Logitech's G Cloud: A $349 Android Powered Game Streaming Handheld

Peripheral giant Logitech has dipped a toe into the teeming handheld streaming console waters with the G Cloud, a Steam Deck/Nintendo Switch lookalike with seemingly unimpressive specs but a nice range of apps from Xbox, Stadia, GeForce Now, Steam Link, and presumably any other streaming service with an Android app.

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Inside the machine, which takes the Switch form factor that’s so hot right now, there's a Snapdragon 720G from 2020, as seen in the Samsung Galaxy A52 and Realme 8 Pro smartphones. It’s hardly a top-end chip despite having eight cores (two Cortex-A76 and six Cortex-A55) and is wired up to 4GB of RAM and an Adreno 618 GPU. There's 64GB of internal flash storage too, augmented by a Micro SD slot.

The internal storage matters less when you consider that the G Cloud isn’t made for playing games locally, although it should be able to play many games available on the Play Store. Logitech's G Cloud runs Android 11, and uses streaming apps and its Wi-Fi 5 connection to bring the action to its 1080p IPS screen, which measures seven inches across its diagonal and has 10 finger multi-touch.

Around the back, you’ll find a single USB Type-C port, but there's no video output specified, so it looks like being a purely handheld device with no capacity for docking with a larger display. Controls come in the form of two analog sticks, a D-pad and face buttons, along with gyroscope-measured motion controls and haptic feedback from two motors.

Dimensions are 10.11 x 4.61 x 1.30 inch (257 x 117 mm x 33 mm) making it smaller than the Steam Deck but larger than a Switch, and weighs in at 16.33 oz (463g). Being an Android device, we’d be surprised if it couldn’t manage media streaming apps alongside the gaming ones. A ‘tablet mode’ alluded to in Logitech’s FAQ also suggests a gaming launcher that can be removed to reveal a classic Android home page underneath. Battery life can be up to 12 hours depending on usage.

While nice looking - Chinese company Tencent Games had a hand in the design, as revealed in a leak last month -  the device doesn’t do anything you can’t do with an Android phone/tablet and a Bluetooth controller, and even a Raspberry Pi can be charmed into streaming most of these services. And at $349.99 (a preorder discount is in effect that brings this down to $299.99 or possibly less with a Logitech G promo code) you might be better off with one of the best tablets and a controller, or one of the Steam Deck rivals.