Ah, good ol ‘ Remote play, The often-forgotten PlayStation 4 feature is perfect when you’re in a pinch. During the tough days of the Nintendo Wii U in-screen controller, there was a lot of noise about the ability to stream to the Sony PlayStation 4’s PS Vita. The handset has surpassed its sale date these days, of course – even that Continues to receive new software releases by 2021 – But the technology is retained for the PlayStation 5. And, honestly, this is better than ever.
First, a few qualifications: We have been testing remote play connected via WiFi within the same home for the past two weeks. Using Microsoft Surface Laptops, we stream from our PS5 into a living room upstairs bedroom. You can stream to a PS4 or smartphone if you wish, but PS Vita is not supported at this time. We do not attempt technology outside of our local network, so your mileage will definitely vary once you leave home.
However, we get much better results using remote play with our PS5 than we did on our PS4. Sony has updated the Windows client, allowing streams to support HDR and up to 1080p. Obviously, the high resolution you choose will tax your connection heavily, but out of some glitches and the occasional macroblogging, we were usually able to make remote play on 1080p without any hindrance.
So the all-important question is: How do games feel? Very good. There is a slight input delay, which makes some topics harder to play than others; For example, we tried NBA 2K21 and found that we had to completely reconsider our shot time to beat three people out. On the same edge, tug-of-war players like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War are playable, but you are not going to top the multiplayer leaderboards online because you are an immediate cons.
They are the worst situations. We also play the console version with Planet Coaster: Remote Play, and the experience is flawless. Since there was no reliability in the quick control response, we found that we were able to create and manage our theme park as we wanted, even though our PS5 was in a different part of the house. We have experienced similar results with slower fast RPGs and strategy games – all of which work well.
In fact, we tested FIFA 21 and found that although we do not play important Ultimate Team matches online on remote play, the game is fully operational on our laptop. We use DualShock 4 connected to our computer for controls, so it’s not too small in solutions, but you get the same inputs of DualSense, so you do not have the disadvantage of wrestling with the rear touchpad on the PS Vita.
There are some nice life enhancements that you can use especially advantageously when using remote play. For example, when sending a message to friends, it will be the default for your computer keyboard to type, which means you do not have to wrestle with PlayStation’s on-screen keyboard. This is a good touch, and shows that Sony has invested in trying to ensure more experience.
Our only big review is that the client keeps our laptop running hot, and this is the only software we use. When it comes to streaming a video feed, we do not know why this is such a resource pig, but it is something that Sony could improve in the future. Otherwise, if you ever want to use your PS5, but do not have direct access to the TV that your console is connected to, this provides a nice alternative experience. Check it out if you haven’t already!
You can learn How to Remote PS5? If you have not already set up the feature in our guide. In the meantime, if you use the feature, how do you find it, let us know what improvements Sony can make in the comments section below.
