Facebook Portal: a smart display with Alexa integrated

2019/09/29 18:15

Marketed for a year already in the United States, Facebook Portal devices arrive in France as of October 15 announces today Facebook France. Powered by Portal Voice, the voice assistant wanted by Mark Zuckerberg, the Portal lineup is based on Android and also ships with Amazon Alexa. The main advantage of these devices lies in the ability to use Messenger and WhatsApp , which it is currently not possible to do on Echo Show 2 or Echo Show 5 devices .

Facebook Portal: four devices with integrated Whatsapp, Messenger and Alexa
Facebook offers four models for its "smart display":

- Mini Portal: With its 8 "screen , it looks like a little connected frame. Equipped with 4 microphones and a pair of stereo speakers , it will be marketed at a price of 149 € .

- Portal: with a 10-inch screen , it is equipped with a 13 megapixel camera and also looks like a rather thick photo frame. 4 microphones are integrated as well as two stereo speakers. Nothing folichon so, except for its price of 199 € maybe.

- Portal +: equipped with a wide-angle camera (140 degrees) of 12 megapixels , it has 4 microphones , but also an audio part composed of 2 tweeters and 2 woofers . Sold 299 €, it is the most expensive of the range.

- Portal TV: Inspired by Microsoft's Kinect, this camera incorporates a 12.5-megapixel camera with a 120-degree angle and embeds 8 microphones . No screen here, it is intended to be used directly on a screen via an HDMI port. Its price is 169 €.

Based on Android and allowing to use Alexa as voice assistant, the Facebook Portal and Portal Mini will be available from October 15, 2019 . However, you will have to wait until November 5th to get the Portal TV. Note that Facebook will offer a discount of 50 € for the purchase of two devices, which seems very little given the price of these devices, which we admit, do not seduce us frankly.

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Facebook Portal: a smart display with Alexa integrated