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The Logitech G CLOUD (currently discounted to $299 USD) gets very mixed reviews around the internet. People either love it or hate it, and for good reason: It was built for a very specific purpose – Streaming. It’s right in the name! I always try to go into a review as a blank canvas and then see how other reviews compare to mine after I’ve formed an opinion, and so I was very surprised to see so many negative reviews on this one, but every time it was someone who was comparing it directly the Steam Deck or the Nintendo Switch or more recently the Asus Ally (I am live testing all of them right now so comparison review incoming!) so let’s start off addressing that.
The Logitech G CLOUD really IS competition to the before-mentioned devices for a certain type of gamer. The Xbox Game Pass (and similar streaming services) have taken the gaming industry by storm recently, and rightfully so as for a flat monthly fee, not only do you get access to an enormous library of games that are constantly being updated, but the majority of them can be streamed near flawlessly on a good internet connection. You can literally play the same save file from your installed PC and/or Xbox on your phone or tablet if the controls are reasonable. This is what makes the Logitech G Cloud so perfect for it. It is essentially a beefy tablet with a 7-inch HD display and pretty solid form-fitted controls powered by an excellent operating system.
It also streams Steam Link extremely well if you have fast enough internet and a solid network, giving you access to your owned games if you have a gaming PC as well. I am in a unique position to speak to this as I had Starlink averaging 150mbs down/50mbs up when the G CLOUD first arrived and shortly after had fibre come to my neighbourhood with 300 down/300 up. The Starlink streamed Game Pass pretty well but would occasionally stutter and Steam Link was mostly unplayable. The fibre connection streams both near perfect. In both cases, I had a mesh network in place, so I was surprised to see how much difference the upload speed made on Steam Link, but it seemed to be the difference.
One of the things the Logitech G CLOUD shines at is its custom Android operating system. As soon as you turn it on and update, you have Game Pass and Steam Link on the home page, YouTube and Chrome for your browsing experience, and the Play Store to download any Android games or apps of your own. With all of the excellent ports these days, I found I enjoyed playing Slay The Spire, Stardew Valley and Darkest Dungeon more this way, as local still beats streaming when you can. You can also use Android emulators to play all of your favourite classic games quite well. It’s a very slick OS that makes it easy to jump around between whichever mode of play you want with a few taps.
The hardware of the Logitech G CLOUD is very light weight both figuratively and quite literally. It is by far the physically lightest hand-held system at 463 grams or almost exactly one pound. The trade-off is that it is also very light on the hardware specs compared to its beefier competitors. Its Snapdragon CPU is not bad but it comes in at a quarter the RAM of the Steam Deck or Ally with 4GB, and for storage it has a paltry 64GBs, although it has expandable storage via SD Card. You will definitely want to use a headset as the sound is pretty average for a tablet-type setup. The battery is quite impressive and definitely outlasts my other devices, although there is a weird quirk where it seems to power on from sleep sometimes on its own and I’m not sure if it’s hardware or OS related but it definitely kills my battery when it happens.
Keep in mind, though, that these specs are more than enough to stream games via Game Pass or Steam Link and play nearly any game on the Play Store. This is where I disagree with many of the negative reviews out there as they tend to rate it negatively compared to the three big competitors, but the Switch is for Nintendo people, not your average PC gamer, and the Ally is excellent for folks with a lot of owned PC games across several platforms but costs nearly triple the G CLOUD price. The Steam Deck likewise is vastly outpriced at the higher specs where it can play high-end games but is similarly priced and specced to the G CLOUD on the lower-end model where it will have to stream many games as well, but only from Steam, no Game Pass.
For these reasons, the Logitech G Cloud is likely the best option if you want to stream games from Game Pass or Steam Link and have a bigger, more ergonomic device for your phone games and emulators, especially when it is priced at or below $299 USD or less (as it is right now on Amazon). If you own a lot of games already, if you have a slower internet connection and/or/if you have a higher budget available to you, the ASUS Ally or Steam Deck might be the machine for you. If you want a light weight gaming device with hours of battery that you can take anywhere with you and won’t break the budget, you won’t go wrong with the Logitech G CLOUD.
2 comments
Just going through this review and then checking prices online gives me a full understanding of the hate for this device. In many cases, a competent smartphone and in official controller will cost you less than this device does. But chances are you have already paid for a phone that can more than fill this purpose. So, unless you are against cellphones or tablets or don’t plan to own one for some reason, this really seems to be a device without a purpose. I mean, for example, why would I not stream these things on my iPad that is more than capable of doing it? I mean you can go with a much cheaper device but here we are with a much better screen for full enjoyment. Not to mention the ability to hook it up to ethernet when you are home, which pretty much ensures nothing is going to interfere with your streaming. Am I really missing something? I mean the form factor does look very nice but you can achieve nice form factors with some relatively cheap custom holders. Or custom controllers, if you so desire.
You are not wrong that you can do most of what this device can on a good phone or tablet. However, there is something to be said for having a dedicated gaming device with an excellent form factor that won’t nuke your phone’s battery, and the OS is very impressive.