Professional spine review: a smartphone console unit will cost you

A single game control unit for all of them? Not yet, but the backbone is determined on this path and covers a good part of the ground – for a trivial price of $ 170 (thank you the tariff) as well as an optional subscription at a price of $ 40 annually to enter the necessary features.

I tested the iPhone version of the application; Android is coming.

The original spine-which is still available-is only operated using a phone captured in it, avoiding the need for wireless or built-in batteries; Pro contains Bluetooth radio and batteries, so that it can work independently like a model Bluetooth controller. For professionals, the spine restores the original actions such as “mobile situation”, which leads to a distinction between Bluetooth as “wireless”.

This is the functional difference between the control units. The professional was dramatically redesigned from the original, both to accommodate the new capabilities and make it feel more high -end; Excuse, the owners of the old iPhone will only come with USB-C, not Lightning (so iPhone 15 or newer). Supporting everything is the program, especially the subscription upgrade, Backbone Plus.

During my briefing conference, the CEO of Backbone, Manet Khaira, explained his philosophy about the place where a corner of games was heading. “Our point of view is that in the future … all you have to do is buy only one device and you can play games on any screen. Perhaps you can be a child who does not have a console, and you can be able to play Fortnite on a TV device, because this is just one TV with which you can move from the screen, and we can move more than the screen, and they move to what it can move from the screen. People are like the mid -game market To address.

But it is the subscription program that enables what it describes – the device is nice, but there are a lot of competing control units – the most difficult part of getting rid of it thanks to each game launcher and the service is fragmented.

More traditional and organic design

One of the problems in the first generation of the phone control units, like the spine, was that it is designed to be as small as possible. This means that the feeling and features were often sacrificed. With professionals, the spine tried to maintain it small, but it has restored a lot of design features that players want, such as control that you can grip full thumb and back buttons, Hall effect Players.

The spine has also changed the type of switch on the ABXY buttons (to carbon contraceptive) to make it quieter instead of the clear clicks of those on the old console. They got a deeper travel, which records me a little less responsive, but I am a button, so I used to them. I did not feel a lot of cumin in local games – exercises such as Carrion and Hades on the phone – but on the wireless, I think I have suffered from my accidental delay (in lies P on Mac and dead cells on the iPad and more). Bluetooth has become much better, but it is still not perfect. You can still connect the wire if it becomes a problem.

Grips provides a solid hand, and has a slightly more texture than the spine, but less than the Xbox wireless control unit, and they feel a few other parts of the console. Very comfortable for long hours of play.

I am not crazy with the right and left buttons – because of the scaling of the console and the button, I am facing a problem using it without the need to think about it – which makes the rear buttons very useful for me. This is a little more difficult to press to prevent accidental activation, but it is not very difficult that I cannot run it with weaker fingers (episode fingers) so I re -equipped it as hypothetical in the program.

However, it is still slightly larger than those on the spine, as well as operators, and is still a relatively click. I have mixed feelings about the operators. They got a relatively deep clouds, which could be great for the goal but not responding as I like to shoot. The program allows you to designate the virtual TRIGGR stations and final factors (as well as Deadzones Hotwstick), but without material stop, it is partially effective for me. But you have control if you want to try it.

There is a dedicated Bluetooth button and a representative copy of the sound on the left’s grip and the USB-C charging on the right. In addition to charging the batteries in the console, it can charge your phone, and when your phone is charged, it charges the console battery. (The spine evaluates the battery in 40 hours, but I have been drained in a way much faster in the first charging. Now it is draining more slowly.) But as with the spine, you cannot use the USB-C port for sound, video or data.

When you pair the control unit of another device but the phone connected, it gives you a choice for the device you want to control. But once the phone file is set on the phone – I hope it can be ride through profiles in the devices so that the phone was not necessary – you may want to remove it. I found that it is separate from Bluetooth when I went to the spine application using the touch screen, for example.

Software and $ Offware

The free spine program provides some of the basic capabilities you get with most mobile control units, although this includes more basic things like “You can use them” (for iPhone devices that refer you to system settings, in any case). Everything else requires an annual subscription of $ 40, which means that you can spend $ 210. There is a free demo month.

The spine subscription does not provide a lot. In addition to what I previously obtained on the backbone-such as broadcasting, chatting, unified games supervisor, privileges and discounts-Backbone Retro Games and Emularators to the Hub added, and the privacy of game glimpses with buttons simulator and Deadzone/Regger Stop Stets on the basis of each game.

It also allows you to save different devices connections in the application for easy switch (which calls for the “Flowstate” spine), which is one of the aspects of the program for the professional program. For example, as soon as I was associated with my iPad, I simply had to go to the associated hardware menu and select them for connection and control. You can also select the profile you want to use. After that, remove the phone from the console.

It is smooth as I saw in the past, and when it is not because of the Byzantine methods you must prepare on Apple devices or how to make services – web application shortcuts to play Xbox Cloud and GeForce games now for the painful login process.

I generally liked the program, but I hope that there will be an option to stop the sound while passing through the game miniature, which automatically. If you are sensitive to sound (nervously), it resembles a cat that walks through your mind, which sweeps its claws. I had to quit my phone only to browse. I find it paradoxically that the company redesigned the buttons to work more calmly, but the program is still noisy.

Compatibility claims can become confusing as well. For example, the spine claims that it can act as a Xbox control unit, but there is no Bluetooth support in the console: you have to use Remote play Or cloud games, which are not always possible. In my case, the operation is not supported by distance through my network formation – a Double Nat Setting – and Cloud is hit or missed (even Xbox Cloud Gaming Lightweight like Blue Prince ran well for a period of time and then started to decompose and barely run 33). None of these is within the control of the spine, but it can affect the experience of the spine.

The devices are convincing if you like the concept of the phone control unit or you want something a little smaller to withstand your Bluetooth games-you do not need to subscribe to it-but it is definitely not to think about the budget given that you can find a lot of alternatives to part of the price. If you are playing on a lot of different devices equipped with Bluetooth, although you are ready to subscribe to the other, the spine is likely to be the most intelligent option there.