The Logitech G-Cloud is a curious device. On paper, it makes a lot of sense. It's a portable cloud gaming system that focuses on giving you instant access to your games through the magic of the cloud. This makes it a great option for gamers who want to jump right into the game without having to waste precious time downloading large install files or tweaking game settings to save precious battery life.

In reality, however, its inconsistent streaming performance, high price, and very specific use cases prevent G Cloud from seriously competing in the emerging portable gaming console sector.

One would like to compare it to the Steam Deck or the Nintendo Switch, but despite the stylish hybrid look of the two, they should not be compared; if the G Cloud had to be compared to anything, it would be the G Cloud, both in power and features. It would be a premium Android tablet.

The idea is to leverage Xbox Cloud Gaming (via Game Pass) and GeForce Now's massive cloud gaming library, so that games you own on various platforms like Steam, Epic, and Ubisoft You can stream them. Thus, you can play your favorite games at the click of a button whenever you feel like it, without having to download them. Also, because it accesses games via the cloud, G Cloud does not need to run much under the hood in terms of hardware, and has comparably longer battery life.

G Cloud has two modes: handheld mode and what a tablet mode. Handheld mode is most convenient for gaming as it fully supports controllers and touchscreens. All apps can be pinned to the main screen for easy scrolling. Tablet mode turns the G Cloud into a traditional Android tablet (home screen and all), with controller support disabled.

However, in either mode, launching the Xbox or GeForce Now apps is quite convenient, with both controller and touchscreen support. Also, with streaming games, the G Cloud's battery life is impressive at around 10 hours of gaming and media use.

Much of G Cloud's enjoyment depends on the quality of the Internet environment where it is used. Even online shooters like Fortnite and Halo Infinite were fairly easy to play. Even online shooters like Fortnite and Halo Infite were easy to play. However, when they actually played the games, they ran into some problems.

The problem was that latency, especially in competitive shooters, was largely unstable; both Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now too often caused considerable input lag in online games like Halo and Forza Horizon were not always the same. Even when the game felt like it was running supremely smoothly, catching the enemy in a gunfight, especially with precision weapons like sniper rifles, felt next to impossible. The aiming cursor always seemed to be a few milliseconds behind; in Forza, I felt a delay in steering and braking on hairpin corners caused catastrophic yet comical crashes.

The cursor frequently jumped around because the thumb was not properly set on the G Cloud joystick. Add to this the slight input lag due to latency issues, and playing online shooters was a lousy time, which is a shame because I liked the G Cloud's other designs: smaller and lighter than the Steam Deck, only slightly larger than the Switch, and Nintendo's gaming console I feel like I can hold it for longer periods of time than I can.

On the other hand, games like "God of War" and "Cyberpunk 2077" showed off the handheld's streaming capabilities nicely. God of War's rhythmic brutal combat felt great and for the most part maintained a fairly manageable frame rate, although every time the network performance dropped, the visual quality dropped and some noticeable artifacts occurred. My guess is that these were still night and day in terms of streaming quality, as these are games where the online multiplayer component does not take up as much bandwidth.

While I really like cloud gaming on Xbox, I found that GeForce Now offered a better gaming experience. I tested Fortnite on both, and Nvidia's streaming service had slightly better latency numbers. However, if you don't have a lot of PC games, Xbox Game Pass is a better value. That's because a subscription gives you access to hundreds of games for one monthly fee. GeForce Now, on the other hand, only allows you to stream games you already own or free-to-play games like Fortnite.

The games that played best on G Cloud were games downloaded from the Google Play Store, not games streamed; Blizzard's mobile hack-and-slasher Diablo Immortals, which supports the gamepad and Blizzard's mobile hack-and-slasher Diablo Immortals worked well because it supports gamepads, and honestly, it did more to sell G Cloud than any of the games streamed on Game Pass.

However, when playing Android games, G Cloud still feels underpowered; Diablo Immortals can only be played at 30fps on low quality settings. It is surprising that it does not work well, as games like Apex Legends and Call of Duty Mobile work quite well on many phones and tablets. Also, some games only support touch controls, which makes for a cumbersome experience, as one must reach for the D-pad or joystick to use the imprecise on-screen touch controls.

Outside of gaming, I used the G Cloud like a regular tablet. While my wife watched various reality shows about housewives fighting on the big TV, I sat on the couch and fell into a deep hole of PC gaming TikTok. I was happy to watch the New York Mets take a division lead over the Atlanta Braves on a bright 450-nit 1080p 60Hz display while plugging in my bluetooth earphones, soothing my young children with YouTube and Minecraft. It's easy to imagine parents using this stuff to.

However, it is still difficult to identify who the Logitech G Cloud is for. Logitech has made a neat streaming handheld that works well under very specific conditions, and the G Cloud may be perfect for those who want to join in a game of Fortnite on the patio or try an indie game on Game Pass without downloading it before bed. However, it assumes you don't have a Switch, iPad, or smartphone.

G Cloud does not support LTE and is a Wi-Fi only device, limiting its use to locations with Wi-Fi. So if you dreamed of streaming "Crusader Kings III" while on the bus, you were out of luck unless you tethered it to your cell phone to act as a hotspot. I've done it and it's no fun at all. Of course, you could always download the game from the Google Play store beforehand, but even then you could just play the game on your phone.

Streaming from Xbox Game Pass and GeForce Now is super easy to use if you have decent internet, but you still have to deal with the sometimes subtle latency issues. But what keeps it from being the super-convenient pick-up-and-play device that Logitech wants it to be is the price: $350 is a lot for someone who can spend nearly as much on a good Android tablet with better hardware that can technically do the same thing. They are asking for it. Or they can spend a little more and get the actual Steam Deck or whatever Razer is preparing.

The Logitech G Cloud is not a terrible handheld; the lack of LTE, high price, and terribly inconsistent streaming performance, while the G Cloud is easy to use, do not give enough justification to stop cloud gaming on a phone or tablet .