is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.
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As a retro gaming fan, I was thrilled when Apple opened its App Store to emulators in 2024, but I’ve yet to find a controller that makes me want to fully embrace retro gaming on my phone.
Clamp-on controllers like the Backbone Pro are a bit too bulky, and I don’t want to prop my phone up somewhere to use a standalone gamepad. The Abxylute M4 seemed exactly what I was looking for when it debuted a few months ago. It’s a compact wireless gamepad that uses a magnetic mount to attach to my iPhone. It’s a clever design, but one that’s let down by stiff thumbsticks and a magnetic mount that doesn’t always feel like it’s securely supporting my phone.
There are two components to the Abxylute M4: a retro-looking rectangular gamepad that connects to your smartphone over Bluetooth, and a Q-shaped mount that attaches the controller to your phone so it feels like you’re playing a handheld console. The mount is compatible with MagSafe iPhone models and the Google Pixel 10 Series. I primarily tested it with an iPhone 16 Pro, but Abxylute includes an adhesive metal ring you can stick to the back of any phone to make it compatible.
The M4’s magnetic mount can double as a smartphone stand using a ring-shaped kickstand.
The ring of magnets on the M4’s mount stuck to the back of my iPhone as securely as any MagSafe accessory or Qi2 charger I’ve ever used. It’s not going to come off until you want it to. It also features a smooth finish, allowing you to rotate the mount and attach the gamepad so that it completely hides behind your phone instead of hanging off the side. But the whole thing ends up being too bulky and thick to slip into a pocket, so I’ve been removing it entirely when not playing.
The M4 controller doesn’t protrude far enough from the bottom of a phone to play games in a portrait orientation. The M4 can be attached so it completely hides behind your phone. But you’ll need giant pockets to carry it around like this.
One limitation of the M4’s design is that when attached, it can only be used to play games in a landscape orientation. In a vertical mode, the controller doesn’t protrude far enough for all its controls to be accessible. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but as a decades-old Game Boy fan, I tend to prefer playing games vertically. Recently announced mobile controllers like the GameSir Pocket Taco and the 8BitDo FlipPad support that.
The mount attaches to the M4 controller using one of two magnetic connectors.
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