The Backbone controller for iPhone is amazing with it’s good feel design and functionality and here’s why.
The Backbone provides a nintendo switch type design and feel to it with a headphone jack and a lightning port for passthrough charging to the iPhone.
Support
Backbone supports any phone with iOS 13 or later which means that it works with
iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max iPhone 12 mini iPhone 12 iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max iPhone 11 iPhone SE (1st Generation) iPhone SE (2nd Generation) iPhone XS iPhone XS Max iPhone XR iPhone X iPhone 8 iPhone 8 Plus iPhone 7 iPhone 7 Plus iPhone 6s iPhone 6s Plus
As for Games, Backbone supports all controller supported games
Backbone in Action
This is when I test the games on 2 different iPhones to see how well the battery life handles and how the controller native support is. Battery life and experience may vary.
iPhone 6s
General
Backbone app not detected sometimes when plugged in. Capture and Backbone button not working mid and post games.
Fortnite (Max Settings Avail (30 FPS Low 100% 3D Res)) 1 Hour Test
The controller works but with non native support, key binds have to be changed and oddly the controller stoped reacting to the capture button and backbone button mid and post and pre games, i can still confirm backbone was still running in the background so I guess a glitch happened, the backbone accounts for some of the power usage, 9% actually, too high if you ask me because the capture and backbone buttons were NOT WORKING. btw this is all in an hour if playing (couldn’t get some screen shots cause of the amazing capture button not working)
iPhone 11
Genral
No Backbone issues. App opened automatically after connection, overall great experience.
Fortnite (Max Settings Avail ( High 60 FPS 100% 3D Res) 1 Hour Test
As said before, the controller works but with non native support, key binds have to be changed but this time the power usage on the backbone was way less with all the captures happening and screenshots and stuff, the app only took 1% of the battery. So I guess there is something to do with the initial power usage that differs from each phone.
Improvment
I feel that there could be room for improvement, maybe less capture notis and make the backbone button flash because it lags my games. and maybe work with other game companies to make more native support for the controller.
Overall the Backbone is a great device and i really recommend it if you like to game on the go or usually go to a friends house to play some games.
In Other Words BUY IT!
If you wanna buy a backbone you can buy it at : https://playbackbone.com/products/backbone-one
For the list of some of the supported games check here https://playbackbone.com/games
I am super excited to look back at backbone to see the improvements they make and redo this blog post.
Big thanks to @hadisabbour for supplying me with the backbone as I could not get one myself
Any questions? Email me at [email protected]
