Professionals
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Bluetooth plus some in-controller processing means you don’t have to play with your phone
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Software now provides access to emulator for retro game
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Backbone is more better than one and other “flat” controllers, ergonomic grip
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Rear button
Shortcoming
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Expensive, especially if you need membership
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Still can still use USB for charging (now both controller and phone), not audio
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Many features including unified game hub and launcher, emulator, live streaming and more require $ 40 annual membership
A game controller to rule all of them? Not yet, but the backbone Pro sets on that path and covers a proper part of the ground – for a non -$ 170 price tag (thanks tariff), along with an alternative membership to bring the necessary features in $ 40 per year.
I tested the iPhone version of the app; Android is upcoming.
The original-and still available is designed to run with only one phone, which reduces the requirement of the underlying wireless or battery; Pro has its own Bluetooth radio and battery, so it can independently act as a specific Bluetooth controller. For Pro, separating the backbone retronums original function as “handheld mode”, separating Bluetooth as “wireless mode”.
This is a functional difference between two controllers. To accommodate new capabilities and make it feel more upscale, both were designed significantly from the original to the original; Sorry, old iPhone owners, it will only come with USB-C, not the lightening connector (hence iPhone 15 or later). And it is all underlining software, especially its membership upgrade, backbone plus.
Backbone Pro on an iPhone 16 Pro Max.
During my pregnant briefing, Backbone CEO Manit Khaira explained her philosophy where her corner of gaming was going. “Our idea is that in the future … you just have to buy a device and you can play games on any screen. And maybe you can be a child, who is not the owner of a console, and you can be able to play Fortnite on a TV, because it’s just TV that you can play games on it.
But it is subscription software that enables what he is describing – hardware is good, but there are many competitive controlles – and all game is the most difficult part to draw thanks to launcher and service fragmentation.
A more traditional, biological design
A problem with the early generation of on-phone controllers like the backbone forest was that they were designed to be as small as possible. This meant that feeling and facilities were often sacrificed. With Pro, backbone tried to keep it small, but restored a lot of design characteristics that players want, such as grips that you can actually catch, trigger full -size thumbs, rear buttons and hall effects.
The backbone also replaced the switch type on the Abxy button (carbon pill), so that they could be pacified instead of clicking the crisp of those on the old controller. They have received a deep journey, which register me as a little less responsible, but I am a button masher, so I got her habit after a while. I did not feel too much delay in local games – actionrs such as Carians and Heads on the phone – but on wireless I think I ever experienced the lag (a Mac lies on a Mac, dead cells on an iPad and more). Bluetooth has done much better, but it is still not correct. You can also connect wired if you become an issue.
The grip of the backbone Pro has a subtle ergonomic curve, and their large size makes the controller too comfortable to catch the controller.
The grips offer a solid handhold, and they have a slightly higher texture than the backbone, but the Xbox is less than the wireless controller, and they feel slightly soft than the other parts of the controller. Very comfortable for long hours of gameplay.
Because they are thin and the controller is slightly smaller than the controller, I think the left and right buttons seem difficult to hits the game quickly, where they are actively used for the gameplay (as just the menu and such navigate have been opposed).
I am not crazy about left and right buttons – due to the size of the controller and button I have trouble using them without thinking about it – which makes the rear button so useful for me. They are slightly difficult to press to prevent contingency activation, but not so hard that I cannot operate them with weak fingers (my ring fingers), so I remarried them as a default in the software.
The rear buttons are necessary, if like me, you find the left and right buttons strange to operate quickly.
He said, they are still slightly larger than those on the backbone, as are triggers, and still click relatively. I have mixed feelings about trigger, though. They have found a relatively deep bridge, which can be great for the target, but is not as responsible as I like for shooting. The software lets you set virtual trigger stops and deds (as well as joystick deeds), but without physical stop it is only partially effective for me. But if you want to try it then you have got control.
While the backbone’s backbone does not seem to rub the lens on the iPhone Pro Max, it covers one (I believe it is telephoto).
There is a left grip and USB-C charging right for audio for a dedicated Bluetooth pairing button and analog jack. In addition to charging the battery in the controller, it can charge your phone, and when it is charging your phone, this trickle controller charges the battery. (The backbone rates the battery in 40 hours, but I somehow dried it very fast on the first charge. Now it is flowing more slowly.) But with the backbone, you cannot use the USB-C port for audio, video or data.
There are a Bluetooth pairing button and analog jack for the audio on the left grip.
When you pair the controller with another device, but the phone is connected, it gives you an option to which device you want to control. But once you set the profile through the phone – I want to cycling through profiles in hardware, so the phone was not necessary – you probably want to remove it. I found that when I went to the backbone app using a touch screen, it disconnected to Bluetooth, for example.
Like one, the bundle comes with the adapter to accommodate a variety of phone sizes.
$ Of software and $
Free backbone software distributes some basic capabilities that you find with most mobile controllers, although “you can use it” and button mapping (for iPhone it contains more-basic-to-basic goods for system settings, anyway). Everything else requires $ 40 annual membership, which means that you can spend $ 210 for Pro. There is a one -month free test.
Backbone plus subscription provides a lot. In addition, what have you received for the first backbone-like streaming, chat, an integrated game launcher, perks and support for discounts, the backbone-added retro games and emulator, and specific to the Pro, and the game profiles with the Dedzone/trigger stops settings on a perpetual basis.
The backbone app now integrates Rome and retro game.
This lets you save various device connections in the app for easy switching (which calls “Flostate”), one of the thinnest aspects of specific software for Pro. For example, once I added to my iPad, I later had to just go to the list of coupled equipment and choose it to connect and control it. You can also choose the profile you want to use. After that, remove the phone from the controller.
This is as comfortable as I have ever seen, and when it is not that due to the methods of Byzantine you have to set things on the Apple device or how services work – Web app shortcut Xbox cloud gaming and the painful login process of Geforce Now keeps the spring.
I generally like software, but I want the option to close the audio while scrolling through the game thumbnail, which autoplay. If you are sensitive to sound (in a neurodivargent manner), then it is like a cat that moves in your brain, holds with its claws. I just had to muate my phone to browse. I am ironic that the company re -designed the button to operate more quietly, but the software is still noise.
The backbone app allows you to test your sticks and triggers to find Dadzone and at the same time adjusts them almost.
Claims of compatibility can also be misleading. For example, the backbone claims that it can serve as an Xbox controller, but there is no Bluetooth support in the console: you have to use remote play Or cloud gaming, which are not always possible. In my case, the remote play is not supported by my network configuration – A Double nut The setup – and cloud is a hit or miss (even an Xbox cloud gaming light game such as Blue Prince fired for a while and then barely started running away and downwards). None of them is under the control of backbone, but can affect the backbone pro experience.
If you like on-phone controller concepts or want to do something shorter for your Bluetooth gaming, then the hardware is compelling-you do not need to subscribe for it-but it’s not definitely for the budget that you can get a ton for a fraction of the option for the given minded. If you play on equipment equipped with a lot of different Bluetooths, however, and yet are ready to open out for another membership, then the backbone Pro is probably the thinnest option.
