Apple talked about big-budget games coming to the iPhone at its recent WWDC 2024 keynote, but if you choose to play upcoming titles like Resident Evil 7 on your phone, you might want something better than touch controls — something much better. Thankfully, the second-gen Backbone One controller is currently discounted to $79.99 during Backbone’s Father’s Day sale, saving you $20 on your model of choice through June 16th. You can pick from the standard ABXY button layout with a USB-C port (Amazon / Best Buy / Backbone), the same style with the older iPhone Lightning connector (Amazon / Backbone), a white PlayStation layout with USB-C (Amazon / Best Buy / Backbone), or the PlayStation Edition with Lightning (Amazon / Backbone).
The second-gen Backbone One makes some iterative improvements on the original model we liked so much. It can now accommodate more phone sizes, even with some cases left on, and the D-pad and face buttons have stepped up build quality. But many of the excellent features that made the original so good are still here, like passthrough charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and not having to fuss with any wireless Bluetooth connections.
In addition to playing games directly on your phone, the Backbone also works great for cloud streaming or in-home remote play off of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X / S console — allowing you to relinquish the TV to the rest of the family while still squeezing in a game session.
