Skip to main content

Review: Backbone One

This iPhone controller and its app are so immersive and well designed, I forgot I was playing on my phone.
WIRED Recommends
Backbone controllers attached to mobile phone with Call of Duty on the screen
Photograph: Backbone

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Rating:

8/10

WIRED
Works with most iPhones (6S and up). Easy to put on and take off. Powerful and user-friendly app. Comfortable during long gaming sessions. Has a headphone jack and offers pass-through charging.
TIRED
A lot of App Store games don't support controllers. You have to remove cases and phone mounts. A little awkward to tote around. Exclusive to iPhone.

There are nearly 3 billion gamers who play on their phones or tablets, and the market has been projected to surpass $200 billion by 2023. These days, many phone games are as fully developed as their console and PC counterparts.

Then why are phones often still considered a lesser way to play games? Perhaps it's the hardware. Even great software depends heavily on the device it's played on, and though phones have many advantages thanks to their portability, touchscreens, and gyroscopic abilities, they do sometimes force gamers to deal with wonky touch controls, lag, and lack of support for things like video capturing and social features. The Backbone One MFi is a controller built for iPhones, and it has changed everything for me.

Mobile gaming is real gaming, and always has been, but now I'm doing it a lot more than any other kind of playing.

Dude, Where's My Phone?
Photograph: Backbone

The Backbone One adds console-style controls to your iPhone. You fit the built-in Lightning connector to your iPhone's charging port and stretch the sides of the device to clamp. The gadget works with any iPhone that has iOS 13 or newer. (Find out if your iPhone is compatible here.) It fits snugly around the phone, and attaching it is fairly foolproof.

It has the exact buttons, triggers, and joysticks you find on a console controller, with a plastic design that feel similar to a PlayStation pad, but with very clicky, snappy buttons like the Nintendo Switch. On the bottom right-hand side, there's a Lightning port, which enables pass-through charging without the cord getting in your way. The left-hand side has a headphone jack, making it more audio-friendly than the iPhone itself. (Headphones with mics also work.)

I mostly use it at home, but you'd need a bag to carry it with you on the go. It's too awkward to keep it on your phone between gaming sessions. It's also incompatible with phone cases and grips. I don't mind slipping my iPhone 11's thin silicone case off, but if you use something like an Otterbox, the removal process might be too cumbersome. It also doesn't yet come in additional colors.

Android phones are not supported, and at this point, the company isn't sure whether it will delve into that world. For now, at least, Backbone is iOS only.

Ready to Binge-Play

When I first started testing Backbone One, I realized the phone games I typically play aren't controller-compatible. I trawled through the App Store's controller-friendly recommendations, playing Don't Starve and Transitor. Both worked well, and I was delighted by the combination of console-like joystick movements and button presses paired with native iPhone touchscreen controls.

Then I gave Stardew Valley a shot. And that changed everything. I have played it for 43 hours so far—longer than I ever did on the Nintendo Switch. I was fully immersed. I played it so much that I began to reach out and try to claw for my phone to try and Google a villager's dislikes without realizing I was already staring at it.

I've been a mobile gamer most of my life, but I've never played the same mobile game for 15-hour stretches until now.

At the insistence of Backbone's CEO, Maneet Khaira, I also reluctantly tried Call of Duty: Mobile . I say "reluctantly" because I'm terrible at first-person shooters, and this Call of Duty game is incredibly popular. To my surprise, I was ... good! I managed to down more enemies than Khaira when we played a match together. And even though teams using external controllers are matched up, I swiftly acquired kills, ending one game with a total of 112. The triggers are smooth, the joysticks don't stutter, and the lack of latency made my PS4 seem slow in comparison.

Backbone One has a few extra buttons on it, but to understand them, you need to learn about the Backbone app.

Sum of Its Parts
Photograph: Backbone

Backbone One as a stand-alone controller is good, but in conjunction with its required app, the experience can rival gaming consoles.

The Backbone app is powerful and user-friendly. You can launch your games in it, and it adds social features and screen capturing. Attach the controller and press the bright orange Backbone button to open the app. Then press "A" and it will open the last game you played. Launching games is fast and painless. Backbone button, A, boom—I'm in the CoD lobby or on my Stardew Valley farm.

The social features are also intuitive. If you have a friend who owns a Backbone and starts a game, you'll get a push notification. If you want to join up, tap the push notification, press A, and you'll join their party. You can speak and hear responses clearly, with minimal noise from buttons or joysticks (no headset needed). Press the ellipsis (...) button twice to mute yourself. Up to eight people can join a party. This feature won't be as enticing if your friends aren't gaming with Backbone, but it works well if they do.

You can press the Capture button twice to take a screenshot, or once to start a screen recording. A light on the controller glows red when you're recording, so you don't need to second-guess whether it's actually working, and it will record audio from your party too. Press the button again to end your recording. When you're done, navigate to the Captures section of the app, where your videos and photos are stored.

Backbone One does a great job showing you where the action is within your clips. You can edit footage within the app and share 30-second snippets as Highlights to your Backbone friends within an internal newsfeed. Videos can be saved to your camera roll or shared on Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Messenger, or other social apps—without the typical eyesore mobile touchscreen controls making an appearance.

Despite these features, Backbone didn't make a noticeable impact on my phone's battery life. Over 10 days of intensive testing, the app accounted for just 3 percent of my battery drain, though playing Stardew Valley with the screen on for 43 hours did have me searching for my charger more than once.

Level App
Photograph: Backbone

This isn't the first peripheral to try and bring console controls to phones. Similar controllers have come and gone, or are still available, such as Razer's Kishi. So far, most just aren't all that comfortable to use, and none seem to have an app like Backbone, and that's a big part of what sets it apart. For example, Razer's app is solely a launcher—no social features are included. To rival a console multiplayer experience, you need that combination of control and easy social gaming.

You also need games. Many games, including most Apple Arcade titles, do have controller compatibility. But a lot of titles still don't, likely because Apple didn't even begin supporting external gaming controllers until 2019. The games on this list are a good place to start.

The Backbone app has game recommendations, and you can find compatible downloads within the App Store's gaming tab. Fortnite is infamously missing from the roster right now, but heavy hitters like Minecraft and Roblox are made better with Backbone. If none of the games you play or want to try are controller-compatible, you may want to wait until more are developed.

If you enjoy mobile games, or you find yourself wishing your iPhone gaming was more robust, Backbone is a fantastic $100 investment. I've long defended mobile gaming as a legitimate way to play. Right now, it's my favorite.