Peripheral giant Logitech has dipped a toe into the teeming handheld streaming console waters with the G Cloud (opens in new tab) , a Steam Deck (opens in new tab) /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.
Inside the machine (opens in new tab) , which takes the Switch form factor (opens in new tab) that’s so hot (opens in new tab) right now (opens in new tab) , 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.
| CPU | Snapdragon 720G |
| Arm 2 x A76 (2.3 GHz), 6 x A55 (1.8 GHz) | |
| GPU | Adreno 618 750MHz |
| RAM | 4GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 64GB UFS Flash |
| MicroSD Supporting SDXC | |
| Display | 7” 1920x1080 FHD（1080P）IPS 16:9 |
| 450 nits Brightness | |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 2X2 MIMO, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4GHz/5GHz |
| Bluetooth 5.1, Support aptX | |
| Power | QC3.0; PD3.0; 18W |
| Battery | 3.85V 6000mAh |
| ~12 hours cloud game play time (under normal play condition, 50% volume and 50% brightness) | |
| Dimensions | 256.84mm x 117.21mm x 32.95mm |
| Weight | 463g |
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 (opens in new tab) (a preorder discount is in effect that brings this down to $299.99) you might be better off with one of the best tablets and a controller, or one of the Steam Deck rivals .
