BackBone One PlayStation Edition Review - Better With Xbox
Much ado has been made about the Backbone phone grip over the last couple of years. As remote play options become more prevalent thanks to the console manufactures doing more to support the feature with wifi and 5G enabled streaming to other devices, your phone, a device you tend to have with you at all times, is an obvious candidate to facilitate your continued gaming addiction. Even in the realm of dedicated mobile gaming, more and more new releases are coming with traditional controller support. While there have been several options for players to Bluetooth pair their phones to their controller of preference and then stream their games to their phone, these options have always been on the cumbersome side – enter Backbone. While the Backbone One has been on the market for about as long as the new generation of consoles have been, recently PlayStation have gotten in on the act, partnering with Backbone to create a PlayStation Edition grip. Does it make the Backbone One an even better experience though?
The Backbone One is a brilliant piece of technology, clipping easily to your iPhone (if you’re an Android user you can get a standard Backbone One but no PlayStation Edition exists for those users), and with the aide of a dedicated input that output that feeds into your phone’s charger you’re ready to game. For those who are planning on extended playtime or simply begin with a flat battery, the Backbone also acts as a pass-through device with a slot available to plug in your lightning adaptor so that you can simultaneously charge and play, whether that be plugged in at the wall, or through a portable charging solution.
The act of playing games through the Backbone is what we’re here to discuss the most however, and it’s in this respect where the Backbone shines brightest. The Backbone app, something that serves as a hub for all remote playing apps like the Xbox app, or PlayStation’s dedicated remote play app, is easily accessed by pressing the orange Backbone button on your grip once your phone has been inserted. It’s an incredibly efficient option that has you connected to your console of choice incredibly quickly. The gameplay experience is of course subjective to the quality of the internet connect you have access to, but even with a basic NBN connection, latency is minimal, and the Backbone is incredibly responsive to all that you’re trying to do, whether that be as a remote playing device or when you’re playing native mobile games with the grip.
If you’re looking to buy a Backbone you need to be conscious of what scenarios you wish to use it in. Turn-based games are an obvious candidate, while other games that are less dependent on the feature set of the console will also be great options. First-party studios titles, games that are typically trying to leverage the unique assets of each respective console will likely be the sorts of games that you want to avoid when using the Backbone. Ultimately, while there might be a PlayStation Edition of the Backbone available, it’s Xbox players, if remote play is your thing, who will be getting the most of the experience because they’re leaving the fewest features in their wake.
I’ve already spent dozens of hours with the Backbone, knocking through numerous games that I may not have had a chance to play simply because the TV that my consoles are attached to was being used by my wife or kids. Now that I have a quick, easy, and not at all cumbersome device that I can quicklys slip my phone into, I have further opportunities to work through the backlog – thank you Backbone for helping me get my gaming hours up!
The Backbone One – PlayStation Edition was used to play games on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and mobile with hardware kindly provided by Backbone
