[Editor's update 28 November, 09:28: no sooner than I'd added the Portal to my Amazon basket and diligently written this article and – pow – that stock allocation has now gone and the Portal is, once again, unavailable. Original article appears below:]
I've been monitoring PlayStation Portal stock since the product went on sale and almost immediately sold out. Today brings good news, however, as Amazon UK has the product available to add to your basket and buy – except there is one notable catch.
At present, while Amazon clearly has some PS Portal stock allocation, the delivery date window is from 15 December through to 12 January next year – so you'd need to be willing to wait to receive the PlayStation handheld. Although there's a good chance that it could arrive this side of the Christmas holidays.
The good news about Amazon's stock is that there's no price premium. You pay the £199.99 recommended retail price through that retailer, not the ridiculously elevated prices you'll see on eBay and through third-party sellers (which I'd advise avoiding anyway, in case of scam tactics).
While the jury has been out on whether the PlayStation Portal is even worth it – after all, it's just a way to 'off-screen' your PlayStation 5 console – in T3's PS Portal review we praised the handheld as being "the PS5's new best friend," and that "the large, 8-inch screen is superb and latency is nigh-on non-existent."
It's only been in the hands of T3's News Editor thus far, which is no surprise given the scarcity of stock right now. It's a reminder of the PlayStation 5 sell-out back when that launched (fortunately we're now in a position where stock is healthy, PS5 deals are available, and there's even the new PS5 Slim set to launch imminently).
So while the PlayStation Portal won't be for everyone, there's no denying that there are many, many gamers who are desperate to get their hands on one. Everytime I'm tracking stock there are visibly hundreds of people on retailer pages at any one time, all of the time. So the demand is there but the stock is rare – make sure you jump on a good retailer's availability when you see it!
