Which of us doesn’t have an old smartphone in a desk drawer? For a modest outlay, this phone could be turned into a brilliant handheld Xbox console, letting you play hundreds of games without needing a full-fledged Xbox.

Here’s how to turn an old phone into a portable Xbox console that costs a fraction of the price of a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch.

What you will need

• An iPhone or Android smartphone with a USB-C connection
• A dedicated controller – I recommend the Razer Kishi V2, which has versions for iPhone and Android, but see below for more info on controllers
• A subscription to Microsoft Game Pass Console Editionwhich costs $9.99 per month

How it works

With a controller such as the Razer Kishi V2 (pictured above), the phone slips between the two sides of the controller. The Kishi has nearly every button you’ll find on a standard Xbox controller, including triggers and shoulder buttons. The only thing missing is haptic feedback.

By the way, nothing prevents you from using your current phone for this project. The phone easily slides in and out of the Kishi controller, allowing you to use the phone normally when you’re done playing.

However, I prefer to use an old phone for several reasons. First, it means that a phone call cannot interrupt a gaming session, especially if you’re playing an online game. This means you don’t drain your main phone’s battery with a long gaming session. And it means you don’t have to keep dragging the controller and any phone case. But if you don’t have an old compatible smartphone, your current phone can do it too.

If you’re using an old phone, I suggest you factory reset the phone and start fresh, so you don’t have app notifications and other clutter cluttering the handset. When you’ve refreshed the phone, install the Xbox Game Pass app from the iPhone app store or Google Play Store.

Once you’ve installed the app and signed up for an Xbox Game Pass account, you’ll be able to stream any of the hundreds of Xbox titles available for cloud gaming. There is a huge range of games available, ranging from Fortnite to Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite to High on Life, Disney Dreamlight Valley to Dishonored 2. There really is something for everyone, although you may find that certain games work best on the small handheld. screen than others. I will come back later.

For best streaming performance, connect via Wi-Fi rather than cellular. If you have a choice on your network, connect to the 5 GHz or 6 GHz Wi-Fi band for the fastest performance. If you need to connect to a cellular network, you’ll likely need a strong 5G or 4G connection to get playable performance.

I spent hours streaming games on my old Samsung Galaxy M31 phone this week, and it was an almost flawless experience. OK, you don’t get the offline gaming options that a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch gives you, but you don’t get the big upfront hardware cost either, and the range of games available to stream is huge. Believe me, you won’t be bored.

Controller Options

The Razer Kishi V2 ($99) is a great controller. It’s comfortable to hold, grips the phone securely, and the triggers are particularly well-weighted for a mobile controller. Note that there’s a USB-C socket on the bottom side of the right controller, should you need to top up the phone’s battery while gaming, though that doesn’t have enough pass-through power for fast charging. on my phone, which is disappointing.

However, there are other options. The spine one has a very similar design to the Razer Kishi, and this controller includes a headphone jack, meaning you’re not reliant on (sometimes slow) Bluetooth headphones if you don’t want to irritate others with gaming noise coming out of the telephone.

Alternatively, you can connect just about any wireless gamepad to your mobile phone via Bluetooth. Newer Xbox and PlayStation controllers are Bluetooth compatible, and you can buy a cheap clip for the top of the controller so you can mount your phone on it, like that of Orzly. I’ve tried this approach before and didn’t find it very satisfying, but your mileage may vary. And it’s much cheaper than buying a dedicated mobile controller.

Which Xbox games work well on mobile?

Console games are largely designed for the big screen, and not all games translate brilliantly to the much smaller mobile screen.

For example, first-person shooters such as Fortnite, where you may need to shoot a small target in the distance, are often difficult to play on handhelds. Not to mention that cloud streaming can introduce additional lag, which isn’t ideal for competitive online shooters.

In my experience, the games that work well on handhelds are the more sedate games, such as the turn-based RPG Chained Echoes, or Stardew Valley, or the brilliantly original adventure game, As Dusk Falls .

That’s not to say action games can’t work on mobile. I had fun battling on the tracks of Forza, for example, but I enjoy those games more on the big screen.