Games on mobile phones were ridiculed, considered entertainment for children and housewives. Then – bam! – classic GTA appeared on phones, then technological hits like Shadowgun Legends. And now, full-length releases of the caliber of PUBG and Fortnite are moving to gadgets. Of course, manufacturers of peripherals could not ignore the trend. Testing the Stratus Duo gamepad optimized for Android devices and PCs.
Active offensive on all fronts
The breadth of the controller’s connectivity is simply amazing. If you want – Bluetooth LE (as on smartphones). Don’t have Bluetooth on your computer? Here is a complete 2.4 GHz radio adapter and a switch on the accessory case. Well, microUSB is here not only for charging the built-in battery – the signal is transmitted via the wire to the desktop or mobile phone in the same way.
Over-the-air delays are minimal. The gamepad supports the latest generation of Bluetooth with a polling rate of 1000 Hz – comparable to a normal USB connection.
All control of wireless interfaces is concentrated on the front panel and is intuitive: power and interface type are selected by sliding switches, synchronization with a module or Bluetooth receiver is a button. You don’t even have to open the manual.
Thought out to the smallest detail
It just so happened that all the gamepads in the world are divided into “like the Xbox” and “like the PlayStation.” There are intermediate options (when the shape is used from one model, and the location of the analog sticks from another), but the SS Stratus Duo sticks to the classic configuration. The concept of the controller from Microsoft, understandable to PC boyars, was taken as a basis: a wide body, full grip, the left stick is higher than the right one.
Case materials are extremely hardy – so that life with a mobile phone and constant travel does not affect the quality of work. Strong matte plastic with a good texture does not slip in the hands, dust or crumbs will not clog into the gaps of the buttons, triggers and triggers are confidently pressed, even in the most furious cuts the finger will not fall off the trigger.
When connected to a PC, the gadget is identified as a regular “X-input device”, all games from the Windows Store and Steam can work using this protocol and will accept the SteelSeries Stratus Duo as native. Key tips are in place, the axes are not mixed up, plug it in and enjoy. The smartphone in the same way instantly recognizes an external device and activates the control of the system from the sticks and buttons. Games (of those that support gamepads) immediately offer to use a ready-made settings preset.
There is no need to install any utilities for configuration and settings – the developers made sure that the gamepad works on all popular platforms immediately after being turned on.
Play anywhere and anything
We tested the SteelSeries Stratus Duo on PC and smartphones in a dozen different titles, from racing and shooters to platformers and side-scrollers. It would seem that what could go wrong, is it a gamepad? In fact, there are many insidious little things in this area that you need to know about before buying. For example, all manufacturers have a different factory calibration of the so-called. dead zone on analog axes, the rate of rise and fall of the signal, the accuracy of the potentiometers – in general, everything that allows you not only to play, but also to win.
You can’t fault the quality of the sticks: the pressing resistance is excellent, the feeling of the central position is perfect. Shooting frags with a sniper rifle is not a problem. It’s clear that there are keyboards and mice for shooters, but sometimes it’s so nice to lie down on the couch in front of the TV and just relax … The same can be said about the triggers. The minimum possible dead zone does not give false positives, when in the most difficult moments you squeeze the controller in your hands with all your might. At the same time, the management itself remains understandable and predictable. Driving a car in a drift (and driving not with a steering wheel, but with power), carefully slowing down before a turn, without bringing the ABS to work and without losing precious kilometers per hour, is as easy as shelling pears.
The control is perfectly precise and without false positives – no worse than the immortal classics from Sony and Microsoft.
With a smartphone mount, the boundaries of “mobile” and “big” gaming are even more blurred: to hell with them, with PUBG and Fortnite “cut down”, Steam Link anywhere allows you to run anything from GTA V to Resident Evil 2 re-release from your phone. management, of course, grow up (after all, the picture and your actions are transmitted over the network), but this does not really interfere with the passage of story games. The human brain is not used to this.
For those who truly love games
The SteelSeries Stratus Duo gamepad is a versatile fighter squared. Or even in a cube. Firstly, it suits any genre and is perfectly tuned. Secondly, it freely switches from wired mode to wireless mode, moreover, via one of two communication channels to choose from. And thirdly, it is compatible with Android and PC. So if you have long wanted to please yourself with high-quality gaming peripherals – Stratus Duo is from that rare breed of devices in which versatility and omnivorousness do not negatively affect the quality of work. There is nothing to think about, you have to take it!