GameSir G8 vs. Backbone One vs. Razer Kishi V2 vs. REDMAGIC Shadow Blade 2: Comparison and Reviews 2024

One color option: white

One color option: black

One color option: black

One color option: black

4. Design & Features

On either side of your phone, the G8 adds the full-size rounded grips that every Xbox and PlayStation gamer is accustomed to. Everyone’s experience with comfort and ergonomics will be a bit different, Someone says that having a larger gripping surface for my palm is essential for accuracy with the thumbsticks. The overall layout should feel familiar to anyone who’s used an Xbox Series controller. You’ll find full-range thumbsticks on the upper left and lower right, ABXY face buttons, start/options buttons, a D-pad, shoulder bumpers, and smooth triggers. For supreme accuracy and resistance to drift, GameSir has even opted for Hall effect sensors on the sticks and triggers.

Alongside that standard set, there are also a handful of extra buttons. The backside has a pair of paddles that can be customized with or without the GameSir app (more on that later). The bottom left hosts a screenshot shortcut and a memory/mode button, while the bottom right has a home button that can also be used for some clever gestures. For example, holding home and pressing up or down on the D-pad will adjust your phone’s volume. On the underside, GameSir has included a 3.5 mm headphone port as well as a USB-C port for passthrough charging.

Source:gamesir.hk

By default, the GameSir G8 Galileo comes in a color scheme that is strongly reminiscent of the original Super Nintendo controller, featuring a light-gray body, dark-gray D-Pad, and two shades of purple for the ABXY buttons. You can somewhat tweak the design to your liking, though, as the controller features magnetic faceplates that are easily removable (but not loose enough to accidentally pop off). Once the faceplate is off, you can also pull up either of the thumbsticks to swap for one of the alternate sizes included in the box. You can drop down to a smaller size reminiscent of the GameCube’s C-stick, a larger design with concentric circles, or one that simply has a taller stem.

The majority of the G8 Galileo’s customization is easily accessible in the (mostly optional) GameSir app. From there, it only takes a few taps to swap the face buttons between Xbox (ABXY) and Nintendo (BAYX) layouts, recalibrate the sticks and triggers, and remap the back paddles. There are even options for turbo buttons and hairpin triggers.

The Backbone One is aptly named due to its dog bone-shape. It features two independent sides of the controller, each roughly the size of a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controller, held together by an expandable middle section. With a sliding and rigid backplate, you place your iPhone in its center, slotting the charging port into the Backbone One’s Lightning connector, giving traditional dual-stick-and-face-button control on either side of your horizontally-mounted smartphone. By using the Lightning connector, there’s no need to pair nor charge the Backbone One – your phone will recognise the controller automatically, while the Backbone will draw power from the phone itself. Power draw is minimal too – less than you’d see if you were using a cabled pair of headphones similarly using that Lightning port.

If you’re an Xbox gamer, you’ll be familiar with the button and stick layout here. Analogue sticks (complete with clickable buttons) are positioned asymmetrically, with face buttons in an A, B, X,Y configuration. You’ll also find a D-Pad below the left analogue stick, shoulder and trigger buttons, and a selection of menu, options and screenshot buttons, as well as an orange ‘Backbone’ button that jumps back to the accompanying app’s interface.

Ergonomically, the Backbone is comfortable to hold – albeit better suited for smaller hands. It’s extremely lightweight, weighing just 138g. It has a slightly bulbous base on each side of the controller that evenly distributes the weight and doesn’t make the unit feel top-heavy while playing. It also features a matte black finish with a slight sheen to it that unfortunately picks up a lot of fingerprints.There are two offset analog sticks in total, one on each side of the controller. They are smaller and a bit stiff, and the closest comparison I can make in terms of how they feel are the analog sticks on Joy-Con controllers. There’s a surprisingly good D-pad just below the left analog stick taking the shape of a rounded plus sign. It’s not clicky like everything else on the controller, but instead almost silent with a satisfying press.

Source:playbackbone.com

The Razer Kishi V2’s predecessor used a Joy-Con style controller that splits apart, the Kishi V2 opts for a Backbone-style extendable bridge design. This makes it much easier to fit a larger phone into the controller but is less portable than the collapsible design of the original Kishi. Nevertheless, sacrificing portability in favor of more compatibility is a good trade-off for most people – you’ll just likely want to invest in a travel case.

At just 123 grams, the Kishi V2 is lighter than both the original Kishi and the Backbone One. Hand fatigue is a common problem with portable gaming, so having a lighter device is a plus as it extends your gameplay session without worrying about hand cramping. The Kishi V2 ships with multiple adapters to help it fit a wide variety of phones.

The Kishi V2 features a standard A, B, X, and Y button layout on the top right. The buttons feel clicky and are enjoyable to press. The microswitches make a pleasant clicky sound that is not at all obnoxious, and pressing each button offers a nice little tactile bump that feels rewarding to press.

Four additional buttons are on the front of the controller: a Share button (for screenshots and gameplay recording), a Menu button, an Options Button, and a Razer Nexus button, which allows you to launch the free Razer Nexus app.

Source:razer.com

The design of the Red Magic Shadow Blade 2 emphasizes practicality and comfort. It comes with interchangeable magnetic faceplates, allowing players to customize according to their preferences and needs. Additionally, the controller supports the swapping of ABXY keys, enabling players to adapt flexibly to different gaming control styles. Moreover, the Red Magic Shadow Blade 2 provides three types of joystick caps for the Hall-effect joystick, allowing players to customize functions based on their usage habits and gameplay.

The Hall-effect joystick of the Red Magic Shadow Blade 2 performs exceptionally well. It claims to achieve characteristics such as zero drift, zero dead zone, high smoothness, high wear-resistant capacity, and durability, with a built-in self-developed algorithm IC and a lifespan of 5 million uses. This undoubtedly provides players with a more precise and smooth gaming experience.On the interface front, the Red Magic Shadow Blade 2 is equipped with a zero-latency wired Type-C interface, allowing players to enjoy a smoother gaming experience. The angle of this interface is adjustable, and it adopts a charging separation design that supports "play while charging," eliminating concerns about battery issues during gameplay. Furthermore, the Red Magic Shadow Blade 2 is equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack for convenient connection to players' headphones, enhancing the immersive gaming experience.

Source:na.redmagic.gg

5. Compatibility

These four gamepads are compatible with Android and Apple phones, but not all models.

6. Software

If GameSir excels on the hardware front, it’s merely adequate when it comes to the software provision. The downloadable GameSir app to be a little flaky in a number of ways, from failing to recognise the controller at all on iOS (though it still worked fine in controller-supported games) to receiving confusing pop-ups and momentary unresponsiveness.

The app itself broadly resembles the chunky image-heavy layout of the Backbone app, only much less polished. Basic navigation seems a little clunky with the controller, with too much loaded onto the left analogue stick instead of the trigger buttons. It’s generally better to just use the touchscreen.

Tapping on one of the games from the recommended section (which features streaming services as well as the relevant app store) will initially flash it up in Mandarin text before quickly snapping to the English translation. Meanwhile, the menu screens outside the main UI are a little clunky, with help sections exhibiting weirdly squashed fonts and typos.

The official Backbone app offers a slick, intuitive interface to genuinely make your smartphone feel like a console. Keeping all your Xbox (via Microsoft's streaming service), Google Stadia, and iOS titles next to each other streamlines your mobile gaming experience in a way that few other controllers replicate and all in gorgeous high quality. While game chat, groups, and screenshots aren't going to be the deciding factor for some, their smooth implementation is the cherry on top.

Backbone offers a reliable gaming hub and useful features like an in-app friend system that lets you add other Backbone users and set up voice chat rooms. The paid subscription service Backbone+ adds even more features, such as the option to connect an Android device using a Lightning-to-USB-C cable or capture gameplay at 1080p at 60FPS.

The Kishi V2 has a free software app called Nexus – a dashboard that lets you launch games installed on your phone, spotlight other Kishi-compatible games, and is necessary to remap those two extra programmable buttons. The Nexus app also includes a feature that lets you seamlessly start a live stream on YouTube or Facebook.

Nexus is one of the worst parts of the Kishi V2, and most users often avoided it. Although the app allowed users to launch theri installed games easily, its inconsistent and sluggish performance made the software feel like it’s in early access. The images for installed games on Nexus are low-resolution and blurry, and the Nexus button on the controller did not work no matter how many times when pressed it.

Goper is an application developed for RedMagic mobile game peripherals, providing services such as quick connection to game peripherals and setting device parameters. But someone says that he can't seem to get REDMAGIC's Goper app to work on the gamepad.

7. Performance and Gaming Experience

The GameSire G8 Galileo - from the impeccably constructed, full-sized nature of the hand-holds to the quality of the controls, it feels and responds very much like a console controller. Those high-quality (and full-sized) Hall Effect analogue sticks offer more precision in 3D action games than the BackBone One. Meanwhile, the D-pad is nice and precise for fast-paced 2D fare.

It passed the Dead Cells test with flying colours, with Motion Twin’s quick and fluid roguelite Metroidvania proving as responsive here as it does on console. Similarly, it worked great with Resident Evil 4 Remake on the iPhone 15 Pro. Wreckfest, meanwhile, feels every inch the glorious console racing game that it was meant to be when experienced through the G8 Galileo.

Though it isn’t immediately apparent, you can switch between three different gaming modes (iPhone and PS Remote Play, Android, and touchscreen games) by holding the two top menu buttons down. The latter mode lets you map physical controls even with games that don’t technically support USB-C controllers, such as COD Mobile and Genshin Impact.

Whether you’re using the Backbone exclusively for playing mobile games, playing or streaming games remotely over Wi-Fi, or a mix of both, this controller feels right at home. It works with more than 1,300 mobile games on iOS that support a controller as well as PlayStation Remote Play, Xbox Remote Play, Steam Link, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, Nvidia GeForce Now, Shadow, and Rainway.

There was virtually no latency using any of the buttons, sticks, or triggers on the controller, with everything feeling quick and responsive. Since the Backbone doesn’t feature its own built-in rumble, it instead makes clever use of the iPhone’s haptic feedback and makes it feel like it’s vibrating both sides of the controller. This is a welcome addition as most iOS controllers don’t have built-in rumble, yet having that extra sensation definitely increases immersion.

Playing games remotely from PS5 and Xbox Series X, as well as gaming PC all felt great on the Backbone, as well. Aside from minor internet-related latency issues, all the controls were responsive. This feels like a worthy successor to the PlayStation Vita for playing games remotely, and being able to play console games on the couch while watching TV or while lying in bed felt extremely comfortable.The location of the Backbone button and screenshot buttons are great, but pressing the options and menu buttons in-game can be a bit uncomfortable as they force your thumb into an awkward angle. This is especially prevalent when using Remote Play functionality for PlayStation and Xbox as these buttons become used more frequently.

Overall, playing games on the Backbone was enjoyable. Switching between native iPhone games and Remote Play options was seamless, with everything filtered through the Backbone app.

The Razer Kishi V2 is powered by the Razer Nexus app, where you can customize the macro buttons as well as utilize the virtual controller functionality for games that don’t support native controllers (like COD: Mobile, PUBG, Genshin Impact etc). Besides that, however, the app offers little else of value.

The virtual controller works really well and configuring the various buttons with the Nexus’ overlay layout is pretty easy. However, you must keep in mind that you will have to launch games using the Nexus app for the virtual controller to work, and turn off any “game booster” settings and applications on your mobile device for proper compatibility.

Once you are in the game, a small icon will float above the screen which you can tap to bring forth the virtual controller options. Here, you can place specific buttons or input your own and then place these virtual buttons anywhere on the screen you like. It also allows you to resize them to make it larger or smaller depending on your preference. You can also make the virtual buttons entirely transparent so they aren’t always on the screen once you have the game mapped out.

In two games, COD: Mobile and Genshin Impact, and everything worked just as expected with each button responding just as well as it would if I had tapped the screen. For games that do support native controllers, the Kishi V2 required absolutely no configuration whatsoever.

The only place where the device falters are with the Switch-like joysticks. They are flat, small and have little range of motion, which means that FPS games in particular, can be a pain to play as aiming with these joysticks proved to be a little bit difficult. You can, possibly, learn to manage them after a few hours of use but they will never provide the same quality of control and precise aiming as a full-bodied controller joystick would. Thankfully, the Nexus app allows you to adjust the deadzone of both the sticks, so it does provide some help in making the joysticks somewhat usable. For third-person games like Genshin Impact, however, the controller proved to be a fine experience and I had no problems moving the camera around or aiming with it.