Android gamers look for a way to make their phone more like a console now have Backbone’s excellent PlayStation-themed edition for under $200.
With the announcement of properly portable gaming PCs on the way, the world is opening up for mobile gaming in some seriously impressive ways. Granted, they’ll cost an arm and a leg, and that won’t suit everyone.
If you’re someone who’d prefer to stick with your phone and the vast assortment of game titles available for that — and there are quite a lot there — you may want to jump into one of the many controllers that helps make that phone into something more like an actual console, bridging the gap between phone and Nintendo Switch. Or more recently, bridging the gap between phone and PlayStation.
Back when we tested and reviewed the BackBone One PlayStation Edition for the iPhone, we found it was a must-have accessory for anyone who wanted to game on their phone, marrying solid controls with an excellent app interface, and basically finding a way to convert a phone to become a micro gaming powerhouse.
We still plug this thing in when we want to game on our iPhone, and it won a Best Pick from us last year.
Now, that PS-themed controller is coming to Android devices in Australia, as Backbone and Sony launch the Droid edition.
The Backbone One PlayStation Edition for Android is essentially the same thing as its iPhone version, with a controller shaped and designed like a PlayStation controller, but with that iPhone Lightning connector switched to a Type C USB connector, which will match most Android phones made in the past five years.
It’s worth noting that the Backbone One controller still needs to wrap around a phone, so most tablets are out, even though bigger phones are in. They may fit in different places — because Type C charging ports aren’t always in the same location for every Android phone — but that won’t matter; the Type C Backbone can just connect where the port is, even if the screen doesn’t completely align.
Backbone’s transition to Type C USB doesn’t just make sense for Android, but also Apple’s impending transition to Type C USB, which looks like it’s on the cards this year due to a rule from the EU set to go in effect next year.
As to whether this model will work on that future USB C iPhone remains to be seen, but it’s definitely built for Android, and will work with the PS Remote Play app on Android devices, even recognising the phone as a DualSense controller for networked PlayStation gaming.
Locally, Australians can expect to find the Backbone One Android PlayStation controller for $179, where it’ll be found both online and offline at Big W, EB Games, JB HiFi, and The Gamesmen stores across the country, to name a few.
