The Nimbus+ Steel Series Controller is a good, responsive, and comfortable controller for all ages. I imagine a new one works flawlessly. However, I purchased three “refurbished controllers” from this vendor thinking each time there is no way the controller would malfunction because how can you make a profit if you sell a malfunctioning product.

Controller Purchase #1 – Purchased and worked without issue for about a month. After a month, the left joystick seemed to get stuck in a set position making my character walk to the left without even touching the controller. Amazon referred to the vender about their warranty, the vendor was supposed to get back to me within 2-3 business days (it has been 5+ business days now with no response).

Controller Purchase #2 – Purchased and worked without issue also for a month. This controller then also experienced the joystick issue where it would get stuck pointing a certain direction. However, the “sticking” of the joystick on this controller seemed intermittent, so I have just resigned myself to living with it (with period bouts of frustration).

Controller Purchase #3 – Purchased and working without issue for 1 day. The next day, the power indicating LEDs would not turn on, so I plugged it into the wall using an Apple wall charger and Apple charging cable (reliable charging setup), and the controller would not charge. I tried different outlets, charging blocks, and cords, and still no charge. So I had a dead controller in under 48 hours of receipt.

I have not even dropped any of these controllers, used unusual force during gameplay, spiked them into the ground, used them as boomerangs, or played kickball with them. Just normal use.

Conclusion: Do yourself a favor and do NOT buy this refurbished controller. Buy a new one because the odds are high your controller will malfunction, which for many games, makes the controller worthless.

I’m not sure what all the negative 1 Star reviews are about. If you are committed to Apple certified products, software, and hardware you’ll understand my review. I purchased two Nimbus+ controllers and they work PERFECTLY. As instructed I updated the controller(s) Firmware (via lighting USB) using the Nimbus Engine that I downloaded to my MacBook Pro. Simple, easy, and only took a few minutes. I then paired the controllers to my AppleTV. They worked flawlessly for the Apple Arcade games that I, and my grandchildren, play. I highly recommend these controllers to those who want ease of use and full integration with Apple hardware and software. My grandkids love the controllers and they are veteran gamers. They love that they can pair and mount their iPhones on the controller and play anywhere anytime. These controllers make multiplayer games super easy to play and use. 50 hour battery life and quick lighting USB charging. You can’t beat that! By the way, previously we bought and tried 2 so called tvOS compatible X-Box controllers. Although they paired with the AppleTV, they would not function in the arcade games.

Since Amazon combines both the nimbus and Stratus Duo reviews, I have to put both those reviews here.

Nimbus Review:
Because I saw that someone had posted on YouTube that this controller does not work with OpenEmu, I thought that I would clarify that at the time of this review (Feb 19, 2017), it does work. It connects just fine to the Mac via bluetooth, and there is no button that does not get detected and function just fine (including the joysticks).

Don’t be fooled though, outside of OpenEmu, there was no game on my Mac that worked with it. Obviously it works great with iOS though and I definitely preferred it for that over other MFI controllers that I found.

Edit: I wanted to add that I have further tested this controller and it also works with the “Dolphin” Emulator (which runs GameCube games), except that it doesn’t sense the start button. In case you’re wondering, this doesn’t work at all with the “Boxer” emulator (that’s a DOS emulator for Mac).

Also, although this controller doesn’t work with most regular Mac Games (including Steam games), you can make it work with many games by using a program called Joystick Mapper or something similar. If you go that route, you can remap the inputs to read as keyboard inputs inside of your games, which still doesn’t work in every game (plus the D-Pad and Start Button aren’t picked up at all by that program), but it certainly extends the usefulness and capabilities of this controller.

Stratus Duo Review
Summary

The Stratus Duo feels just like the Nimbus Controller for iOS, except for small improvements to the triggers and D-Pad. The Wi-Fi connection dongle has an amazing range and was fairly reliable on windows. The Bluetooth is essentially useless for anything but an android phone. Battery life seems great as long as you use the dongle and not Bluetooth.

The Details

Look and Feel

This controller looks and feels almost identical to the Nimbus controller. I was a big fan of the Nimbus, so having one that works natively on PC is awesome. The things that are different are the triggers, D-Pad, and front LED’s. The triggers have a shorter range, and are slightly more ergonomic/curved. I would say that they’re better than the Nimbus in that regard. The front LED’s are a step down in the sense that they’re white instead of red. This makes them a lot more distracting in dark environments compared to the Nimbus’ red lights. They also seem brighter. So they constitute a strange design change in my opinion. The D-Pad is bigger than the Nimbus, the surface is different. It feels better to me than the Nimbus but is definitely more stiff than the PS4 controller.

Wi-Fi Dongle

When you plug in the dongle to a PC, it’s basically is plug and play, and the range is incredible. I was planning on using the Bluetooth setting to connect to my Steam link a couple rooms away, but the connection is so good using the included dongle, that I was able to play on my Steam link while still connected directly to my PC. That means that the connection has a greater range than even my Xbox One Controller when I connect it to my PC through Microsoft’s proprietary USB dongle. It’s also substantially better than the Bluetooth range on my PS4 controller, which cuts out before even reaching my living room (where the steam link is). As far as negatives go… This does not work at all with an Xbox One. I tried it, and it doesn’t even detect that something is plugged in. It also has a strange issue on PC, where if you turn the controller off, it will often connect as the second player controller when you turn it on again, which means that you can’t play any one player games because of being considered a second player. You have to restart your PC to fix that issue. Windows is fairly buggy with controllers sometimes, and this could very well be their issue and not the this controller’s issue. However, I haven’t had that problem with my Xbox One controller or my PS4 controller.

Bluetooth

By far the biggest failing with this controller is its extremely bad Bluetooth. I guess when they say that it works with Android and VR, they really just mean those two and nothing else. It connected with the Steam link, but had a bug where the left joystick moves the mouse slightly, while also moving the joystick at the same time. No other controller has that issue on my Steam Link. iOS 13 brought xinput and direct input controller support with it and I can confirm that both the Xbox One and PS4 controllers connect and work just fine. This controller… not so much. iOS can’t even see this controller in the Bluetooth connection menu. I tested that on multiple iOS devices. So don’t plan on using this with iOS. My MacBook was able to see it and connect to it, but then I couldn’t use it in any way, not even in OpenEmu, which is something that even the Nimbus can be used with. The lights also indicated that the connection was unstable or something, since they went back and forth from showing the looking-for-a-connection pattern to the now-connecting pattern. So don’t count on using the Bluetooth for anything but Android.

Durability

The controller’s durability has yet to be evaluated, so I might update this review with that in the future. I will say that the Nimbus had a design flaw that caused the triggers to become sticky within a fairly short time. iFixit has a page about how to fix that issue, and they also explain what causes it. This controller feels very similar to the nimbus as far as the triggers go, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it has the same flaw.

This joystick is very, very nice, made of durable materials, really clicky and tactile buttons that have a fast response time. It’s very comfortable in the hand, although it’s quite hefty weight-wise since you have to add additional batteries inside of the joystick and it might make it a little tiring to hold for prolonged periods of time. The other thing that might not be as good is that it’s Bluetooth connected and it requires your desktop to have an adapter or have Bluetooth integrated. The connection is kind of spotty at times, given the fact that the adapter is right next to me, but that might be because the adapter is not very high end. Also, the initial pairing is kind of slow, first off, you need to download the drivers from the SteelSeries website, then connect the device via Bluetooth to the PC, but for some reason it takes 1 + minute for the pair to work. The joystick doesn’t ‘remember’ devices for some reason and when you connect it to your phone for example you have re-pair it with your PC once more because for some reason it doesn’t connect automatically.

Overall, it’s a pretty good joystick if you don’t have to switch devices often and you use it on your PC only, like I do, it’s reliable, battery hasn’t budget in 2 weeks of everyday usage which is amazing and it’s a pretty reliable piece of electronics.

Sturdy controller and phone clip. Fits Steam Controller quite nicely and snugly. It has a small kickstand on the back so your controller doesn’t tip over when it’s on the desk. After trying several 3d printed holders, I settled on this for ~$20 and am pretty satisfied. The fit is sort of weird, that’s because I put a Ringke finger ring on the back of my phone case so the phone needs to be offset somewhat. This holder will snugly hold the finger holder as well, however which is what is happening in the second image.