Yesterday, Logitech introduced its $349.99 G Cloud Gaming Handheld, which is coming out in the US on October 17th (till then, it’s $50 off to preorder). Today, I bought to briefly examination it out. It was just a 10-minute demo, but it was prolonged ample for me to snap a few photos, start some apps, and see how it felt in my palms. We’ll have a full critique in the coming months.

As I arrived at the tests station, Deathloop (freshly offered on Xbox Game Go) was streaming through Wi-Fi to the handheld’s Xbox Cloud Gaming application. Unfortunately, it was the motion-fewer intro sequence, but I even now got to dash and bounce all over. While it was not a enjoyable killer, like all of my ordeals with cloud game streaming, there was just a whiff of enter lag that, at the very least for me, is complicated to ignore. On the furthermore side, the G Cloud’s buttons, triggers, and analog stick layout feel excellent. As for visual fidelity, it is difficult to know how a great deal can be blamed on a congested Wi-Fi network, but the game’s dim environments looked a small fuzzy on its 7-inch 1080p IPS panel.

Holding Logitech’s G Cloud Gaming Handheld in one hand. It’s displaying the game Fortnite, wherein a character is staring off a cliff into the horizon.
The cloud edition of Fortnite felt really great to play on the handheld, even with a hint of enter latency.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

That wasn’t the situation when I switched to Fortnite by way of the Nvidia GeForce Now application. Exiting Xbox Sport Go and booting into a new app was satisfactorily speedy. My first impact is that if your baseline anticipations for velocity in a handheld consist of just the Nintendo Switch, I imagine you are going to probably be amazed with how responsive the effectiveness and interface navigation truly feel — possibly not so considerably if you’re coming from a Steam Deck. At its greatest, Fortnite on the G Cloud Gaming Handheld appears to be like better and operates smoother than it does on the Switch (not a really higher bar, I know), while that relies upon totally on the capabilities of your Wi-Fi community. Of system, due to the fact this is an Android-based mostly handheld, it is almost certainly attainable to get real Fortnite loaded on to this thing and not stress about the total cloud facet. Although, I’m not sure how perfectly it’d operate with its Snapdragon 720G and 4GB of RAM.

The rest of my time with the G Cloud Gaming Handheld was expended receiving shed in its Android launcher that Tencent seemingly assisted with in enhancement, which feels ripped out of the Android Honeycomb days (even although the unit that I examined was running Android 11). It is straightforward adequate to obtain all of your apps, aside from the gaming-focused ones that it places front and middle. When you’re on the lookout at your full application library, you can click on a confront button that serves as a portal to the Google Perform Retailer, the place you can obtain practically just about anything, I’d imagine. Aesthetically, the user interface is attempting for a gamer-y vibe that didn’t fully click with me.

A top view of the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Headset that shows its shoulder buttons, which are covered in a textured plastic.
The shoulder buttons and grips are lined in textured plastic to present additional, effectively, grip.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

The G Cloud Handheld is cozy to maintain. The designed-in grips offer a great total of palm help, and the textured plastic all around its back and on the triggers is a great touch. In conditions of ergonomics by itself, I’d absolutely prefer to eliminate a number of hours taking part in games on this than on the Swap. On the bottom, there’s a headphone jack following to a USB-C port that’s employed generally for charging. It can not assist pushing video out to external screens — I requested — while it’ll operate with USB-C audio transmitters for headsets that provide that kind of detail. On the major still left of the handheld’s rail, there is a quantity rocker subsequent to a sleep swap (you can ability it down as a result of the application, as well). And eventually, there’s a microSD card slot above on the appropriate facet, next to the ideal shoulder buttons.

This image showcases the volume and power buttons located on the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld
There’s a energy slider upcoming to a quantity rocker together the top rated rail of the handheld.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

This handheld feels and seems to be well made, and it took no time at all for me to come to feel like this is a gadget that I want to devote a whole lot more time tests. Although, like most Logitech goods, polished as it feels, spending time with it did not alter that I’m not a supporter of its $349.99 retail price. You have to be completely bought in, not just to this handheld but to the providers that you want to participate in online games on. So, the expense only goes up from there.

This image shows the charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack located on the bottom of the Logitech G Cloud Gaming handheld.
The handheld does not assistance video out through USB-C, but you can plug in USB-C audio transmitters for wireless headsets, in addition to charging.
Photograph by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Looking outside of this handheld, it is definitely complicated to underplay how much price some of the other well-known handheld consoles give ideal now, which includes the $199 Change Lite or the much more able $299 Switch that can connect to a Television set. Not to mention, the Steam Deck’s $399 beginning value is a tempting alternative if you want to participate in Computer system online games on the go. Even so, Android tablets fashioned into handhelds that are quickly available for order are just unheard of enough that the G Cloud Gaming Handheld could be a hit. We’ll have to see.