I played the new console that wants to dethrone the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck, here is the Logitech G Cloud

news hardware I played the new console that wants to dethrone the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck, here is the Logitech G Cloud

A quality Logitech console, but…

At first glance, we quickly notice a resemblance to a certain Japanese console. Indeed, the Logitech G Cloud heavily borrows from the design of the Nintendo Switch Lite, the “lite” version of the classic Nintendo Switch. In terms of weight, we ended up at 463 grams, which is light enough that it didn’t bother me during my roughly half-hour session.

Logitech allowed me to get my hands on their first console, completely dedicated to Cloud Gaming. We can think what we want, but this way of consuming video games is gaining more and more followers. Services are multiplying, like XCloud, GeForce Now or even Steam Link, and Logitech intends to ride this wave to enter the console market with great fanfare.

Logitech G Cloud Comparison vs. Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck:

In the form, it is impossible to deny the quality of the product. Logitech G Cloud is a solid console with a perfectly placed key layout and joysticks. The portable console walks on the flower beds of the Nintendo Switch Lite, to the point of placing all its keys in the same place.

Once in hand, the console is impeccable. The size was perfect for my (pretty small) hands, but other helpful reviewers with larger hands liked the Logitech G Cloud’s grip. The sticks are slightly cupped to accommodate the pulp of your thumbs, and the buttons offer almost similar hit and return to an Xbox Series controller.

The Logitech G Cloud presents us with a 7-inch LCD screen with a maximum resolution of 1080p (Full HD) and a refresh rate of 60 fps. Unfortunately, even while playing the game I didn’t see live frame rate tracking, but the game seems very smooth.

Still on screen, the Logitech G Cloud reveals a maximum brightness of 450 nits, compared to 343 nits on the Nintendo Switch. For once, the driving conditions didn’t allow me to clearly see if the screen was delivering good brightness, given that I was in a fairly dark room.

… A concept can be too ambitious for Steam Deck

The Logitech G Cloud is, as its name suggests, a console dedicated to the Cloud. This is an Android machine, and for once the limits are felt pretty quickly.

I actually tried the game first. cyberpunk 2077 via Nvidia’s GeForce Now service. After a long time of charging, due to the connection not very stable. The game exhibited some latency between the requested input and the on-screen action. My worst idea was to throw ghost runner, a game of courses where every move must be finely calculated. This is where I could feel the limits of the cloud in very dynamic games.

Even if the Steam Deck is quite imposing, it is mainly explained by the fact that the console literally has to run the games and store them. For once, the Steam Deck and Logitech G Cloud are clearly not playing on the same court.

Aside from the very good hardware, the Logitech G Cloud mostly looks like an Android tablet on which we’ve glued two controllers. Navigating through the menus was tedious and the constant connection to the various Cloud Gaming services can put many people off, including me. The interface quickly becomes clunky, especially if you land on the Steam Big Picture submenu that asks you to use the touch screen on very small icons…

Logitech G Cloud proposes to set foot in a future where gaming is completely dematerialized and remote. A handheld console that shouldn’t stray far from your Wifi router or you risk being interrupted, quite ironic.