Impressions of XCloud on my device (Samsung Galaxy S8+)

I start by saying I've been cloud gaming since it's inception. I've both tested and used several platforms since then.

My phone is not in good shape. It overheats frequently. I can't use it in direct sunlight. It will shut down. And it has shut down once attempting to use XCloud on it.

My Internet is gigabit cable. WiFi is AC capable of providing 866mbps. But it usually gives me around 260.

Wired devices can get 950mbps consistently.

I first tried streaming Forza 7. It had some potato image quality over WiFi. Controls were decent. Maybe 200ms lag in extreme cases.

I decided to amp up the experience. My phone is USB-C. I have a USB-C dock which has 3x USB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet, and audio headphone jack.

I plugged it in. Yes it works, but things did not go well.

I tried playing Ace Combat 7. Three minutes into the stream, the audio cut out. I had controller lag of up to 9 seconds in certain instances. This is just a Bluetooth connection to the phone. That had no lag in the app.

Then, I did something which instantly changed the experience. I enabled Samsung's Dex mode. Plugged into the TV, with Ethernet (WiFi and mobile data disabled) XCloud felt exactly like my Xbox one. Looked exactly like my Xbox one. When bandwidth isn't an object, when lag is near zero, XCloud is amazing. But it only has this experience in Dex mode.

In Dex mode, the phone no longer has to render to the screen. It no longer has to stress it's radios to connect to WiFi or cellular. It acts and looks like a desktop.

Maybe it's my potato phone. But anything that generates heat on it will cause terrible performance.

And so I can't really enjoy playing on wifi or cellular on a tiny screen that I over 40, had trouble seeing clearly.

submitted by /u/DragonTHC
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