When Google first announced its Stadia cloud gaming service, we had high hopes. A “Netflix of Games” that you can use to play anywhere on all of your devices? Register with us now! Of course, we quickly realized that Stadia is not a “Netflix of Games” and that you are not allowed to play on all devices (at least not initially).
However, with the advent of 5G networks in the United States, there is an opportunity to play anywhere. To test this, AT&T contacted us to try Stadia on their 5G network. AT&T provided me with a full Stadia mobile kit, including an official Stadia Premiere Edition (controller and Chromecast Ultra), a Stadia Pro subscription, a Google Pixel 4a 5G with an AT&T SIM card, and even a Power Support Claw to connect everything together.
I live in New Haven, CT which has a pretty robust AT&T 5G service. Can it handle streaming gameplay from Google’s servers thousands of miles away? The answer is complicated.
Stadia on 5G: Find a place and stick with it
The first thing I did when I got the AT&T Stadia kit was to set everything up. I connected all of the devices to my home Wi-Fi network, activated my Stadia Pro subscription, and found a game to play (Chronos: From the Ashes). It only took me about 15 minutes to stream Chronos to the phone and have a good time gaming.
See also: The best games on Google Stadia
The only reason I got the kit, of course, was to test the Stadia on 5G, not my home Wi-Fi network (which I humbly admit it’s fast). I turned off wifi on the Pixel 4a 5G and saw the little 5G icon in the top right corner. I restarted Chronos and found the game basically unplayable. Check out the video below to see the dropped frames and stutter:
Obviously, this result suggests that AT & T’s network just isn’t fast enough for Stadia, at least not in my home. Take a look at the following speed test results to see what I mean:
But hey, why should I even use 5G services in my home? To put this to a real test, I had to go out into the world. I took a trip to downtown New Haven in the heart of Yale University and tried my luck there. For the record, downtown is a five-minute drive from my house.
The speed tests I did downtown show a world of difference. Check them out here:
At these higher speeds, Chronos: From the Ashes played just as well as it did on my home WiFi. The frame rates were fluid, the controller lag was minimal, and everything looked crisp. I even sat in the passenger seat while my girlfriend drove us around and had no problems playing the entire time.
Of course, Stadia is perfectly possible on 5G, but you have to find an area with good service and stick with it.
It’s a shame about Stadia’s mobile problems
In the previous section, I mention how I turned off the WiFi on the Pixel 4a 5G and played Stadia on 5G at my home. However, that is not the whole story. As you can see, the official Stadia controller itself connects to the WiFi to reduce the input delay. That said, if the controller and screen (in this case the Pixel 4a 5G) are not on a Wi-Fi network, things will not work properly.
See also: Google Stadia vs. GeForce Now
Now there are a few ways to get around this. The first is pretty obvious, which is to replace the Stadia controller with something else, such as a. B. an Xbox or PlayStation controller. These connect to your phone via Bluetooth, which leads to a certain input delay, but at least actually works. Confusingly, the Stadia controller works with bluetooth, just not when playing Stadia games. Seriously.
Another solution would be to use a cable and connect the phone and Stadia controller together. This has the advantage that the input lag remains low, but the disadvantage that a cable is required.
Google doesn’t make Stadia easy to use on cellular networks.
A more difficult option would be to use the phone as a hotspot and play on a different screen. A tablet, laptop or even a second phone would make this possible.
The overarching problem with this, however, is that none of these solutions are obvious. The Stadia controller doesn’t come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, so it’s not obvious that you need one to use it on mobile devices. Using a secondary controller – or worse, a secondary screen – seems to negate the whole purpose of using the Stadia controller at all.
In addition, the Stadia app itself will not help you with this. When I tried to use the controller wirelessly on the AT&T network, it didn’t say, “Hey, you need a USB-C cable to do this.” It just failed and said I need to connect it to Wi-Fi. That’s not helpful at all, Google.
Stadia works with 5G under certain conditions
Despite Stadia’s inherent mobile issues, this test shows that the service works well over both WiFi and 5G, assuming you’re playing in a specific scenario:
- You are in an area where 5G service is active and strong.
- You are relatively stationary in this area.
- The large amount of data that Stadia consumes is not a problem for you (i.e. you have unlimited amounts of data). I’ve seen Stadia use around 100MB of cellular data every minute.
If you don’t meet all three of the criteria, you might be having a bad time with Stadia on 5G.
Related: What is cloud gaming?
Unfortunately, the dream of being able to take a train and stream your game for ride on a 5G network is currently not realistic (this is where a Steam deck might come in handy). 5G just isn’t ubiquitous enough that you face outages every few minutes. However, hanging out at the airport or in a coffee shop and being able to play with 5G is certainly possible – as long as you can afford unlimited 5G data.
Of course, unless Google makes it easier for official Stadia gear to work with cellular networks, it will never be really convenient.