Logitech G Cloud Is a Steam Deck-Style Handheld With a Streaming Focus

Logitech joins the fray for portable gaming today with a surprise device of its own. The company just announced the Logitech G Cloud, a gaming handheld similar to the Valve Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch Lite but with its own specific focus.

As the name suggests, the G Cloud is aimed at cloud gaming, emphasizing game streaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now, Steam Link, and Xbox Cloud Gaming over running games natively. It is an Android-based device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chip, a 7-inch 1080p IPS LCD touchscreen and dual-band 2×2 MIMO 802.11ac WiFi.

It also features a full set of physical gamepad controls, including two analog sticks, a directional pad, four face buttons, four shoulder buttons, motion sensors, and force feedback.

(Image credit: Logitech)

The Snapdragon 720G processor seems underpowered for a portable gaming system. It’s a mid-range eight-core chip with an Adreno 618 GPU. So it can run some mobile games reliably, but it doesn’t quite match the performance offered by flagship smartphone processors like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or even the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865-based XR2 processor of the Meta Quest 2 VR headset. This is understandable considering that G Cloud relies on cloud-based games that rely much more on fast and reliable network performance than on-board processing.

The modest hardware should offer an advantage that other gaming handhelds lack: long battery life. Logitech says the G Cloud can last over 12 hours between charges under normal gaming conditions, likely thanks to the Snapdragon 720G not consuming much power. We’ll have to find out when we get it to test.

(Image credit: Logitech)

Despite its relatively low processing power, the G Cloud should still prove to be a strong system for playing retro games. It will have full access to the Google Play Store, suggesting that sideloading software is in the cards and that the system can easily be loaded with emulators.

Given that fifth-gen gaming consoles and earlier can be emulated with trivial performance, and even some sixth-gen games can run on a mid-range Android device, there should be enough room to turn the G Cloud into a classic gaming handheld out there game streaming. It doesn’t offer the Windows PC performance of the Valve Steam Deck or OneXPlayer Mini, but at least it lasts longer on a charge.

The Logitech G Cloud is available for pre-order now at Logitech G(Opens in a new window) Website at a promotional price of $299.99 and will retail for $349.99 in October. This seems a bit pricey for the hardware, but we’ll need to get our hands on it and see what we can do with it ourselves before fully judging it. Watch out for a full review in the future.

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