WEBVTT

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we're on the record saying that the Logitech G Cloud a handheld console

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designed exclusively for cloud gaming sounds pretty dumb the planning for this

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must have started before they heard about steam deck holy good luck

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Logitech so I was pretty surprised when Logitech slid into my DMs with an offer

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to sponsor me to promote the device I mean I gave them the usual yeah I'm

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interested wouldn't you logitech's check's always clear but I also told

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them that I needed to experience it in person before we could move forward and

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well I have and short answer it is good

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enough to accept the sponsorship long answer we didn't accept the sponsorship

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which is why this video is brought to you by some other sponsor like PDQ PDQ

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me completely wrong here I don't hate cloud gaming and I especially don't hate

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handheld cloud gaming I mean I was probably the single biggest advocate for

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the original NVIDIA Shield outside of NVIDIA and its entire stick was that you

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could use it to play Android games but it was at its best when you were

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streaming AAA games over Wi-Fi from your desktop gaming rig it was pretty much

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the spiritual predecessor to this thing and I absolutely loved it even back then

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the latency was really impressive and while image quality lost due to video

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compression is going to be a challenge for any streaming service game streaming

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in particular the smaller the screen the less noticeable any blocking or motion

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artifacts will be so game streaming to a handheld made and makes a ton of sense

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the question then is whether this is the

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right handheld big black elephant in the

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room for the Logitech G cloud is of course the steam deck even though it

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starts at only fifty dollars more valve's handheld packs so much more

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Firepower that it can not only stream games from the cloud but even render

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them locally without an internet connection it also boasts standout

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features like haptic touchpads programmable grip buttons and a

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consumer-friendly approach to user repair however after spending some time with

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both of them I no longer agree with the other reviewers who say that the gcloud

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should be completely ignored right out of the gate there's actually a lot that

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Logitech did right here it's only marginally heavier than the OLED switch

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from Nintendo with much better ergonomics thanks to having a

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permanently attached controller and the quality and feel of the Plastics really

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highlight logitech's Decades of experience designing human interface

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devices the screen has a pleasing color profile

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right out of the box and is rated at 450 nits which in practice is much brighter

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than you will ever need indoors and I was also pleased to find things that I

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used to take for granted but no longer do like a three and a half millimeter

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headphone jack next to the bottom mounted USBC charging port and a Micro

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SD expansion slot at the top next to the power switch and volume rocker

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navigating the initial setup wizard then gave me a lot of confidence in the

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buttons and the joysticks until abruptly

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my overwhelmingly positive First Impressions ended during setup I was

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given an unskippable prompt for 10 cents privacy policy and end user license

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agreement it's probably not the worst Eula that I've ever signed and Logitech

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isn't exactly hiding the partnership given that they've talked about it on

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their blog but the only hint at tencent's involvement on the product

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page itself is the subtle grammatical

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and spelling errors that are sprinkled throughout so I feel like some of my

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disappointment is Justified here and unfortunately that feeling carried

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through to the interface it's not bad if

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all you ever want to do is fire up one of the three pre-installed cloud gaming

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apps GeForce now Xbox cloud or steam link all of this is likely going to feel

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like nitpicking it's just that it's kind of obtuse you know like why are my

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Android notifications under messages instead of pull down shade why does the

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touchscreen work to interact with my photo gallery but not my Wi-Fi icon why

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does it take a colossal 20 interactions

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and entering my PIN to go from handheld

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mode to regular Android tablet mode something that you will probably find

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yourself needing to do at some point even if it's just to get access to the

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back button and then while we're at it why the Sam heck does it not have a back

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button In fairness to Logitech or realistically 10 cent put pretty much

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every game under the sun uses face buttons for both confirm and for bag and

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both opening and closing the Quick Settings overlay is intuitively handled

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with the home button though I wouldn't recommend using the gcloud as an Android

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gaming handheld anyway to which you might say what how can an Android Tablet

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with a controller bolted to the side possibly be bad for gaming

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oh it can to hit their aggressive 350 dollar price

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point it is pretty clear that Logitech cut some Corners the Qualcomm Snapdragon

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720g that powers the gcloud was targeted at Emerging Markets when it was

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announced nearly three years ago and if

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you attempt to run anything heavier than casual games you are going to be

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extremely disappointed one of my personal favorite Android games bomb

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squad is a total blast on this thing but

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it's an ancient game I used to play it on my original Shield portable try to

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play something like fortnite it was an absolute stuttery mess when I tried to

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run it at Native resolution and that's even ignoring the current lack of proper

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Gamepad detection and on-screen control mapping Logitech says they're working on

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this but for now that doesn't help me and it was seriously awkward to jump

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with the face buttons and then Fire by reaching over them to the touchscreen

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since the right trigger wouldn't do anything furthermore while it's not

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something that I explored in detail running Android console emulators is

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snow walk in the park either according to Gary over at the fox it can easily

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handle consoles from the 90s but even heavier PlayStation 2 and GameCube games

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were a struggle for its weak SOC and he often find himself frustrated by poor

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controller mapping agree with you 100 their men however there's one aspect of

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Gary's excellent and detailed review that I take issue with and I alluded to

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this before his recommendation to completely ignore the gcloud and buy a

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steam deck instead let me explain Logitech has been careful to Market this

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device very specifically while they

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don't get in the way of running any Android app you want including playing

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games or watching great behind the scenes content from our channels over on

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Floatplane.com and they are apparently even discussing the possibility of

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unlocking the bootloader other than to say that it runs Android

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11 they make no mention of Android whatsoever on the product page it's for

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running Cloud games and for that purpose it's really really good

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like the steam deck it packs a large 7-inch display for a big screen portable

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gaming experience but unlike the steam deck it's 1080p meaning that your

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streamed games will end up looking noticeably sharper than your friend's

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locally rendered games and actually even streamed games onto this team deck

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because the screen resolution is so much lower and because all game rendering is

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being done remotely the gcloud never gets loud or hot I can't stress enough

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how much of a difference this makes I would describe the stereo speakers as

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pretty darn solid but by far the best thing about them is that I can actually

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hear them over the zero other noise that the system is making

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it's the kind of quality life difference that might not get captured by a typical

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review process which is all about your measurements and your FPS's but it makes

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a big difference when you're actually living with the thing and so does the

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form factor I love the steam deck as much as anyone for real I'm on the

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record saying things like it'll revolutionize the console industry and

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even the broader gaming industry but part of loving something is being

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willing to be honest with it and steam deck is kind of cumbersome the size and

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weight difference between these two devices is enough that if I had both of

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them on my bedside table I know which one that I would grab to lie on the

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couch and veg and it wouldn't be the steam deck the last major advantage for

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the gcloud is battery life Logitech advertises 12 hours and as far as I can

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tell they are selling themselves majorly short here

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it over to the lab where at a screen brightness of 2 which is plenty bright

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for indoors it managed five and a half to seven and a half hours in Apex

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Legends mobile depending on the frame rate target so far so not that

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impressive but then we set it up streaming playing bravery and greed on

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G-Force now and we managed a whopping 15

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hours of battery life that is another huge W for the gcloud

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that goes beyond just bigger number better and into my battery anxiety just

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disappears compared to my other handhelds of course that doesn't mean

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that there's no room for improvement in what appears to be an effort to make the

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gcloud more comfortable for children they crammed the face buttons so close

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to the right thumbstick that I accidentally bump it constantly both in

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games and in menus and that isn't even the thumbstick's

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worst quality I think Logitech nailed the size of them they're kind of in

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between the Nintendo switch and the full-size sticks on the deck but I

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cannot emphasize enough how bad the dead

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zones are whether we're talking racing or shooting games the absolute last

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thing that you want to do on a console that already has anywhere from 50 to 100

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plus milliseconds of extra input delay is ADD even more input delay it's not

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too bad for All or Nothing inputs like in Hollow Knight but it makes fine

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adjustments to aim or steering basically impossible if you're attempting anything

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other than a casual playthrough I'm waiting to hear from Logitech whether

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this is something they can fix in software we'll have the answer either overlaid or in the video description but

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if it isn't I would recommend steering clear of the

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gcloud until they've revised the hardware to address it which is a real

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shame because that's my only real game breaker here though of course there is

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another elephant in the room and that's the cost it's not only designed for use

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alongside an existing gaming PC or

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monthly cloud service both of which cost money but at the time of writing the

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gcloud itself costs over eight times as

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much as strapping a Razer Kishi to your phone I understand that that's not an

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Apples to Apples comparison your phone's screen is a lot smaller and the gcloud

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is Worlds more comfortable but your phone also doesn't turn into an

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expensive paperweight if you want to take a break from your monthly subscriptions and use it for something

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else making it a much more practical option

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now I've seen people saying hey yeah I love the concept and if the price was a

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hundred dollars I could totally justify it but 300 ain't happening the issue is

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that the only decent Android tablets that I've seen for 100-ish dollars are

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Amazon Fire tablets and those only exist because Amazon can sell them at a loss

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and make up the difference with the prime subscriptions and other Revenue that they're assuming that they'll

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generate Logitech enjoys no such luxury and while we have seen them discount the

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gcloud there is no way it's going to make it that low because they need to

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make money on every unit or they might as well just cancel the project which I

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sincerely hope they don't there are some obvious bugs to resolve in the software

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like this weird floating error or the inconsistent behavior of back in the

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menus but overall I actually do like the

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concept and with a bit more on device performance the combination of an

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enormous catalog of cheap Android games and outstanding streaming performance

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would make this thing a serious Contender for my money because compared

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to buying my kids something like a switch now steam deck customers you guys know

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who you are and this product isn't for

00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:28.380
you but for other people the gcloud

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really does bring something new and interesting to the table and I'm rooting

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for it to be a success in the long term by the time this comes out it'll be too

00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:40.200
late to do that Black Friday sponsorship deal but that's okay I had a lot of fun

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working on this review I don't get to write much these days and I can probably

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