No, you’re not misremembering the details from that young adult dystopian fiction you’re reading — Facebook really does sell a video chat camera adept at tracking the faces of you and your loved ones. Now, you too can own Facebook’s poorly timed foray into social hardware for the low, low price of $99. That’s a pretty big price drop considering that the Portal, introduced less than six months ago, debuted at $199.
Unfortunately for whoever toiled away on Facebook’s hardware experiment, the device launched into an extremely Facebook-averse, notably privacy-conscious market. Those are pretty serious headwinds. Of course, plenty of regular users aren’t concerned about privacy — but they certainly should be.
As we found in our review, Facebook’s Portal is actually a pretty competent device with some thoughtful design touches. Still, that doesn’t really offset the unsettling idea of inviting a company notorious for disregarding user privacy into your home, the most intimate setting of all.
Facebook’s premium Portal+ with a larger, rotating 1080p screen is still priced at $349 when purchased individually, but if you buy a Portal+ with at least one other Portal, it looks like you can pick it up for $249. Facebook advertised the Portal discount for Mother’s Day and the sale ends on May 8. We reached out to the company to ask how sales were faring and if the holiday discounts would stick around for longer and we’ll update when we hear back.
