66 TECH ADVISOR • APRIL 2020REVIEW
supports Pixel 2, 3/3a and 4 devices. That’s it, so...
I hope you own one. Given how many phones run
Android,I cannotbelieveGoogledidn’tevenprep
the2019 flagships for release day.
The phone is also the weakest Stadia environment,
which is a shame because it has the most promise. Who
doesn’t want to play Red Dead Redemption II on a
phone, right? Or take Destiny 2 with them on vacation
by packing just a controller in their bag? Performance
is inconsistent though, even on Wi-Fi. Half a second
latency was the norm, and while I didn’t have any
serious connection issues with a laptop, the phone
dropped frames, stuttered, even displayed a ‘Lost
Connection’ symbol at times.
Tomakemattersworse,manygamesare
unplayableat phone size. People complain about
Nintendo Switch games and unreadable text, but just
try and play Red Dead Redemption II on a 5in screen.
I dare you. It’s not just text either. Interactive items,
button displays, it’s all microscopic.
And the controller barely works as advertised. That’s
probably the weirdest part of this whole mess. When
Google announced Stadia, a highlight was that you
could switch between devices on-the-fly. Say you’re
playing on your Chromecast, you could seamlessly
transition to your phone at the push of a button. In
theory, this can still occur. The Stadia app lets you
changewhichscreenthegameis displayedon,and
I’vepushedMortalKombat 11 frommyTVtomy
phonemid-fight before. Neat.
The controller doesn’t go with it, though. It’s
supposed to connect not to any single device but