At just 8.5 mm (0.33 inches) thick, Abxylute's new M5 mobile controller ditches batteries and Bluetooth entirely in favor of a direct USB-C connection, making it one of the slimmest slide-on phone gamepads to date. It launched alongside the beefier M6 on Kickstarter on 2026-10-06, with both controllers designed to magnetically clamp around a phone and transform it into something resembling the old PSP Go form factor.
The M6 is the more compelling option for anyone running emulators or cloud gaming sessions. It packs Hall Effect linear triggers with roughly 5.5 mm of travel (including a hair-trigger mode), capacitive joysticks with about 20 degrees of movement, a 6-axis gyroscope for motion-enabled titles, and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless play across iOS and Android. A 500 mAh battery keeps it running untethered, and dual Z-axis linear vibration motors provide four-level haptic feedback, a genuine step up from the eccentric rotating mass motors found in most mobile controllers. The M5 trades all of that wireless hardware for its ultra-slim profile, keeping independent stick-press functionality and compact tactile shoulder buttons while drawing power directly from the phone.
Both controllers were born from feedback on the M4, Abxylute's pocket-sized MagSafe snap-on gamepad that earned praise for its portability but drew criticism for cramped controls. The M5 and M6 answer that with larger joysticks, fuller grips, and a sliding rail system rather than a magnetic snap-on. Attachment works via MagSafe on iPhones, Qi2 on compatible Android devices, or an included adapter ring for everything else. The project is also a collaboration between Abxylute and Jinjiang, a hardware tinkerer whose homemade slide controllers have racked up over three million views on YouTube.
Early bird pricing on Kickstarter puts the wired M5 at $59 (€54) and the wireless M6 at $65 (€60), with retail prices expected to land at $85 (€78) and $90 (€83) respectively once the campaign wraps in roughly 38 days.
