The effects of strange quark mass on masses, radii, and tidal deformabilities of strange quark stars are studied via the quasiparticle model that includes the non-perturbative features of QCD in low density region. The constraints of $$M_{\mathrm {TOV}} > 2.0 M_{\odot }$$ $M_{\mathrm{TOV}}>2.0M_{\odot }$ and $$\Lambda _{1.4} < 800$$ ${\Lambda }_{1.4}<800$ are used to choose the EOSs with different strange quark masses. We find that in low density region the EOSs with larger strange quark mass are stiffer, while in high density region they are softer. A larger strange quark mass gives a smaller mass and radius for a strange quark star, and a larger minimum of radii and tidal deformabilities for $$1.4 M_{\odot }$$ $1.4M_{\odot }$ strange quark stars. A larger strange quark mass also gives a larger lower bound of combined tidal deformability $$\tilde{\Lambda }_{LB}$$ ${\tilde{\Lambda }}_{\mathrm{LB}}$ .