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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.

(Image credit: Future)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.

(Image credit: Future)

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.

(Image credit: Future)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.

(Image credit: Future)

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.

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Backbone Pro?Buy it if...

You want a premium feel from your mobile controller
The Backbone Pro is flawless from a materials standpoint. It uses high-quality plastic that is fantastic in the hands. If Apple made a controller, it would undoubtedly feel something like this.

You want the ‘Pro’ features
If you love the Backbone One, but have always wanted some more high-end additions like remappable rear buttons then the Backbone Pro is for you.

You want an all-in-one peripheral
If you only want to buy one controller to meet both your mobile gaming and cloud gaming needs, then the Backbone Pro is a solid pick.

Don't buy it if...

You already have a different Bluetooth pad
If you already own a DualSense or Xbox Wireless Controller, then the Backbone Pro is a lot less tempting. You lose the option to play on mobile, of course, but both those options are going to feel better in your hands when you’re cloud gaming.

Also consider...

Not keen on the Backbone Pro? Check out these worthy alternatives.

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

Razer Kishi Ultra
The Razer Kishi Ultra is the premium mobile controller to beat. It comes in cheaper than the Backbone Pro and is larger, but it is much more comfortable to use and offers a similar set of features. It’s the one to pick if you don’t want the wireless functionality.

Read our full Razer Kishi Ultra review

Backbone One 2nd Gen
The latest model of the Backbone One is also a good choice. It’s cheaper than the Pro, but is easier to transport and still performs well. It does lack the back buttons and wireless functionality, though.

Read our full Backbone One 2nd Gen review

(Image credit: Future)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.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2025

The Backbone Pro is more comfortable than the One and crammed with cloud gaming features.

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PacketStream started its journey in California in 2018, when it was established by the entrepreneur duo Arthur Aivazian and Ronald Bell. They imagined it as a company solving a particular need in the market - offering a network of peer-to-peer (P2P) residential proxies, which are IP addresses sourced from real devices around the world, allowing users to bypass geographic restrictions when accessing various kinds of data.

As opposed to many other residential proxy providers, which are centralized, PacketStream’s peer-to-peer nature allows acquiring and selling residential proxies to customers directly. In other words, users buy or sell residential IPs from and to one another. This system makes proxies cheaper, albeit at the cost of reliability and speed.

Another problem that this platform could face is the risk of unreliable IP addresses potentially being added to the network. This is because PacketStream, despite offering secure proxies in general, doesn’t entirely control the IPs sold through its network.

PacketStream: Plans and Pricing

Unlike many proxy providers out there with complex pricing plans, PacketStream keeps things simple, charging per bandwidth, with a flat fee of $1 per GB. This way, you get access to the entire network of residential proxies, which is a lot more straightforward and may even be a cheaper alternative to providers charging for individual IP addresses.

Indeed, $1 per GB is one of the most affordable pricing options in the industry, as most competitors charge a lot more. These include IPRoyal with $6.5 per GB, Bright Data with $8.40 per GB, and Webshare with $2.8 per GB (depending on the specific package you selected).

That said, you’ll need to purchase at least 50 GB, which will set you back by $50. This means you can’t buy just $1 of bandwidth to take the platform for a spin before deciding - the 50 GB minimum is a must. Still, PacketStream offers rotating proxies (alongside their static counterparts), so if one IP address doesn’t work, you can switch to a different one in a jiffy.

PacketStream offers a free trial, but without a standardized process. You need to contact the sales team to request this trial, which is futile for most individual users. The free trial is only suitable for people who plan to spend significant sums on proxies. After all, why contact a sales team if you just need to test a few gigabytes worth of proxies?

PacketStream accepts payments through PayPal and major credit cards.

PacketStream: Features

PacketStream allows users not just to buy proxies, but also to acquire them and sell them on to offset costs, and sell your unused device bandwidth for profit, offering it at prices starting at $0.10 per GB. The minimum payout is $5 and is sent to your PayPal account once per week with a 3% fee applied to cashouts.

Interestingly, Microsoft Defender blocked the download and installation of PacketStream, identifying it as a program that “displays deceptive product messages.” This is typically how ‘scareware’ is described, or software that makes deceptive or fraudulent claims about your computer’s health to trick you into buying unnecessary or potentially unwanted products, which may not be inherently malicious in the same way as other malware.

However, since PacketStream doesn’t make any scary claims about your device, the flagging as potentially malicious could be due to the application’s process of using your computer to route third-party traffic when you share your bandwidth with other users. Hence, the antivirus interprets the app’s behavior as unusual or questionable. So, if you fail to install PacketStream, this could be the reason.

Residential Proxies

PacketStream offers a P2P residential proxy network spanning 190 countries. These proxies are sourced from real devices whose owners sell their bandwidth on the PacketStream network. You don’t have to worry about illegally sourced IP addresses, a major problem plaguing proxy providers. Every IP address on PacketStream was consensually added by its owner to earn money.

The company has both randomized and static IP options on offer, with randomized IPs changing with every new request to provide a high level of anonymity. Static IPs, on the other hand, remain consistent for scenarios where a single and steady IP address is required. Selection of the type of residential proxy you need is done as part of the request when buying access.

PacketStream’s proxy IP addresses were reliable during our test and offered reasonable speeds. We chose IP addresses from different countries, and they provided fast connections, although the speed varies depending on the country. PacketStream lets you choose proxies from roughly 190 countries, but you can’t select by city, which we consider a disadvantage. Many rival proxy providers let you choose proxies from specific cities to increase your chances of evading geographical restrictions.

(Image credit: PacketStream )

The platform supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS proxy protocols, which differ in how they handle traffic and their compatibility, each having its own strengths and downsides. Having the latter option in particular is important as it reduces network delays and provides better speeds than HTTP/HTTPS, making it ideal for high-speed, general-purpose tasks like P2P sharing or streaming. The other two, on their part, offer benefits like content caching and content filtering.

Residential proxies can be used for many things. A good example is data scraping, wherein people use proxies to bypass website geo-restrictions and scrape relevant information.

Suppose you run a website that tracks the prices of commodities and delivers this data to users. Running a price monitoring site requires extracting data frequently and quickly from many websites. The websites (primary data sources) are privy to external data scraping and block it by implementing geographical and IP restrictions. They can identify specific IPs from data scraping bots and block them from further access. They can also ban IP addresses of an entire country from accessing their information.

PacketStream gives you access to a large network of residential IP addresses to bypass restrictions and scrape commodity price data. If one IP address gets discovered and blocked, just switch to another and try your luck.) Although specific numbers may differ, this proxy provider has millions of IP addresses across 190 countries, so you’ll have no fear of running out of new proxies to bypass geographical restrictions on websites and services.

Online retail is another common use case for residential proxies. Many people use automated bots to snap up fast-selling products, placing orders before they run out of stock. However, e-commerce sites don’t like this and often blocklist bot IP addresses. PacketStream’s residential proxies let users circumvent this block and get their desired product.

As far as an e-commerce site is concerned, residential proxies belong to legitimate devices. It’s challenging for them to detect and block these proxies. Even when they do, you can switch to another proxy and visit the e-commerce site. PacketStream’s large network of residential proxies allows people to utilize automated scripts to bid for products.

One major drawback is that PacketStream offers only residential IPs. It doesn’t provide datacenter IPs, which are faster and more reliable. Datacenter IPs are sourced from dedicated servers with more speed, making them ideal for massive data scraping tasks. Large enterprises are the main users of datacenter proxies, but PacketStream doesn’t serve this cohort well. This proxy provider best suits individuals and small businesses seeking affordable residential proxies.

PacketStream doesn’t offer mobile-specific IPs. Mobile device IP addresses are present on this P2P network, but you can’t specifically choose that option. Many businesses use mobile IPs for app testing and ad verification, but performing these tasks with PacketStream is difficult.

Likewise, PacketStream doesn’t offer proxies sourced directly from Internet Service Providers (ISPs). ISP proxies provide higher data throughput and reduced delay than residential proxies, but you can’t get them on PacketStream.)

Selling Bandwidth

(PacketStream lets users sell their unused bandwidth and make money. You can add your IP address to the network and earn money when people use your device as a proxy. Pricing is $0.10 per GB, which can help you offset the cost of buying bandwidth on PacketStream.

Sharing your bandwidth requires downloading the PacketStream client on your PC. This client is available on Windows and macOS, as well as on Linux, where it can be installed by running a specific command via Docker. It can run even on low-end PCs. The primary requirement is a stable internet connection.

After installing the PacketStream PC app, you can open it anytime and activate a shared connection. Your payout is automatically calculated based on the amount of data your shared connection transmits. Closing the PacketStream app immediately terminates the shared connection, giving you complete control over the process. PacketStream can’t use your connection without your consent, which you give by opening the app.

There’s no limit to the amount of bandwidth you can share. The minimum payout is $5 for 50 GB of bandwidth, which makes sense because 50 GB is the minimum amount of bandwidth that PacketStream users can buy. A 3% fee applies to every payout.

Reseller API

PacketStream offers reselling/white-label services. This feature is for people interested in starting their own proxy providers. In that case, you can sell PacketStream’s proxies under your own branding and earn money. PacketStream provides a bare-bones version of its platform, which you can customize to build a brand atop the company’s infrastructure.

(Image credit: PacketStream )

Resellers provide access to the same network of proxies available on PacketStream. Any device added to PacketStream’s network will become available on your proxy provider. This feature isn’t for individual users, but we consider it worth discussing to give a complete PacketStream review.

PacketStream: Ease of Use

PacketStream outshines many competitors in the user-friendliness criterion. It arguably has the simplest interface we’ve encountered in a proxy provider, thanks partly to its limited features (there’s not much to navigate).

(Image credit: PacketStream )

All features are neatly arranged on the left menu, and the main dashboard lies on the right side. With a white background and a few contrasting colors, PacketStream’s interface feels visually appealing and easy to navigate. The average person won’t have any issues understanding this interface: this can’t be said for some proxy providers.

There’s a drawback, though. PacketStream doesn’t offer a browser extension to manage proxies. You need the desktop interface to manage and deploy new proxies, unlike other proxies with browser extensions for seamless proxy management. An extension lets you switch proxies at the click of a single button, but PacketStream doesn’t provide this benefit.

PacketStream: Customer Support

An area where PacketStream lags behind its competitors is customer support. It offers direct support only via email, with no live chat or telephone option. You can send a support email and expect a response within 48 hours, but there’s no option to hold a real-time conversation with support staff.

Also, PacketStream doesn’t provide as many self-help support resources as most competitors. There’s a FAQ section and user guides on the website, but they aren’t as detailed as what we’ve seen in other proxy providers.

PacketStream: The Competition

PacketStream has many competitors, the most notable being Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Decodo (formerly Smartproxy).

Bright Data offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies. It also offers advanced web scraping APIs as pre-built datasets. In contrast, PacketStream offers none of these except residential IPs. If you need PacketStream’s proxies for automated data scraping, you’ll need an external platform for the APIs. However, at $1 per GB, PacketStream’s residential proxy service is much more affordable than Bright Data’s, which costs around $8.4 per GB.

Oxylabs provides residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies, with a massive pool of over 100 million IP addresses. It also provides a Web Unblocker and web scraping APIs for enterprises. Oxylabs is undoubtedly the more sophisticated platform. It offers more reliable and speedy proxy IPs, with complete control over its proxy network, unlike peer-to-peer PacketStream. However, Oxylabs’ residential IPs cost $8 per GB, compared to PacketStream’s $1.

Webshare offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies, but not web scraping APIs. Its pool of 80 million+ IP addresses across 195 countries is on par with Oxylabs and Bright Data but larger than PacketStream. With pricing as low as $2.8 per GB, Webshare is one of the most affordable proxy providers for enterprises. Yet, PacketStream’s $1 per GB beats it in pricing.

In summary, PacketStream lags slightly behind most competitors in certain advanced features and customer support. However, it outperforms them in ease of use and affordability, helped by the lower costs of running a P2P network and the opportunity to earn money through offering your bandwidth for other users.

PacketStream: Final words

PacketStream is among the most affordable residential IP providers in terms of price per GB, although the minimum purchase is worth $50. This makes it ideal for individual users or small businesses that require rotating and static proxies for mundane online activities. Having said that, enterprises will probably find it lacking for any large-scale data scraping needs. Besides, it lacks the more reliable datacenter and ISP proxies and has limited customer support.

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