I’m on my second A4mkii. And already I’m feeling a bit like my arse is kicked. Portamento kind of doesn’t work (the way I expected?) and the manual’s poly voice charts are like a cryptic rune from folklore or maybe stargate. BUT I am making a public declaration, before returning it, I am going to figure out and understand how to do these two things.
But srsly, what is with the portamento/glide implementation? Especially in the arp?
I got a chuckle out of this! I enjoy your sense of humor. If you do manage to wrap your mind around these two things, maybe you’ll feel inclined not to return this instrument. The dweller at the threshold is not truly within the Elektron manual or instrument. 
I went and looked at the manual and tried to see the stargate in it, and I did. I laughed, but then decided I might try to explain it here.
In the second chart where everything seems to be connected with lines (for a poly config rather than mono), just look at one voice at a time. I believe it’s showing how the sequencer has access to all the voices no matter what track you’re on. If on the poly config page you put an X in boxes 1 2 3 and 4, then the A4 will be set up like in that image. Now each track has access to all four voices. Below that on the poly config page - you have a location where you can set “reset”, “rotate”, “reassign” or “unison”.
The following charts in the manual go on to explain how the various modes actually work in these simple (only what needs to be said) examples with 5 notes played in them, sometimes overlapping. It’s really not that bad if you consider those in a way that is similar to looking at a piano roll style sequencer.
If that is not working; my best recommendation to you would be to just put a unique sound with fast attacks and slow release times on each of the four tracks and then play the keys while live recording. Change to a different poly mode and listen to the differences. Slow down the tempo if you can’t hear what’s happening, or adjust track volume. Try live recording in Poly mode with and without notes played overlapping. Then try removing an X from track 1 2 3 or 4 back in the poly config page and listen for the change. Clear the sequence and try again with a different melody with some overlapping and non overlapping notes.
Maybe have a look at the rune once more after that?
You could even try sequencing the examples from the charts in grid record mode to hear what they’re really taking about.
Oh! Not to mention (most importantly 
); when in the poly config page - you can change the allocation modes and play the keys while you look at the LED indicators on trigs 1 2 3 and 4 to actually SEE what is happening visually represented in flashing lights. Trig 1 = voice 1, trig 2 = voice 2 etc.
Please take this all with a grain of salt, because nothing is better than reading the manual itself and playing with the instrument. Neither of which I feel I’ve done quite enough of yet (compared to my other elektrons and considering how long I’ve had the A4), but I figured this may help you.
As for the portamento, 
I love how portamento is implemented on DN or MM. Especially because you can plock the speed parameter. Wish it was this convenient on A4.
On A4 I tend to use note slides, and also slide speed from OSC2 second menu.
I really appreciate that, thanks. This evening after work I’m going to work through the manual as you suggest. I think once I’ve done that I’ll grok it.
This is great. I just tried this, and arp+node slide+osc 2 slide speed gets the effect I want in a second, that I spent an hour failing to get yesterday. Many thanks!
If you turn portamento on (in the sound settings menu), it will only affect notes played on the keyboard or incoming midi notes - for sequenced notes, you need to use note slides.
Yup, finally understand that now. I guess it is pretty clear in the manual. I think I refused to believe.
I wish this was fixed on the AK
You can p-lock the note slide time parameter on the A4/AK, can’t you?
I really don’t understand why monophonic tracks can’t be set separately instead of giving polyphony to all tracks. The digitone has this. Sure it would help with the voice stealing overall.
Actually I just figured this out although it is cryptic (for me) in the manual. Instead of deactivating all four/three tracks to get monophonic track, disable the voice in poly config whose track you want to be mono. Bingo! A bit un-intuitive to me but it works!