- We're on the record saying that the Logitech G Cloud,
a handheld console designed exclusively
for cloud gaming sounds pretty dumb.
- The planning for this must have started
before they heard about Steam Deck.
- Holy (bleep).
Good luck Logitech.
So I was pretty surprised when Logitech slid into my dms
with an offer to sponsor me to promote the device.
I mean,
I gave them the usual, yeah, I'm interested, wouldn't you?
Logitech's checks always clear.
But I also told them that I needed to experience it
in person before we could move forward.
And well, I have and short answer,
it is good enough to accept the sponsorship.
Long answer,
we didn't accept the sponsorship, which is why
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Logitech pegged me completely wrong here.
I don't hate cloud gaming
and I especially don't hate handheld cloud gaming.
I mean, I was probably the single biggest advocate
for the original Nvidia Shield outside of Nvidia
and it's entire shtick was that you could use it
to play Android games
but it was at its best when you were streaming AAA games
over wifi from your desktop gaming rig.
It was pretty much the spiritual predecessor to this thing
and I absolutely loved it.
Even back then, the latency was really impressive
and while image quality lost due to video compression
is gonna be a challenge
for any streaming service, game streaming in particular,
the smaller the screen, the less noticeable any blocking
or motion artifacts will be.
So game streaming to a handheld-made
and makes a ton of sense.
The question then is whether this is the right handheld.
The big black elephant in the room
for the Logitech G Cloud is of course the Steam Deck.
Even though it starts at only $50 more,
Valve's handheld packs so much more firepower
that it can not only stream games from the cloud
but even render them locally without an internet connection.
It also boasts standout features
like haptic touch pads, programmable grip buttons,
and a consumer friendly approach to user repair.
However, after spending some time with both of them
I no longer agree with the other reviewers who say
that the G Cloud should be completely ignored.
Right out of the gate,
there's actually a lot that Logitech did right here.
It's only marginally heavier than the OLED Switch
from Nintendo with much better ergonomics,
thanks to having a permanently attached controller
and the quality and feel of the plastics
really highlight Logitech's decades of experience
designing human interface devices.
The screen has a pleasing color profile right outta the box
and is rated at 450 nits,
which in practice is much brighter
than you will ever need indoors.
And I was also pleased to find things that I used to take
for granted but no longer do,
like a three and a half millimeter headphone jack
next to the bottom mounted USBC charging port
and a micro SD expansion slot
at the top next to the power switch and volume rocker.
Navigating the initial setup wizard then gave me a lot
of confidence in the buttons and the joysticks
until abruptly,
my overwhelmingly positive first impressions ended.
During setup, I was given an unskipable prompt
for Tencent privacy policy and end user license agreement.
It's probably not the worst ULA that I've ever signed
and Logitech isn't exactly hiding the partnership given
that they've talked about it on their blog
but the only hint at Tencent involvement
on the product page itself is the subtle grammatical
and spelling errors that are sprinkled throughout.
So I feel like some
of my disappointment is justified here and unfortunately,
that feeling carried through to the interface.
It's not bad if all you ever want to do is fire up one
of the three pre-installed cloud gaming apps, G-Force Now,
Xbox Cloud or Steam Link.
All of this is likely going to feel like nitpicking.
It's just that it's kind of obtuse.
Like why are my Android notifications
under messages instead of a pulldown shade?
Why does the touch screen work to interact
with my photo gallery but not my wifi icon?
Why does it take a colossal, 20 interactions,
and entering my pin to go
from handheld mode to regular Android tablet mode?
Something that you will probably find yourself needing to do
at some point, even if it's just to get access
to the back button.
And then while we're at it,
why the sam heck does it not have a back button?
In fairness to Logitech or realistically, Tencent,
pretty much every game under the sun uses face buttons
for both confirm and for back
and both opening and closing the quick settings overlay
is intuitively handled with the home button.
Though I wouldn't recommend using the G Cloud
as an Android gaming handheld anyway.
To which you might say what?
How can an Android tablet with a controller bolted
to the side possibly be bad for gaming?
Oh, it can.
To hit their aggressive $350 price point,
it is pretty clear that Logitech cut some corners.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon seven 720G that powers
the G Cloud was targeted at emerging markets
when it was announced nearly three years ago.
And if you attempt to run anything heavier
than casual games,
you are going to be extremely disappointed.
One of my personal favorite Android games, Bomb Squad,
is a total blast on this thing
but it's an ancient game.
I used to play it on my original Shield Portable.
Try to play something like Fortnite,
it was an absolute stuttery mess when I tried to run it
at native resolution.
And that's even ignoring the current lack
of proper gamepad detection and onscreen control mapping.
Logitech says they're working on this
but for now, it doesn't help me
and it was seriously awkward to jump with the face buttons
and then fire by reaching over them to the touchscreen
since the right trigger wouldn't do anything.
Furthermore, while it's not something that I explored
in detail, running Android console emulators
is no walk in the park either.
According to Gary over at The Phawx,
it can easily handle consoles from the nineties
but even heavier PlayStation 2
and game cube games were a struggle for its weak SOC.
And he often find himself frustrated
by poor controller mapping.
Agree with you 100% there, man.
However, there's one aspect of Gary's excellent
into detailed review that I take issue with
and I alluded to this before.
His recommendation to completely ignore the G Cloud
and buy a Steam Deck instead, let me explain.
Logitech has been careful to market this device
very specifically.
While they don't get in the way
of running any Android app you want, including playing games
or watching great behind the scenes content
from our channels over on floatplane.com,
and they are apparently even discussing the possibility
of unlocking the boot loader.
Other than to say that it runs Android 11,
They make no mention of Android whatsoever
on the product page.
It's for running cloud games.
And for that purpose, it's actually really good.
Like the Steam Deck, it packs a large seven inch display
for a big screen portable gaming experience.
But unlike the Steam Deck, it's 1080p.
Meaning that your streamed games will end up looking
noticeably sharper than your friends locally rendered games
and actually even streamed games onto the Steam Deck
because the screen resolution is so much lower.
And because all game rendering is being done remotely,
the G Cloud never gets loud or hot.
I can't stress enough how much of a difference this makes.
I would describe the stereo speakers as pretty darn solid
but by far the best thing
about them is that I can actually hear them
over the zero other noise that the system is making.
(dance music)
It's the kind of quality life difference
that might not get captured by a typical review process,
which is all about your measurements and your FPSs,
but it makes a big difference when you're actually living
with the thing.
And so does the form factor.
I love the Steam Deck as much as anyone, for real,
I'm on the record saying things
like, it'll revolutionize the console industry
and even the broader gaming industry,
but part of loving something is being willing to be honest
with it and Steam Deck is kind of cumbersome.
The size and weight difference
between these two devices is enough that
if I had both of them on my bedside table
I know which one that I would grab to lie on the couch
and veg and it wouldn't be the Steam Deck.
The last major advantage for the G Cloud is Battery Life.
Logitech advertises 12 hours and as far as I can tell,
they are selling themselves majorly short here.
I threw our unit over to the lab
where at a screen brightness of two,
which is plenty bright for indoors,
it managed five and a half to seven and a half hours
in Apex Legends mobile depending on the frame rate target.
So far so, not that impressive,
but then we set it up streaming, playing Bravery and Greed
on G Force Now
and we managed a whopping 15 hours of battery life.
That is another huge W
for the G cloud that goes beyond just bigger number better
and into my battery anxiety just disappears compared
to my other handhelds.
Of course, that doesn't mean
that there's no room for improvement.
In what appears to be an effort to
make the G Cloud more comfortable for children,
they crammed the face buttons so close
to the right thumbs stick
that I accidentally bump it constantly, both in games
and in menus.
And that isn't even the thumbs stick's worst quality.
I think Logitech nailed the size of them.
They're kind of in between the Nintendo Switch
and the full size sticks on the Deck
but I cannot emphasize enough how bad the dead zones are.
Whether we're talking racing or shooting games,
the absolute last thing that you wanna do on a console
that already has anywhere from 50 to a 100 plus milliseconds
of extra input delay is add even more input delay.
It's not too bad for all or nothing inputs like in
Hollow Night, but it makes fine adjustments
to aim or steering basically impossible
if you're attempting anything other than a
casual play through.
I'm waiting to hear from Logitech,
whether this is something they can fix in software,
we'll have the answer either overlaid
or in the video description, but if it isn't,
I would recommend steering clear of the G Cloud
until they've revised the hardware to address it,
which is a real shame because that's my only
real game breaker here.
Though, of course, there is another elephant
in the room and that's the cost.
It's not only designed for use
alongside an existing gaming PC or monthly cloud service,
both of which cost money, but at the time of writing,
the G Cloud itself costs over eight times as much
as strapping a Razor Kishi to your phone.
I understand that that's not an apples to apples comparison.
Your phone screen is a lot smaller and the G cloud is
world's more comfortable, but your phone also doesn't turn
into an expensive paper weight if you wanna take a break
from your monthly subscriptions and use it
for something else, making it a much more practical option.
Now I've seen people saying, hey, yeah I love the concept
and if the price was a $100,
I could totally justify it, but 300 ain't happening.
The issue is that the only decent Android tablets
that I've seen for a hundred ish dollars are
Amazon fire tablets
and those only exist because Amazon can sell them at a loss
and make up the difference with the prime subscriptions
and other revenue
that they're assuming that they'll generate.
Logitech enjoys no such luxury, and while we have seen them
discount the G Cloud,
there is no way it's going to make it that low
because they need to make money on every unit
or they might as well just cancel the project,
which I sincerely hope they don't.
There are some obvious bugs to resolve
in the software like this weird floating error
or the inconsistent behavior of back in the menus.
But overall, I actually do like the concept
and with a bit more on-device performance
the combination of an enormous catalog
of cheap Android games and outstanding streaming performance
would make this thing a serious contender
for my money compared to buying my kids something
like a Switch.
Now Steam Deck customers, you guys know who you are
and this product isn't for you, but for other people,
the G Cloud really does bring something new
and interesting to the table, and I'm rooting
for it to be a success in the long term.
By the time this comes out, it'll be too late
to do that Black Friday sponsorship deal, but that's okay.
I had a lot of fun working on this review.
I don't get to write much these days
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