Mobile controllers have always forced an annoying choice: something slim enough to pocket that feels like a toy, or something that feels great and turns your phone into a brick. Abxylute thinks it has fixed that with the M6 and M5, two sliding phone controllers that hit Kickstarter today with Early Bird pricing starting at $59. One goes all-in on features, the other on thinness, and both slide out from behind your phone instead of clamping around it.
What's new
The M6 and M5 come from Abxylute, the company behind the One Pro Android handheld, working with Jinjiang, a self-taught hardware creator from Guiyang, China. Jinjiang's videos documenting his attempt to build an ultra-slim mobile controller drew over three million views, according to Abxylute, and that's what got the company's attention.
The idea they landed on is a sliding structure built around a large magnetic phone mount. Both controllers support three modes: XInput for Android games, cloud gaming, and remote play; NS mode for a Nintendo Switch-style layout; and PS mode for iPhone games or a PlayStation layout.
Why it matters
Phone gaming has quietly become a real alternative to dedicated handhelds, between cloud services, remote play, and emulators. I've spent time with setups like the Serafim S3, and even OnePlus decided its Ace 6 Ultra needed a $65 companion controller. The demand is clearly there.
What's been missing is something you'd actually carry every day. A sliding design that tucks behind the phone could mean the controller lives in your bag permanently instead of in a drawer, and splitting the range into two models lets you decide what you're willing to give up for portability.
Key details
M6: the full-featured option
The M6 is the one for players who want a proper controller experience. It uses a damped slide rail supported on both sides, and connects over Bluetooth 5.3 or wired USB-C if you'd rather avoid any chance of lag.
Abxylute says its capacitive thumbsticks eliminate stick drift, and they offer 20 degrees of movement, which the company claims beats many rival console controllers. The Hall effect linear triggers include a Hair Trigger Mode that shortens travel for faster actuation in shooters and racers.
There's also a Z button on the face that defaults to L3 but can be remapped to R3 or any action button, or used to fire off multi-step macros. Rounding things out are four levels of adjustable vibration, a 6-axis gyro for motion controls, and a 500mAh battery that Abxylute rates at up to 10 hours of play.
M5: the slim one
The M5 trades features for thickness, measuring just 8.5mm at its thinnest point. It drops Bluetooth entirely and connects over USB-C only, which Abxylute says means ultra-low latency, no pairing, and no battery to charge. It also supports pass-through charging, so you can top up your phone while you play.
It still keeps the essentials. You get low-profile carbon-film thumbsticks, clickable L3 and R3 buttons, programmable macros, a z-axis linear motor for vibration, and tactile switch triggers that Abxylute describes as precise and durable.
Phone compatibility and the mount
Both controllers use an adjustable magnetic mount that Abxylute says fits a wide range of phones, including the iPhone 18 series, Galaxy S26, Pixel 11, OnePlus 15, and Xiaomi 17. If your phone doesn't support MagSafe, there's a magnetic adhesive ring in the box.
According to Abxylute, both use a bidirectional damped slide rail built to carry a phone and case weighing up to around 300g, held in place by up to 4,098gf of magnetic force. The M5 weighs around 170g and the M6 191g, and at 149.5mm and 148.9mm wide respectively, they're roughly the width of a large phone.
Shared features and the app
Both controllers ship with a magnetic grip attachment for longer sessions, which feels like a smart concession for anyone with bigger hands. They also pair with the free abxy app on Android and iOS, which acts as a launcher for your games, emulators, and cloud services, while letting you tweak stick sensitivity, trigger travel, deadzones, and lighting.
The M6 gets one extra trick in the app: touchscreen mapping built into the controller's firmware. You drag on-screen controls onto physical buttons, and profiles can be shared with other players, which could be handy for touch-only games that never bothered adding controller support.
Founder's Edition and pricing
Early backers can also grab an M5 Founder's Edition in translucent green, with a badge that can be customized with any two letters. CEO Donald Zhang says the goal was to challenge the trade-off between portability and a bulky console-style footprint.
Here's how pricing breaks down on Kickstarter:
- M6: $65 Early Bird, $69 regular Kickstarter price ($89.99 MSRP)
- M5: $59 Early Bird, $65 regular Kickstarter price ($84.99 MSRP)
The campaign runs until November 15, and it has already blown past its funding goal more than 25 times over, with over 350 backers in its first few hours. You can find the Kickstarter campaign here.
Takeaway
If you play a lot of cloud or remote titles and want gyro, wireless, and anti-drift sticks, the M6 at $65 looks like the stronger buy on paper. The M5 makes more sense if pocketability matters most and you're happy plugging straight into a USB-C phone, though anyone who wants to play wirelessly should skip it.
As with any Kickstarter, it'll be worth seeing how the slide rails and capacitive sticks hold up in real-world use, especially with heavier phones hanging off that magnetic mount. Based on what's confirmed so far, these are two of the more thoughtful takes on phone controllers I've seen this year, and we can't wait to get them in hand.
