Review: Facebook's Amazon Echo Rival Is Nice, But Not Worth the Paranoia

Facebook's had a rough year. So it's not exactly ideal timing for Facebook to launch the Portal and Portal, a line of smart home hubs with displays and cameras for making video calls to other Facebook users. Facebook's issues with cybersecurity and transparency are likely to kill both devices in their cradles, especially when considering the superior rival products already on the market. Both the Portal and larger Portal are interesting smart home gadgets, and boast a surprising level of refinement on the hardware end. The smaller Portal is similar to smart home devices from Amazon and Google.