With roots dating back to the early 2000s, cloud gaming – or “cloud gaming” as it’s called in good Norwegian – has had many years to develop. Today, most people have heard of the possibility of playing games that are streamed through external hardware, and many of the largest companies on the market already have their own solutions.
Logitech is among the latest companies to jump in on this trend, and earlier this week launched the Logitech G Cloud in Europe. This is a portable console similar to the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, but instead of playing games locally, it focuses primarily on streaming games over the Internet. The result is, as expected, a somewhat mixed experience.
Nintendo Switch vs Logitech G Cloud.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
Rock solid design
Logitech G Cloud is a nice little thing that fits nicely in the hand. The device weighs 463 grams, which is quite comparable to its fiercest competitor.
In terms of size, it fits somewhere between the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck. Where I find the latter a bit bumpy, the Logitech G Cloud manages the art of never feeling bumpy to heavy or impractical.
Solid grip.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
the He is On the other hand, there is a certain heft built into the console, but that more than helps support the quality and durability of the machine. The plastic surrounding the 7-inch screen is nice and sleek white, and feels far from cheap.
Two sturdy, open grips on the back of the machine make it easy to balance in the hands; The pins on the front are snappy and responsive; While the shoulder and face buttons both work exactly as they are supposed to.
It’s worth noting that the Start and Select buttons can sometimes get stuck — my Home button in particular likes to wrangle a bit before it responds — while frequent, quick use of the shoulder buttons can cause some awkward squeaking sounds.
These small flaws aside, the Logitech G Cloud still feels like a very solid and stable machine.
The built-in touchscreen is unfortunately not OLED quality, but it still offers a resolution of 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz, and is bright and fun to use. Battery life is also respectable, with up to 12 hours of active cloud gaming per session.
Solid stitches and (mostly) great buttons.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
Necessary subscriptions
This comes in handy when you’re streaming games, and there are a few ways to do this. On the occasion of the hardware test, we were given access to both Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now, two subscription services that each support cloud gaming in their own way.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently only in beta, but it still allows you to stream many of the latest Xbox games through the app. In total, there are over a hundred games to choose from, with everything from new releases like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Halo Infinite, and Redfall to Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata, and Persona 4 Golden.
GeForce Now is a different beast entirely, as it instead lets you stream games you already own via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft Connect. This initially appears as a more comprehensive alternative, at least until you realize that not all games support this functionality. Of the 634 games I’ve collected on Steam over the years, so far only 123 are playable via GeForce Now.
Of course, my library has a lot of old spam that no one has ever heard of, and the idea is that most of the newer games will come through this streaming service closer to launch.
I’m pretty familiar with the PowerWash Simulator, and unfortunately I think it works best on my local PlayStation 5.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
flocking with the bait
In practice, the two solutions work in much the same way. You select a game from the collection, and after a short loading sequence where the game is activated on an external device, it appears on the screen. Then you control everything over the internet, as signals are sent back and forth between your own machine and the machine where the game is actually running.
How well this works will be affected by both the speed and quality of your local network, as I feel the whole concept of “cloud gaming” still has a long way to go. Even under optimal conditions, where you have stable wi-fi and strong broadband speed, while you’re sitting close to the modem, it somehow doesn’t work very smoothly.
Forza Horizon 5 looks much better in “live action”.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
I have a more than acceptable network—GeForce Now recommends you have a download speed of at least 25Mbps if you want to stream content in 1080p at 60fps—but I still feel like the picture quality falls short.
This is especially noticeable for newer games, where the discrepancy with what is expected is very large. Forza Horizon 5 and GhostWire: Tokyo are examples of games that suffer as a result, with resolution toned down by clarity and lackluster colours. More recent gaming experiences feel almost ten years old in that light, and then I feel like some points have been missed.
Older games hold up to transition much better, and playing for example Halo: Combat Evolved, Half-Life 2, or Mini Ninjas feels like the most natural thing in the world after getting a little used to it.
But even these games pale in comparison to what it would be like to play locally. Irregular stuttering in both sound and picture is something cloud gaming can’t get rid of, at least not over a wireless network. It is still considered as approved.
Xbox Cloud Gaming contains old and new games.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
Local broadcast works better
The best results are obtained if you stream the games locally.
This can be done directly through Remote Play on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation respectively. Here the experience is noticeably better, both in terms of increased picture quality and more stable streaming, although this requires that you have the relevant platform active on the same network you’re on.
Local streaming is great by all accounts, especially if you have to concede TV rights to others at home or if, for some reason, you want to play Overwatch 2 on the porch or Doom Eternal in the bathroom.
You can also make use of this solution over other networks, but then you have to put up with poor quality again.
It is also worth noting that Logitech G Cloud does not have any kind of support for mobile networks. Not that this was recommended, as required a lot Using data is supposed to lead to a weaker result. For fun, I initially tried to connect to my 5G network via my mobile phone, but that was easier said than done.
Also maybe, all along, GeForce Now states that it can require anything from 1GB to 22GB of data per hour of streaming games, depending on the quality you want.
Simple user interface but works well.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
Console performance and support
The console has a typical Android-based operating system with full access to Google Play, so you can download the apps you want for free. This is probably Logitech G Cloud’s best feature.
In addition to cloud gaming, you can then use the device for everything from reading the newspaper and watching Netflix to playing games old and new on a big, beautiful screen.
Unfortunately, the sea is murky here too, because the console’s internals don’t show off. Here we find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G which is more than three years old, which means that the performance in local games is well below par. It’s also impossible for a console to have two apps active at the same time, and what’s even worse is the fact that only a handful of games we tested support the built-in controller without further fiddling.
I think everyone should play GhostWire: Tokyo, but they’d rather not play that way.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
“Tamper” and “easier said than done” are otherwise perfectly descriptive of the Logitech G Cloud as a whole. For it to be a device that would somehow make it easier to play the latest games without having to deal with computers, consoles, and expensive components, it is a lot Fooling around to be done along the way.
Getting started with GeForce Now, for example, required that I first sync my Steam library via a PC; Xbox Cloud Gaming logs me out every time I restart the app; There are no options to put your broadcast session to sleep if you want to take a short break; And trying to transfer files on the device is a nightmare.
With the exception of Steam Remote Play, Diablo Immortal (of all things), and Google Play, which were pretty easy to get started with, unfortunately, there’s very little about the Logitech G Cloud that works this way.
Conclusion
The Logitech G Cloud is a capable device that makes it easy to get started with cloud gaming. The handheld controller has a great design, with a sleek screen, mostly comfortable buttons and real heft behind it.
Diablo Immortal was among the few games that worked right away with the built-in console. The games that didn’t allow us to use a controller (at all) were Genshin Impact, Pokémon Unite, and Call of Duty Mobile.
Espen Jansen/Gamer
The fact that everything runs on Android also makes it easy to get started, thanks to easy access to user information, apps, and a host of other features that a regular tablet has.
On the one hand, cloud gaming is doing quite well, although recent games in particular reveal that the technology still has a long way to go. Picture quality in games like Halo 4 and Forza Horizon 5 is noticeably poorer than you can get even on older TVs, and stuttering is a constant problem — unless you can maintain ideal conditions for streaming content over time.
But it works just fine, and especially older, slower, and less demanding games can run perfectly on a console. It also means that the Logitech G Cloud works perfectly for those who emulate games and older consoles, and more than anything else, this is probably what I personally would use it for.
With that in mind, the guide price of NOK 3,999 is sadly too high, especially since the console’s contents don’t really brag about it either.
It’s a shame it doesn’t do any better — it’s not really Logitech’s fault that cloud gaming isn’t quite “there” yet, but they should have thought about this before investing heavily in the completely humble Logitech G Cloud.
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