anywhere you want. Which is another important feature that beats echo show. Love it. People may blame facebook for privacy issues. But no other company's are doing better. Highly recommended. I think this is the best video quipment on market.

After 3 years it stopped working Battery won’t charge