Facebook Portal Mini - Smart Video Calling 8” Touch Screen Display with Alexa - Black

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.

Awesome. Bought it for my mom and dad, I’m sure they’ll like it

I mainly use this product as digital photo frame, and this one is totally good in use because I can flip it to straight when I want to. The Alexa is a little bit slower than echo dot, but it's still acceptable. Everything is satisfy right now except the video cam. I thought the 13 mega pixel selfie cam is gonna be super awesome, however it looks kinda fuzzy like the iPhone one I normally use. So I will still keep use iPhone for video call due to the conveniency. Other than that I was totally satisfy :)

With 1 on 1 calling it is great. Conference calling with 2 or more the duplexing takes a hug hit. Sometimes the camera goes out and many times the audio is muffled or delayed. Needs more work on conferencing but a great tool for 1 on 1 calls. Family loves it and can keep in touch with the grandkids.

It's very nice. We can now video call relatives abroad with ease. The connection is great and the sound or volume is very good and clear. No regret so far it's worth the price.

This was my last attempt at finding ba video communication device my 93 year old mom could use. iPads video was too complicated for her, with it's updates and too many features. This device, once setup under their own FB and email is so easy for her. All she has to do is just touch an answer button. Another bonus is that I can send photos of here great grandkids to the device so she has a picture frame also. Video is mostly good though occasionally the internet will cause a short freeze.

I purchased this item for my grandson. In setting it up, there was someone else's account info on the portal. I did not know this was used! Very disappointed!!

I initially purchased this for my mother-in-law. She LOVES it. There are so many features, the quality is amazing (both video and audio), and it's very simple to use. She loved it so much that I bought one for my wife and own mother, and they couldn't be happier. It's WAYYY better than using your phone. Wider angle camera, camera follows you when you move, you don't have to hold the phone to your face the whole time, and it frees up your phone when face timing.