The Razer Prio is great for portable gaming, not to mention tight controls.

Gaming accessories maker Razer has a number of great mobile controllers on the market right now, but the company’s latest controller is focused on portability. And while it’s truly brilliant in this regard, Razer made a few compromises to make this happen. But whether this matters to you ultimately depends on how you like to play on the road and what you like to play.

The new Razer Prio is an ultra-compact mobile controller. It folds up very small—about the length and width of a credit card, but much thicker—while still offering a full range of controls. It has right and left sticks, a D-pad, face and shoulder buttons, and other standards like menu and home buttons.

Razer Prio folded.

Cleverly, Razer even made the buttons quiet. While you won’t get that satisfying click from the Prio, it also means it’s less noisy to those around you. This helps the controller allow you to play anywhere as you won’t annoy people while playing.

This is a fantastic design for gaming on the go. The small folded size makes it easy to slip into a backpack or purse, and the silent buttons mean you can play anywhere. Plus, it works with most Androids and iPhones as long as they have a USB-C port and aren’t too long (maximum length is 188mm). Razer also stated that the Prio is compatible with most phone cases, but it won’t work with cases thicker than 15mm.

What’s more, phones are a surprisingly versatile gaming platform. Along with a plethora of mobile games, gamers can also access a variety of games from other platforms using various streaming tools, be it streaming from a local PC or console or cloud gaming through something like Xbox Game Pass.

And while I really like the Prio, unfortunately, that’s where my praise for the controller ends. You see, the biggest issue I had with the Prio is that it’s not very playable, although that depends on what you’re playing.

A port of Warframe for Android running on a phone with a Razer Prio.

For example, I tried to play the Android port of an excellent Canadian game. Warframeand while it was playable, I didn’t have a very good time. If you played Warframe in general, you know, this is a very dynamic game with a lot of actions and inputs. I already struggle with a regular controller, but the Prio’s tight controls make things even worse.

Of course, this won’t be true for every game. Slow titles like Darkest DungeonI felt great on Prio. I’m guessing most puzzles and platformers with controller support will also work pretty well. Fast-paced action games will mostly suffer on the Prio, especially those that require a lot of action.

Ultimately, if you’re interested in comfort and ergonomics, Razer’s other controllers may be more appealing. The Kishi line, for example, offers a much more ergonomic look and feel like a typical console controller. They also cost much more.

Gameplay aside, I found Prio’s customization to be quite finicky. Most phone controllers have a retractable back that slides out to allow the controller to hold the phone.

Razer Prio rear view.

The Prio abandons this in favor of an elastic band that functionally gets the job done. However, this comes at the cost of sacrificing some of the rigidity that can be achieved with other controllers.

The Prio also comes with a set of rubber grips that adapt the controller to work with a variety of phones and cameras of different sizes. However, the included instructions only mentioned which inserts were compatible with the iPhone, so I had to figure out what worked best for my Pixel through trial and error. Notably, if you’re using a case, you can probably skip the rubber inserts entirely.

Finally, I have some concerns about wear and tear on the rubber itself. Razer told me that they did a lot of durability testing to make sure it can withstand tons of stretching and still return to its original shape. But even in the short time that I worked with him, it seems that the group has already become a little deformed.

All of these details taken together certainly detract from the Prio’s overall experience, but I still think it does a great job at its primary purpose – portable gaming. Not many phone controllers can fold as compactly as the Prio, making it the king of portability.

Unfortunately, how good a controller is will largely depend on what you want to play. I found it difficult to use the Prio in the games I enjoy, but there are plenty of games that I think would work much better with a controller like this. This is worth remembering when deciding whether to buy a Prio.

The Razer Prio costs $139.99 in Canada and is available on the Razer website.