Customer Ratings & Reviews

I’ve been using the Backbone Pro for a while now, and it completely transformed my mobile gaming experience. The build quality is excellent—solid, responsive buttons and triggers, and it feels great in the hands. Setup was fast and seamless with my iPhone, and it works flawlessly with cloud gaming apps like Xbox Game Pass and GeForce Now. The Backbone app is a nice bonus, offering quick access to games, social features, and screen recording. If you’re serious about mobile gaming, this controller is a must-have.

[Employee of bestbuy] If you’re here it’s because you’re wondering if the backbone Pro is worth it, and without going into details I’ll save you a couple of minutes. YES. If you’ve had any of the precious backbones and liked them, this is the ultimate, final boss, goated single best mobile gaming controller in the market, they listened and delivered, quality, on quality, on quality, its refined and amplified, it feels native, precise and comfortable. It’s a no brainer. It’s biggest and only flaw (for me) is that not only it doesn’t fit in the origibal case (naturally it’s a bigger controller) there’s no case for it yet, at all, not 3rd party or from backbone themselves, that should change soon enough.

I love this controller! I mostly got it for COD mobile and works perfect, the feel in my hands is a lot better than previous models as it is a bit bulkier so it fits better in the hand. I only wish it was compatible with the PS remote play app.

I was excited to get this and play on XBox/PS5 from my couch or even at work (on breaks of course). So far I really enjoy using it and would recommend to anyone looking for something similar to give this BackBone a shot. However, I do have two small critiques: 1) The USB-C connection can come undone if you move around to much. Not a big deal, just need to push it back in. I would have liked to have a "lock" in place once the phone is connected. I have not had the connection issues from pull out part that some reported. 2) If you are going to use PS Remote Play, you will need to use a third party app. It works fine with that app and I use it frequently. I believe there is a PlayStation version of the BackBone you can buy to use Sony's Remote Play app. All in all, I recommended this. I only give it 4 stars because I think a few adjustments could make this absolutely perfect. I would easily buy again and recommend to my friends to do the same.

Great product ....was originally gonna get two consoles to play, but this saved me so much money. I can literally control my tv once it's connected, don't have to play video games, can use it as a remote too for your TV. And for the subscription, you only pay $40/yr to play mobile or on your TV. 100/10 would recommend for anyone who wants to play but can't afford to buy a console.

The Backbone Pro controller is excellent — ergonomic, responsive, and makes gaming on my phone feel smooth and natural. Definitely elevates mobile gameplay to console-like quality.

Excellent buy! The backbone pro works amazingly for games like fortnite, cod, and any cloud gaming titles. The upgraded joysticks from the main backbone allows for more precise movements to really lock in to what your doing. UNLIKE SOME OTHER CONTROLLERS, this one doesn't drain your battery (when plugged into your phone) so your phone will still last however long you would be playing without a controller. I got rid of my switch cause I just found myself using this more and more every day. All the portability of a phone, all the comfortability and power of a console experience (and yes it really can connect to ALL your devices).

it easy and portable for my convenience of every gaming need best when u need on the go ..love it highly recommended

If you like playing games with your phone this is the way to go Play Station games Xbox cloud gaming and mobile gaming platforms a must have

I love it because its an all around controller for your phone

Makes mobile gaming so much smoother!! I recommend spending the extra money to get the pro, I use it to play Remote play for my PlayStation and It has been perfect. The controller feels like a regular console controller with the smooth joysticks.

Excellent connectivity, fast and stable 100% recommend

Got this to replace my Playstation backbone and I'm loving it. It has so many features. If you love mobile gamming, this is a must have▪︎●

Best handheld controller out. Very versatile and great feel

The Backbone Pro is fantastic, clearly learning from the prior models and improving in almost every way. Bluetooth connectivity and power passthrough are nice too, but the higher price can make it harder to justify. __ Design & Quality __ You can see and feel the quality this time around. Face buttons feel premium, the expanding ‘back bone’ feels solid and expands farther and the heftier grips provide better ergonomics (without the issue of weird rubber coatings that would fail in time) I was easily able to slot my iPhone 16 Pro Max (without removing my silicone case) into this controller and play on my PS5 via Sony’s PS Remote Play app. The only downside is that the face buttons don’t visually match that of Sony’s, but their associated placements is otherwise as you’d expect. It’s a great way to play, with fairly low video or input lag. __ Value & Versitility__ Clearly Backbone set out to create the most versatile mobile controller they could this time around… but at a price. You can use it for a good range of mobile apps, Xbox Gamepass, and the aforementioned PS5 remote play… or detach it and simply use it as a Bluetooth controller. While that’s nice, I got this primarily for turning my phone into a great portable remote player and lite mobile gaming... not to be the everything device. Backbone also offers Backbone +, a subscription streaming service of their own, and that’s part of the proposition here too… but for me, I have great bluetooth controllers and other streaming options already, as do most gamers. I can’t help feel that its higher price point is set for a world where you want to supplant your primary controller for this one, and that’s its only real downside. At full cost at time of review, it’s nearly as expensive as my favorite dedicated remote playing controller - which already has a much bigger, beautiful screen and sound built into the device without inserting your own device. Backbone Pro cannot expand larger than a phone, so my iPad mini can’t provide an even larger screen. __ Summary __ If you play a lot of mobile games, especially something like Fortnite, you may find that the Backbone Pro provides the best way to play on the go. It’s a great device and improves quality and design in a ton of ways, but It’s also possibly trying to incorporate more than its cost can justify. It feels a lot like a quality of life upgrade to the USB-C model, but with a 70% higher price. *** Good Stuff *** - Great buttons and build quality - Thicker, better grips - No more rubber coating - Can handle most large phones without having to remove cases. - Bluetooth if you want it to act as a detached controller. - Power passthrough for keeping your phone charged while playing *** Less than Good Stuff *** - Expensive - Not that different than USB-C model, mainly adding bluetooth and some extra compatibility. - Depending on needs, similarly priced with other options that offer large integrated screens and sound without needing to bring your own phone (remote play use case with consoles)

I'm a big fan of GeForce Now and Moonlight. I have a gaming PC upstairs with lots of storage, and the bulk of my gaming library is installed on that. Unfortunately, my living room TV is downstairs, and I also like to game in bed sometimes. Streaming to my laptop works fine, but it's a lot of extra bulk to comfortably position. This is where products like the Backbone really shine. The Backbone is a telescoping controller that fits around your phone. With the Backbone, you can stream your games to a small, handheld device with great ergonomics instead of a big, bulky laptop. The Backbone is extremely comfortable in my hands. The buttons are well-positioned and feel quite responsive. I had no issues with stick drift or phantom inputs. My one complaint about the build is in regards to the fit. I have a Pixel 8 phone in a bumper case, and the Backbone doesn't accommodate the camera bump very well. The Backbone comes with some alternate grips to better fit your case / non-case situation, but there doesn't appear to be anything that you can do to accommodate an oversized camera bump. The controller has a USB type-C connection for connecting to your phone, a USB type-C port for passthrough charging, and a headphone jack. The only backlighting is on the one orange button on the right grip, and you can only adjust the intensity of the glow (not the color). This is adjusted via the app. The controller didn't require any significant setup. I downloaded the app and plugged the controller in, and it was immediately recognized. The app has a great dashboard for launching your games, adjusting settings, and seeing what other games are recommended for this device. Unfortunately, some of the features are hidden behind a pay wall. There's a monthly membership for unlocking features like touch mapping. I'm not so keen on that. The controller worked well with GeForce Now and quite a few of my android games. I was able to play "Diablo Immortal," "Dead Cells," and "Streets of Rage" without issue. Unfortunately, the controller was not recognized by "Gunfire Reborn." Hopefully this is something that can be resolved in a future update.

The Backbone Pro with USB-C has some big improvements over its predecessors, which were the original smart phone controllers that made mobile handheld gaming mainstream. Compared to the previous Backbone I own, the Pro model is a big improvement in terms of ergonomics/comfort with much thicker handles, better sized and feeling thumbsticks, better spacing with the triggers, buttons, and dpads, and better overall button feel and responsiveness. The ergonomics are not quite as aggressive and contoured as my SCUF however. The Pro also retains a physical USB-C adapter, which can also be used with a case! This was my #1 gripe with the original design, the physical connector was not long enough to connect the phone and on that model, you had to use a physical connection, there was no wireless mode. Not only can you use it with a case, it supports a variety of cases, even thicker ones like my Torras Kickstand case. There are basically 3 thickness settings, the default small adapters, which allow for large cases, the large adapters which allow for smaller cases, and no adapters at all, which allow for extra thick cases. This allows for wide compatibility while still being able to connect to the case. Also, as mentioned, the previous unit needed a physical connection and it also leeched power from your phone because it didn't have its own battery and also could not connect wirelessly. This Pro unit has its own battery which allows you to use it with any screen or console using BT to connect wirelessly, although it sounds like this is behind the subscription paywall, which is an odd choice. It still retains the USB-C power input which allows you to power both the controller and pass power to your phone if you need some juice, have a power source and still want to play. The power connector is located in the right palm rest so you can't even feel it while connected, which is great design. For those who aren't sure, mobile smartphone gaming comes in a lot of flavors. I'll cover the 3 main ways you would play games on your smartphone: 1. Native Smartphone games: These are your mobile store games that are native to your smartphone running on Android or iOS and generally pretty watered-down ports, tower defense games, that kind of thing. 2. Streamed Games from your local console/PC. These games are your AAA games that you paid big bucks for, built a honking gaming PC or bought a PS5/XBox for, and are rendered and run locally, with the resulting video compressed and streamed over your local home network or even the internet to your mobile phone. This method is heavily dependent on your internet speed (including mobile if you are away from home) and how many hops you are away from your home PC. However, the ability to render on your beefy home PC or console and then play on your phone away from home is pretty awesome! 3. Streamed Games from a Cloud Gaming Service. This method renders the game on a cloud provider's hardware, like GeForce Now or XBox Cloud, and then streams the gameplay over the internet to your phone. You just login like any other subscription service, and if the game is on that streaming platform, you can play the game with your subscription. Pretty nifty. Also, over the internet, this can actually have less latency than streaming from your home, but performance might not be as good depending on how fast your home hardware is. The Backbone app provides a hub where you can launch all of your games and view the available services. From there you can add each game and service, which then creates a new tile for that game and "flavor". For Steam, you'll still end up launching the game via Steam Link, while for XBox GamePass Ultimate you can login and then launch any game currently available and play it via the Cloud. I took a star off because the annual subscription fee is a little bit questionable, and it also sounds like they tied the ability to use the controller remotely with a console or PC via BT to the subscription as well, which doesn't really make sense. I can't actually test this because I'm on the trial subscription which is included for the first year. And, you still need to have an actual subscription with each cloud or games service provider, so what's the point of the actual Backbone App subscription again? The price on this unit is really expensive too. I mean this is like 2-3x the price of regular console controllers and about 1/3 the price of a popular new handheld console that just launched. It is also about 1.7x more than the original was priced, and that is often on sale making this nearly 3x more unless it also goes on sale. Lastly, the build quality while overall excellent, still feels a bit lacking when connected to larger phones like my iPhone 15 Pro Max. The spring/backbone mechanism in the back felt a little flimsy because it is extended so much and there is some flex and give and creaking. Still, this is a great way to game remotely if you spend a lot of time commuting or have some downtime. The ability to connect it with a case is probably the biggest improvement for me, since removing my phone from a case before connecting it to the original meant I never really used it, it was just too tedious to remove those tight fitting cases. The quality of the sticks, triggers (hall effect apparently? nice!), buttons, and overall spacing are huge improvements, but the curve and contour of the hand grips isn't as nice as some competitors. The Backbone Pro overall is great, but not quite a home run.

I am enjoying the Backone Pro quite a lot. First, the build quality is above average. The device feels sturdy and premium in the hands. The controller fits well in my medium-sized hands. The buttons are accessible. However, I wish the right analog stick were a bit more to the left of the button cluster as I need to keep my thumb bent, causing some fatigue over time. The palm rests allow for a firm grip, which is needed since the controller’s plastic is smooth and a bit slick. The buttons have a slight click but are not too loud. The D-pad feels great and comfortable while maintaining constant pressing. The triggers feel great with ample travel. The shoulder buttons are also clicky just like the buttons. All these buttons feel smooth, and so I think more texture would have helped. The analog sticks feel premium and cover a wide area. The Backbone Pro fits both my Pixel 9 Pro XL and my Galaxy S22 Plus perfectly -both with a case. The camera cluster bump cleared the back easily. Both phones recognized the Backbone Pro right away. Sadly, my iPad Mini is too big. I downloaded the Backbone app, which I strongly suggest you do, which provides more options and customization (there is an optional subscription). The controller worked exceptionally well with my online subscriptions (I have several), remote play, and my installed games. The controller is responsive and intuitive, and I enjoyed the overall gaming experience. There is an option to play retro games through emulators, but sadly I do not have any currently. The controller also features Bluetooth connectivity, which brings more versatility and puts it above the rest. While the light controller feels rather strange on its own, it certainly works just as well as any other wireless controller. In this mode, I was able to play on my tablets, laptop, and even my smart monitor. I noticed low to minute lag or sync issues. I was grateful that the controller has its own 3.5mm headphone jack as I often prefer that than wireless buds. The controller has its own long-lasting battery, and is charged via USB-C. Interestingly, the USB-port also serves as pass-through power port when connected to a source, keeping the phone charged while gaming. While the price may be on the higher end, this controller effectively turns your phone into a gaming console, eliminating carrying around a dedicated device. It also has so many bells and whistles, and the versatility is undeniable. It definitely deserves the “Pro” name.

What an excellent product! I was so excited about this edition of the Backbone and I couldn't be more impressed. It really seems like they listened to feedback from customers because the definitely delivered on this model. First and foremost, the fact you can use this via bluetooth with so many different devices is game changing. Because for one, you get used to the controller you use. Regardless of what platform you are gaming on, you get used to it and the fact you can use this on multi platform and not just with your mobile device is a wonderful addition and not to mention, it means you dont need to purchase that second controller to play on PC because you can just use the backbone! Such an awesome upgrade! The form factor is fantastic. I will say, I use an iPhone 16 Pro Max and for the max, I think it extends it out a little far for comfort on my hands but it's nothing I can't get used to. It's just taking me a little while to adjust because its such a wider spread between my hands than I am used to and it also gets pretty heavy after prolonged use. This isn't a Backbone issue, it's more of an issue with the weight and size of the mobile device. The joysticks are a noticeable upgrade from the previous edition as well. They are full size joysticks and really mimic the size of a game console controller. The previous edition was much different. The Backbone Pro also has two customizable rear paddle buttons which make this what I would consider an “elite” gamepad. The buttons are also nice and comfortable as well as the d pad. Everything feels premium and performs as such. I love the addition of the gaming emulator. I have tons of old game roms and it's so fun to be able to take them on the go. There are some drawbacks with the current “beta” emulator, such as you can only load one rom at a time and it doesn't appear you can put any cover art on the roms just yet. Again this is in beta, so I don't expect perfection. But definitely a nice addition. The software is well put together and so far I have no complaints about battery life or anything like that. I think my one complaint would be that there is a subscription service for this device. I'm not a huge fan of subscription services when I already pay for services like Gamepass Ultimate etc. I feel like there should be no charge since, for the most part, you are reliant on other services to game on the backbone. All in all I think it's a well designed unit and one I can see myself utilizing until the next edition comes out. It checks a lot of boxes I have in the gamepad department and I'm very happy they delivered on many of these features. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for a hybrid controller with portable gameplay capability from your mobile device.

The Backbone Pro is a cool device that does some good and some badly or not at all. This is my entry into Backbone products and I tried it out with my S23 Ultra and a few games (PUBG, CoD, Genshin, and Balatro) and PS and Steam Remote play. I will start with the Pros (no pun intended). The Backbone Pro looks and feels good. The matte black frame/body and glossy black buttons make this controller looks real sleek and premium. The controller grips are a perfect fit and should be good for any user whether your hands are big or small. The buttons and joysticks are excellent and highly responsive. This feels and handles very similar to a SCUF controller. Connecting and Set Up is very easy, just extending the Backbone and then retracting it on my phone is all it takes, it's so simple. The Backbone app is familiar and easy to use and is your main way for accessing your games and Backbone settings, its all similar to PS and Steam. It has a 3.5mm port for headphones and a USB-C port to charge. The Backbone Pro can also be used as a wireless controller for console, tablet, and PC, which is great multi-use versatility. Included is a 30day trial of Backbone+ which is a premium subscription that offers extended warranty, in game rewards, discounts, social network, and touch controls syncing. Now for the Cons. The Backbone Pro DOESNT WORK FOR PLAYSTATION REMOTE PLAY. PS Remote Play is only compatible with the Backbone One Playstation edition. This is does not matter if you have Backbone+ controller sync or not. This is a huge red flag because my primary interest was for PS Remote Play and when I downloaded the Backbone app PS Remote play is displayed on the app Hub in "Ways to Play" and "Popular on Backbone". However, once you download it, connect it, and realize it doesnt work it will disappear from the Hub and won't even appear in the search bar. It'll still be visible on your phone, but no longer available on the Backbone app. The app also seems to focus heavily on Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia Cloud Streaming and concerns me on the support for anything else. The compatibility with games is not always there and I'd like to see a full list of compatible games, of the 4 games I tried only 2 worked on the free version: Balatro (which doesn't need a controller) and CoD Mobile. Genshin didn't work with the controller at all. PUBG Mobile only works if you have Backbone+, it actually will not let you load the app from the Hub if you don't have Backbone+, it kept opening the Set Up Backbone+ subscription everytime I tried to open it. I had to go to my app list on my phone to load it. Backbone+ is a $40 yearly subscription that claims to offer a bunch of benefits but call it what you want, I call it a paywall, especially with my PUBG experience. I tried to see what "in-game rewards" were available and there was nothing listed and if you click "Learn More" it just redirects to the main website. Touch Sync is a good feature but isnt always precise, you'll still have to toggle between modes depending on the action you're doing and youll have to remap the screen buttons to match up where the Backbone is registering the touch with the button action. My biggest beef with Backbone+ is more of a concern that more games will force it and make it a less of an option and more of a requirement. Overall, I really wanted to love the Backbone Pro and ended up only thinking it was neat, a cool toy for a niche use. I liked using the Backbone Pro when I played CoD and PUBG, its absolutely alot easier to play and it felt more comfortable playing for longer sessions, I've won way more games with the enhanced controls. However, the lack of PS support and the requirement of a subscription to play one of my main games is such a gut punch. If the cons dont bother you then you'll love the Backbone Pro if they do bother you then don't get it.