Backbone Pro

$170 at Backbone

Pros

• Bluetooth plus some in-controller processing means you don’t have to play with your phone inserted
• Software now provides access to emulators for retro games
• Much better, ergonomic grip than Backbone One and other «flat» controllers
• Rear buttons

Cons

• Expensive, especially if you need the subscription
• Can still only use USB for charging (now both controller and phone), not audio
• A lot of features, including the unified game hub and launcher, emulators, live streaming and more require a $40 annual subscription

One game controller to rule them all? Not yet, but the Backbone Pro sets out on that path and covers a fair bit of ground — for a nontrivial $170 price tag (thank you tariffs) plus an optional subscription at $40 a year to bring the necessary features into play.

I tested the iPhone version of the app; Android is forthcoming.

The original — and still available — Backbone is designed to run only with a phone snapped into it, which obviates the need for built-in wireless or batteries; the Pro has its own Bluetooth radio and batteries, so it can operate independently like a typical Bluetooth controller. For the Pro, Backbone retronyms the original function as «handheld mode,» differentiating the Bluetooth as «wireless mode.»

That’s the functional difference between the two controllers. The Pro was redesigned significantly from the original as well, both to accommodate the new capabilities and to make it feel more upscale; sorry, old iPhone owners, it will only come with USB-C, not Lightning connectors (so iPhone 15 or later). And underpinning it all is the software, notably its subscription upgrade, Backbone Plus.

During my preannouncement briefing, Backbone’s CEO, Maneet Khaira, explained his philosophy about where his corner of gaming was heading. «Our view is that in the future … all you have to do is buy just one device and you can play games on any screen. And maybe you could be a kid who doesn’t own a console, and you could be able to play Fortnite on a TV, because that’s just the TV you can buy at Best Buy, right, and you can play games on it. So our goal is to make one device that works at every single screen, so you can move from can move from screen to screen, and that way we can bring gaming to a lot more people and expand like the addressable market of gaming. And that really is what we try to accomplish with Backbone Pro in a nutshell.»

But it’s the subscription software that enables what he’s describing — the hardware is nice, but there are a lot of competing controllers — and the most difficult part to pull off thanks to all the game launcher and service fragmentation. 

A more traditional, organic design

One problem with the initial generation of on-phone controllers, like the Backbone One, was that they were designed to be as small as possible. That meant feel and features were frequently sacrificed. With the Pro, Backbone tried to keep it small, but reinstated a lot of the design characteristics that players want, such as grips that you can actually grip, full size thumbsticks, rear buttons and Hall Effect triggers.

Backbone also changed the switch type on the ABXY buttons (to carbon pill) to make them quieter rather than the crisp clickiness of those on the older controller. They’ve got deeper travel, which to me registers as slightly less responsive, but I’m a button masher so after a while I got used to them. I didn’t feel a lot of latency in local games — actioners like Carrion and Hades on the phone — but over wireless I do think I experienced occasional lag (in Lies of P on a Mac, Dead Cells on an iPad and more). Bluetooth has gotten a lot better, but it’s still not perfect. You can still connect wired if it becomes an issue.

The grips offer a solid handhold, and they have a little more texture than the Backbone One, but less than the Xbox Wireless controller, and they feel a little softer than the other parts of the controller. Pretty comfy for long hours of gameplay.

I’m not crazy about the left and right buttons — because of the controller and button sizing I have trouble using them without having to think about it — which makes the rear buttons so useful for me. Those are a little bit harder to press to prevent accidental activation, but not so hard that I can’t operate them with weaker fingers (my ring fingers) so I remapped them as default in the software. 

That said, they’re still a little bigger than those on the Backbone One, as are the triggers, and still relatively clicky. I have mixed feelings about the triggers, though. They’ve got a relatively deep pull, which can be great for aiming but not as responsive as I like for shooting. The software lets you set virtual trigger stops and deadzones (as well as joystick deadzones), but without the physical stop it’s only partially effective for me. But you’ve got the control if you want to try it.

There’s a dedicated Bluetooth pairing button and analog jack for audio on the left grip and USB-C charging on the right. In addition to charging the batteries in the controller it can charge your phone, and when it’s charging your phone it trickle charges the controller battery. (Backbone rates the battery at 40 hours, but I somehow drained it a lot faster on the first charge. Now it’s draining more slowly.) But as with the Backbone One, you can’t use the USB-C port for audio, video or data.

When you pair the controller with another device but the phone is connected, it gives you a choice as to which device you want to control. But once you’ve set the profile via the phone — I wish it were possible to cycle through profiles in hardware so the phone wasn’t necessary — you probably want to remove it. I found that it disconnected Bluetooth when I went to the Backbone app using the touch screen, for example.

Software and $oftware

The free Backbone software delivers some basic capabilities that you get with most mobile controllers, although that includes more-basic-than-basic stuff like «you can use it» and button mappings (for the iPhone it refers you to system settings, anyway). Everything else requires the $40 annual subscription, which means for the Pro you can end up spending $210. There’s a month free trial.

The Backbone Plus subscription does offer a lot. In addition to what you’ve previously gotten for the Backbone One — such as support for streaming, chat, a unified game launcher, perks and discounts — Backbone’s added retro games and emulators to the hub, and specific to the Pro, game profiles with button remappings and deadzone/trigger stop settings on a per-game basis. 

It also lets you save different device connections in the app for easy switching (which Backbone calls «FlowState»), which is one of the slickest aspects of the software specific to the Pro. For instance, once I’d paired to my iPad, I subsequently simply had to go to the list of paired devices and select it to connect and control. You can also select the profile you want to use. After that, remove the phone from the controller.

It’s as seamless as I’ve ever seen, and when it’s not it’s because of the Byzantine ways you have to set up things on Apple devices or how the services work — web app shortcuts to play Xbox Cloud gaming and GeForce Now’s painful login process spring to mind.

I generally like the software, but I wish there was an option to turn off the audio while scrolling through the game thumbnails, which autoplay. If you’re sensitive to sound (in a neurodivergent way), it’s like a cat walking across your brain, gripping with its claws. I had to mute my phone just to browse. I find it ironic that the company redesigned the buttons to operate more quietly but the software is still noisy.

Compatibility claims can get confusing as well. For instance, Backbone claims it can work as an Xbox controller, but there’s no Bluetooth support in the console: You have to use Remote Play or cloud gaming, which aren’t always feasible. In my case, Remote Play isn’t supported by my network configuration — a double NAT setup — and cloud is hit or miss (even an Xbox Cloud Gaming lightweight game like Blue Prince ran fine for a while and then started to degrade and Expedition 33 barely ran). Neither of those is within Backbone’s control, but can affect the Backbone Pro experience.

The hardware is compelling if you like the on-phone controller concept or want something a little smaller to tote for your Bluetooth gaming — you don’t need to subscribe for that — but it’s certainly not for the budget minded given you can find tons of alternatives for a fraction of the price. If you play on a lot of different Bluetooth-equipped devices, though, and are willing to shell out for yet another subscription, the Backbone Pro’s probably the slickest option out there.