Logitech's new Xbox-powered Android games console looks superb

(Image credit: Logitech)

published 31 August 2022

As much as I love handheld gaming, it can be an expensive hobby: having already bought my kids a Nintendo Switch (not to mention the phones and tablets they use for Apple Arcade and paid-for games) I'm loath to shell out for the Steam Deck, as brilliant as I know it is. So I was already pretty excited by the prospect of Logitech's G gaming handheld, which connects to lots of different cloud gaming services and could be much cheaper. Now I've seen images of it, I'm even more excited.

The images come via noted leaker Evan Blass on Twitter, who posted what appears to be images of the finished device (and given the speed at which Logitech filed a complaint to make Twitter take them down, it looks like they're the real deal). It looks pretty much as you'd expect it to with a screen-dominated design bracketed by a stick and D-pad on the left and another stick and the A, B, X and Y buttons on the right. Logitech clearly isn't reinventing games controllers here, and I'm glad of that. My muscle memory is far too strong for me to happily learn different control systems.

But it's what's on screen that's really interesting.

Why I'm excited about Logitech's G Gaming handset

As a Steam gamer and an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, the presence of both of those services' icons on the Logitech's screen makes me excited – and there are also icons for Google Play, GeForce Now, Chrome and YouTube. Given the emphasis on cloud gaming here that means it doesn't need to be as powerful as a Steam Deck – think mid-range smartphone rather than entire PC crammed into a portable – and it's interesting to see that it'll support Android games as well as the cloud services. Having a Switch-style handheld that happily plays Xbox and Steam games as well as Android ones means this could be lots of fun for all kinds of gamers.

We don't have any firm details about the handheld's innards yet, but it might run Qualcomm's new G3x platform, which was designed specifically for handhelds and has an Adreno GPU for gaming.

The other thing we don't know is how much it's going to cost when it launches later this year. Logitech is keeping schtum so far, with just a landing page where you can register your interest. But the more I see of this handheld the more I like it. If the price is right this could be a big hit for those of us who can't afford a Steam Deck but who want something more flexible than a Switch.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).