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Backbone Pro: One-minute review
The Backbone Pro is the first big new arrival in the brand’s popular mobile accessory line-up for almost five years.
On paper, its underpinned by a winning formula: take one of the best mobile controllers around, beef it up to make it more comfortable, tweak the feel of the buttons, and throw in a couple ‘pro’ features like remappable back buttons to round out the package and justify the name.
All of this is accomplished well, but Backbone has gone even further and crammed the Pro with a wealth of features geared towards cloud gaming.
It has Bluetooth connectivity that allows it to connect to your PC, laptop, tablet, or smart TV for use with cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia GeForce Now, or Amazon Luna. It works well, aside from the often hit or miss ‘instant Bluetooth pairing’ feature, and boasts an impressive forty hours of wireless battery life – up there with some of the best PC controllers.
As with the original Backbone One, the Pro also benefits from fantastic materials across the board. It’s a gorgeous controller that feels incredibly premium and supports the majority of modern devices with its Type-C connector. It offers pass-through charging too, not to mention the robust Backbone app and its numerous handy features like a dedicated game launcher, the option to quickly launch most cloud gaming services, and the ability to remap buttons in custom profiles.
This all comes at a high price, however, putting the Backbone Pro up against some serious competition. It’s worth the investment if you’re ready to go all in on cloud gaming, but mobile gaming purists would likely be better off ditching this functionality with slightly cheaper yet even more comfortable alternatives like the Razer Kishi Ultra.
Things become even more expensive when you factor in the cost of a Backbone Plus subscription, which is $3.99 / £3.99 a month and grants access to a few extra features like game emulators built into the Backbone app and rewards in certain mobile titles.
Backbone Pro: Price and availability
- Costs $169.99 / £169.99 / AU$299.95
- One model available in one colorway, black
- Backbone Plus is $3.99 / £3.99 a month
The Backbone Pro costs $169.99 / £169.99 / AU$299.95, putting it a fair chunk above the $99.99 / £99.99 / AU$179.99 asking price of the Backbone One 2nd Gen. For that added cost, you’re getting a larger controller with some added features, namely the remappable rear buttons, plus wireless functionality.
At the time of writing, the Backbone Pro is only available in one colorway: a rather basic black. There’s also no Lightning connector variant for those with older iPhones, either.
At this price, the Backbone Pro faces some pretty stiff competition, namely in the form of the Razer Kishi Ultra. Razer’s product is larger than the Backbone Pro, but more comfortable. It also offers RGB lighting and a fully featured app that, unlike the Backbone App, doesn’t need any kind of subscription to play around with.
Backbone Pro: Specs
|
Price |
$169.99 / £169.99 / AU$299.95 |
|
Dimensions |
7.1 x 11.1 x 2in / 181 x 281 x 50mm |
|
Weight |
0.44lbs / 203g |
|
Connection type |
Wired (Type-C), Bluetooth |
|
Compatibility |
iPhone 15 Series, Android, PC, smart TV, Nintendo Switch |
|
Software |
Backbone App |
Backbone Pro: Design and features
- Looks like a chunkier version of the Backbone One
- Rear buttons and wireless connectivity have been added
- Some unique software features
The Backbone Pro looks like a beefed up version of the Backbone One. It’s significantly thicker with much larger grips that fit more naturally into the palms of your hands. Although the One still wins when it comes to portability, the Pro is undeniably much more comfortable to use and, importantly, is still small enough to fit in your bag or even a large pocket.
On the front of the controller you’ll see the expected face buttons and d-pad. Although it’s not immediately obvious, both of these have been redesigned. The buttons use softer, more spongy feeling switches that are quieter than those of the One but just as quick and responsive, while the d-pad is a little less stiff.
Both the buttons and the d-pad are also made from the transparent, glossy and smooth material that was previously used for the buttons of the Backbone One PlayStation Edition. I always preferred this to the more matte look of the buttons of the standard One, so it’s great to see it again here. The two thumbsticks have much more motion than those of the One, making it easier to control precisely, with a concave design rather than a convex one.
Taking the Backbone Pro into your hands, you’ll immediately be able to feel the pleasant dotted texture on the back of the grips in addition to the two new remappable rear inputs. Although predominantly constructed from plastic, the materials across the board are sublime and ooze quality. It’s a little weighty, but well-balanced, so not at all fatiguing to use.
On the bottom of the controller’s grips, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C connector for charging the controller or your phone via pass-through, plus a new Bluetooth pairing button.
Most of the Backbone Pro’s software features are tied to the compatible Backbone app. It offers the ability to create distinct controller profiles with fully customizable button mapping, thumbstick and trigger dead zones, and more. You can also enable wired compatibility for PC, mobile, and even Nintendo Switch via the bottom Type-C port.
The app also functions as a dedicated game launcher, allowing you to browse compatible titles and even launch a compatible cloud gaming service within the app – though sadly, this latter feature requires the Backbone Plus subscription.
The same is true for the emulation, which lets you play your favorite ROMs directly in the Backbone app, screen recording, live streaming, and even the ability to remap on-screen inputs to physical controls.
This is a fantastic feature set overall, but the fact that it’s gated behind a monthly fee is disappointing – especially when you’re spending this much on a peripheral. You do at least get a seven-day free trial with your purchase, which should be enough time to work out whether the cost is worth it for you.
Backbone Pro: Performance
- Great for mobile gaming
- Fits the vast majority of phones
- A bit awkward in Bluetooth
It’s impossible to fault the Backbone Pro when it comes to mobile gaming. Paired with a compatible game like Zenless Zone Zero or Call of Duty Mobile, it delivers reliable performance. The buttons are less clicky than those of the Backbone One, but still very satisfying to press.
The larger thumbsticks also make it much more suitable for fast-paced shooters, offering a much greater level of control. The triggers are more ergonomic, too, with an increased area and a subtle grippy pattern. The new rear buttons are easy to access and, importantly, offer more than enough resistance to make it difficult to hit them by accident.
Thanks to its extending design, the controller fits an impressive range of devices, especially with the included adapters. I had no difficulty fitting an iPhone 15 Plus with a thin case and it even accommodated my frankly ridiculously oversized Porsche Design Honor Magic 7 RSR. A foldable should fit too, as there was plenty of space for the Oppo Find N5 in its included case.
The Pro has been stuffed with a battery that offers more than forty hours of juice, so you can use it as a Bluetooth controller. The brand is heavily pushing this product as a cloud gaming peripheral, though in my testing, it still worked perfectly with common PC gaming launchers like Steam.
Performance is also good when it comes to the likes of Xbox Cloud Gaming, and I did really appreciate the ability to quickly launch the service straight from the Backbone app if you want to take the action with you.
I will say that the Backbone Pro definitely feels worse to use without a phone inside. It’s noticeably wider than the DualSense or Xbox Wireless Controller, but with much smaller buttons that are harder to hit reliably in comparison. Minus the stability of a phone, there’s also a tiny but noticeable degree of flex on both slides caused by the extending mechanism which I found distracting.
The ‘Instant Bluetooth Pairing’ feature, which is designed to instantly swap between your saved devices at the click of a button, also disappoints. It works well with tablets and smart TVs, but I had particular difficulty getting it to reliably connect to my PC, where the controller repeatedly appeared as a wholly new device in my Bluetooth settings – very annoying when I just wanted to dive into a quick cloud-streamed Halo Infinite match.
Should I buy the Backbone Pro?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider…
Not keen on the Backbone Pro? Check out these worthy alternatives.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Backbone Pro |
Razer Kishi Ultra |
Backbone One 2nd Gen |
|
Price |
$169.99 / £169.99 / AU$299.95 |
$149.99 / £149.99 / AU$269.95 |
$99.99 / £99.99 / AU$179.99 |
|
Dimensions |
7.1 x 11.1 x 2in / 181 x 281 x 50mm |
9.63 x 4.36 x 2.53in / 243 x 111 x 64mm |
6.93 x 3.70 x 1.34in / 176 x 94 x 34mm |
|
Weight |
0.44lbs / 203g |
0.59 lbs / 266g |
0.30lbs / 138g |
|
Connection type |
Wired (Type-C), Bluetooth |
Wired (Type-C) |
Wired (Type-C / Lightning) |
|
Compatibility |
iPhone 15 Series, Android, PC, smart TV, Nintendo Switch |
iPhone 15 Series, iPad Mini, Android |
iPhone 15 Series, Android / iPhone 14 series, and earlier |
|
Software |
Backbone App |
Razer Nexus App |
Backbone App |
How I tested the Backbone Pro
- Tested for more than three months
- Tried with a wide range of games
- Test with multiple phones and devices
I tested the Backbone Pro for over three months, using it as my go-to mobile controller for most of that time. I played plenty of mobile games using it, including lots of Call of Duty Mobile and Zenless Zone Zero. I also managed a complete playthrough of Hitman: Blood Money – Reprisal and tried some Asphalt Legends.
This was in addition to lots of cloud gaming on both mobile and my PC, mainly via Xbox Cloud Gaming as part of my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Tested games included Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo Infinite, and Gears of War Reloaded.
I used the controller with my current daily driver, the Porsche Design Honor Magic 7 RSR, but also tested its fit with a range of other devices.
Throughout the testing process, I compared my hands-on experience with that of other mobile controllers such as the Razer Kishi Ultra, Backbone One 2nd Gen, Turtle Beach Atom, Acer Nitro Mobile Controller, GameSir X2S Type-C, Asus ROG Tessen, and more.
First reviewed September 2025
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dash.wood@futurenet.com (Dashiell Wood)
