Steelseries Free Touchscreen Gaming Controls Review

• Brand: Steelseries
• Model: Free Touchscreen Gaming Controls
  
• Website:  http://steelseries.com/products/other/steelseries-touchscreen-gaming-controls#select-region
• RRP: £15 (At time of review)

SteelSeries have said from day one, they have been focusing on manufacturing high quality gaming gear used by some of the top professional gamers in the world. There peripherals provide superb quality for the competitive gamer of all skill levels. They are a company that strives to be the best.

I have reviewed other SteelSeries products and today I’m going to be reviewing there touch screen gaming controls for tablets and smartphones.

So let’s get down to business and see if they are any good…

Specifications

• Controls Everything – Face it, touchscreen controls are awful. They give no satisfying feedback when pressed, they are easy to miss because you can’t feel them, and generally provide very poor control of the game.   Stick the SteelSeries Free Touchscreen Gaming Controls to your tablet. Stick the buttons to your phone. Put them in the case and then stick them on again later. Enhance your mobile gaming experience with real control.
• Simple stick and play – Simply take the buttons out of the case, place them on the screen, and enjoy. Use again and again thanks to micro-suction cup technology.
• Use on your tablet or smartphone – Enjoy great control while gaming on your tablet or smartphone with the use of a joystick and 3 tactile buttons.
• Micro- suction cups –     Our micro-suction cup technology enabled us to create a special tape to adhere the buttons to the screen without any sticky mess and they can be used again and again. If they get less sticky, they simply need to be cleaned with a damp
• Mini suction cups – 9 mini suction cups around the joystick keep it securely in place on the screen while you enjoy greater control over your games.
• Carrying case – We included a sleek carrying case for clean, safe storage of your controls when you aren’t gaming.

As you can see the front of the box shows the Steelseries logo, a few of the specifications and what the controls look like on a tablet.

Again what we see is the controls themselves and a bit about them in 4 different languages.

In this picture we see what the controls look like, there is a joystick, which as you can see is see through, it has the SteelSeries logo on it, and 3 black buttons.

This picture shows you, what they look like on a smartphone in this case; it’s an iPhone.

For the purpose of this review I downloaded 2 IOS games, these were sonic the hedgehog and Fast and the furious 6. I took the controls out of there packaging and began reading how to attach to my screen, which I found quite easy, as they have suction pads.  So easy to take on and off my iPhone.

I found using the joystick on my iPhone a bit tricky as it takes up almost all the screen. As it is mostly clear in colour and you can see the screen, after I got use to this, I found the ease of use better than just using the touchscreen.

Occasionally the joystick did come unstuck but after cleaning my screen and making sure it was free from any greasy marks or dirt, it seemed to do the trick and stay in place.  Also using the pads made the games more pleasurable to play, a bit like using a normal joystick when I use to play sonic on my Sega all those many years ago.

As the controls are also good for tablets, I tried using them whilst at work, using an iPad. I found it a lot better than my phone, as the screen was bigger and you see everything and weren’t limited to looking though the joystick itself. So found using an iPad a much more thrilling experience than using my small screened iPhone.

In my opinion, SteelSeries have made a good set of gaming controls, I admit not that good for smartphones but then again you could just use the buttons, they are just as good and make game play a lot better.

I would say these controls are much better for use on a tablet; I only had a brief go at using them on a tablet, but did find it much better and a lot clearer.

They are reasonable priced and do pack away in a handy little case that doesn’t take up much room in your pocket or bag. The issues with the joystick not sticking are easy to remedy, by just making sure before and during use there is no dirty or greasy marks on your screen.

All in all I would say if you’re a mobile gamer, these are for you. What I would recommend though is buying these for a tablet not for an iPhone, as the gameplay is seriously lacking because of the joystick taking up nearly all the screen but if you are going to be using a tablet then they would be brilliant.  For the bargain price of £15, you can’t really go wrong!