$350 for a handheld streaming device.
Perhaps we should have seen this coming from a Logitech product. Logitech this week unveiled their G Cloud, a handheld device built for streaming games and it is exactly what you might have feared; overpriced and underpowered. The device rolls in at $350 for a handheld whose express purpose is to stream games. In short, it’s an Android tablet with the controls built into the system instead of being a sleeve you put on.
It features haptics, gyroscope, and remappable controls as well as a 1080p screen with a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G processor, 4 gigs of DDR4 ram, and 64gb of internal space. The only problem is that it’s an Android tablet selling itself as a gaming device that can only do gaming via streaming. And the $350 cost makes you ask how it is possibly worth that price.
You could spend $50 less and get yourself a Nintendo Switch, a real gaming device that plays games locally and doesn’t require you to be near a strong wifi signal at all times or require you to maintain paid subscriptions to other services to play your games. Or you could spend $50 more and get the Steam Deck, a real gaming device that can play your entire Steam library, plus with some fiddling have access to all the streaming services that Logitech’s does, and one that is exponentially more powerful thanks to being an actual gaming device.
At $350, I can’t envision a scenario where the G Cloud is anything other than a massive waste of money that could be better invested in a more functionally built, more user friendly, and more reasonable piece of hardware. Logitech’s claim of taking the device into the backyard sounds like complete nonsense because I don’t know anyone whose backyard sustains a strong enough signal to maintain a game streaming at 1080p. Right now the website notes GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud as supported services, meaning if you’re ever not subscribed to either service you’re just left with a $350 paperweight.
Pass.