Steel Series Stratus+ review: a mobile controller that forgets the mobile bit | Tech Radar

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I've spent a bunch of time with the Steel Series Stratus+, and it’s OK on PC but struggles on Android

Not much more than a basic PC controller with a phone mount stuck to it

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The Steel Series Stratus+ tries to be clever by bolting a phone mount to the top of a generic controller, but ultimately the result is just that: a generic controller with a phone mount awkwardly bolted to the top of it.

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The Steel Series Stratus+ is a wireless Bluetooth controller built primarily for Android mobile gaming, with wired USB-C support for Windows PCs.

It launched back in 2022 at

Steel Series positions the Stratus+ as delivering a console-quality mobile experience, and in theory, it has most of the ingredients to do that. A traditional shape that blends Xbox and Play Station design elements with a removable phone mount, Hall Effect triggers, and a claimed 90-hour battery life via Bluetooth LE. In practice, however, the phone mount that should be the controller's defining feature ends up being its biggest weakness. It’s tricky to install, and once it’s in, it wobbles, spoils the balance, and worst of all, it has a habit of turning your phone off altogether.

Once you have found the sweet spot to mount your phone, game compatibility is then a mixed bag. Fortnite on mobile is often kind on controller compatibility and worked well here, but more finicky titles like Call of Duty Mobile and Need for Speed didn't work at all. Xbox Cloud Gaming fared better, performing well enough with Forza Horizon 6, though compounding Bluetooth latency with remote gaming meant noticeable enough input lag that it forced me into pre-empting inputs rather than driving naturally.

For a mobile controller, the Stratus+ actually performs best as a wired PC controller. Plug it in via USB-C, and it's instantly recognized as an XInput device, fully mapped in Steam, and perfectly functional as a basic controller. The problem is that it's a particularly competitive market, and it does very little to stand out. You could pick up an actual Xbox Wireless Controller for not much more and get a better, more comfortable pad that still pairs to your Android phone.

Steel Series Stratus+ review: Price and availability

Now often found as low as $25 / £25 from third parties

The Steel Series Stratus+ has been around a little while now, first launching in May 2022 at $59.99, though fast-forward to 2026 and that list price isn’t holding up. It’s now often available much cheaper from retailers, and I saw it selling for less than half its list price while pulling together this review.

At full price, the Stratus+ is stuck trying to compete with options like the first-party Xbox Wireless Controller and sits uncomfortably close to the excellent Game Sir G8 Galileo mobile grip or the Game Sir G8+ Bluetooth controller, all of which offer better experiences in their own way.

At its current discounted price, however, it’s cheap enough to be worth a look as a budget PC gamepad.

Steel Series Stratus+ review: Design and features

Blends elements from Xbox and Play Station controllers into a familiar shape

Solid D-pad and Hall Effect triggers are the highlight

Before you start messing around with the phone mount, the Steel Series Stratus+ looks like a perfectly generic controller. The sort of thing you’d see in a film to avoid giving brand recognition to either side of the console war. It borrows Play Station’s symmetrical thumbstick layout and pairs it with Xbox-style ABXY buttons and a black shell. It's inoffensive, generic, and unexciting.

Holding it, though, something feels off. Despite being almost identical in width to an Xbox Series X controller and actually a touch taller, the Stratus+ somehow feels cramped. Part of that is down to the symmetrical stick placement, I’m sure, as it naturally sits lower on the body and makes the whole controller feel shorter than it physically is. I have reasonably large hands and am very used to an offset stick layout, so it never quite settled. Some of this is obviously personal preference, and if you’re coming from a Dual Sense Wireless Controller, I’m sure you’ll adapt quicker, though I doubt you’ll escape that sense of being on top of yourself.

The phone mount is where things stray from the norm and, unfortunately, not particularly successfully. Steel Series includes a detachable clip that slots into the top of the Stratus+ via two metal bars to turn this from a controller into a mobile controller. It doesn’t work well, though, and almost feels like a third-party modkit for a controller, rather than a first-party USP. It’s fiddly to install, and even with the bars fully inserted, there's noticeable wobble before you've even added a phone.

Once you do seat a device, the controller becomes top-heavy and unbalanced, constantly wanting to tip backward when placed on a surface and feeling like it’s trying to spill forward out of your hands. The mount clamps your phone from the sides rather than end-to-end, which helps with universality, but means it's also constantly trying to press your phone's power and volume buttons. During testing with a POCO X5 Pro, I had to significantly offset the phone to the right of the cradle to avoid it turning my phone off.

The D-pad is probably the highlight of the entire controller, not something I’ve often said, so it’s nice to see it get its moment to shine. It's firm with a satisfyingly soft press and rock solid with zero wiggle. The ABXY face buttons are generic but functional, and the bumpers are quiet, soft, and responsive.

There are Hall Effect sensors in the triggers with a mid-length travel and linear mapping, though there’s no hair trigger mode and no companion app to set dead zones. The ALPS thumbsticks offer fairly high resistance and felt fine during testing with no drift out of the box, though it's worth noting that these sticks don't carry the same drift-resistance guarantees as Hall Effect alternatives.

The Steel Series Stratus+ is trying to be two controllers in one, and in testing, the experience was certainly a tale of two halves.

Connected to my Windows gaming PC via USB-C, the Stratus+ was instantly recognized as an XInput controller and fully mapped as a generic gamepad in Steam. You’d think that’d be the bare minimum experience, but it’s actually refreshing to see it just work, as that isn’t always the case, I’ve found.

I jumped across a few titles in both Steam and Xbox Cloud Gaming, and there's nothing here that would give you reason to reach for a different controller. It’s perfectly fine but equally, there’s nothing worth shouting about, or that would make you recommend this one specifically. It looks like a generic game controller, and it plays like one, but most importantly these days it’s priced like one too, so that’s not a bad thing.

Sticking that weird phone mount into the top and heading to mobile, the experience is considerably less convincing. The Steel Series Stratus+ connected to my POCO X5 Pro without issue, but game support is a guessing game. Fortnite recognized the controller and played well overall, but displayed Play Station button prompts on screen despite the Stratus+ using an ABXY layout.

The firm resistance of the sticks offered me plenty of fine control, and any input lag was small enough to be below my skill cap. Call of Duty Mobile and NFS No Limits simply didn't work at all, with no controller recognition and no hardware mapping workaround available.

Again, this isn’t a Steel Series-specific issue, but competitors like Game Sir have built compatibility solutions via their companion apps, so while those games don’t have great native controller support, it’s possible with a little effort by brands.

Xbox Cloud Gaming fared better, recognizing the controller natively and without any button mapping issues. Forza Horizon 6 played OK, but this is where the Bluetooth latency became most apparent when stacked on top of the small amount of remote gaming input lag. Racing games demand reactive inputs and a feeling of being connected to your car, and with the Stratus+, there was enough delay to force me into adapting my play style.

Rather than reacting naturally to what was happening on screen as I would normally, I found myself having to preempt my next movement while still executing the last one, building in a mental delay to compensate. It's not catastrophic, and it's less noticeable in games that don't demand constant precision, like the charming Sledding Game or Stardew Valley, which both played fine.

Steel Series claims 90+ hours of battery life, and while I unfortunately couldn’t devote nearly four straight days to gaming, I can see those numbers being true enough. Despite regular use over a week of testing, the battery percentage reported by Android barely seemed to drop, and any time I was gaming on PC was passively juicing it up again anyway. Curiously, when charging, I noticed there was often quite a discrepancy between what the controller's own LED indicators showed versus what my phone reported.

At one point, I had three solid lights and one flashing during charging, suggesting it should be 75%, yet my phone's Bluetooth settings reported just 47% battery. There’s fast charging available here, so ultimately it isn’t a dealbreaker, as I doubt you’ll be plugged in often, but I’d be inclined to trust the more pessimistic software number over the lights.

You're looking for a budget wired PC controller and nothing more At its current street price, the Stratus+ is a functional, no-frills wired gamepad that works out of the box with Steam on Windows. If you need a cheap controller for casual gaming on a PC, it'll do the job.

You want a casual Bluetooth pad for Fortnite or cloud gaming For supported mobile titles like Fortnite, the Stratus+ is perfectly fine. The same is true for Xbox cloud gaming, though be mindful that compound input lag can be tricky to work with for titles requiring reactive controls.

You want a genuine mobile-first gaming controller The phone mount is poorly designed, the Bluetooth latency is noticeable at times, and without a companion app, there are real limits to game compatibility. A telescopic controller or even a standard Xbox Wireless Controller paired via Bluetooth will give you a substantially better mobile experience.

You're paying full retail price The Stratus+ isn’t worth its MSRP and is still not particularly compelling until you get close to the half-off mark it can often now be found at. There are simply far too many better options in the same price bracket if you’re stuck paying full price.

If you're looking for something else in either the dedicated mobile or PC controller space then consider these fine options.

Bluetooth 5.3, Wired (USB-C), Dongle (sold separately)

Bluetooth 5.3, Wired (USB-C), Dongle (sold separately)

Game Sir G8+ Bluetooth If mobile gaming is your priority, something from the Game Sir G8+ family is likely a better bet. The telescopic cradle design eliminates all the phone mount problems entirely; Hall Effect sticks and triggers offer drift resistance, and the Game Sir companion app provides hardware mapping for unsupported games. It costs more, but the experience is in a different league.

For more information, check out our full Game Sir G8+ Bluetooth review

Xbox Wireless Controller You’ll need to find somewhere to prop up your phone or grab a third-party case/clip, but you can always just pair a first-party Xbox Wireless Controller to an Android phone over Bluetooth. It’ll be a more comfortable solution with more robust native game support, and it plays great on PC too.

For more information, check out our full Xbox Wireless Controller (2020) review

I spent a week gaming with the Stratus+ across a POCO X5 Pro (Android) and a Windows PC

I tested native Android games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile, Forza Horizon 6 and Sledding Game via Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Steam titles via wired USB-C

I paid particular attention to things like Bluetooth latency, game compatibility, and phone mount stability

I approached testing the Stratus+ independently as both a mobile controller and a PC gamepad over the course of a week, along with considering whether it successfully comes together as one hybrid unit. On Android, I tested both local titles and cloud gaming, while on PC, I tested through Steam's controller interface and games, along with Xbox Cloud Gaming, to evaluate its viability as a wired desktop pad.

I used a POCO X5 Pro in the included phone mount, paying particular attention to stability, balance, and how comfortable the overall experience was in this arrangement. I played both at home on the couch and at a desk, as well as taking the controller out and about to see how it fared on the move.

With a background in sports media leading Northamptonshire cricket club’s communications for five years, these days Alex has turned his attention more to virtual grass than real turf. A fan of all things simulation and sandbox, you’ll often find him behind the wheel of an F1 sim rig or agonizing over individual rock placements in Planet Coaster or Cities: Skylines. Having streamed on Twitch for the best part of a decade, he’s tried and tested more microphones, mixers, cameras, and controllers than you can imagine, writing for Games Radar, Trusted Reviews, Mediaberry, and now Tech Radar.

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• I've spent a bunch of time with the Steel Series Stratus+, and it’s OK on PC but struggles on Android

• Not much more than a basic PC controller with a phone mount stuck to it