abxylute is back on Kickstarter with two phone controllers, the M6 and the M5, and I pre-ordered both together in the early bird bundle. I’ll use them with both phones I carry: my personal iPhone, which I keep for a year or two, and my work Android, which I swap out regularly to try new ones. And yes, the N6 absolutely played into the decision. It was because of abxylute, the company: the N6 is one of my favorite Switch 2 controllers so far. That doesn’t mean I’m taking this campaign at face value, though.
What abxylute is promising
Both controllers use the same basic idea. The phone attaches to a MagSafe-style magnetic plate on a damped rail, and sliding it up reveals the sticks and buttons beneath, a little like the Xperia Play or PSP Go. The magnetic plate can be moved left or right to suit different camera bumps, both come with an adhesive magnetic ring for phones without MagSafe, and both include detachable magnetic grips for longer sessions, according to the campaign page. Both support Switch, Xbox-style and PlayStation controller modes, turbo and four-level rumble, with abxylute’s app for remapping.
Where they differ is power and connection. The M6 is the wireless one, with Bluetooth, a battery, gyro, Hall effect triggers and capacitive sticks, a newer stick type abxylute developed with a partner and describes as drift-free. The M5 plugs straight into a USB-C phone, so it has no battery to charge and lets you charge the phone while playing, but it uses smaller sliding sticks and microswitch triggers.
| abxylute M6 | abxylute M5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Connection | Bluetooth 5.3 | Wired USB-C |
| Phones | iPhone and Android | USB-C iPhone and Android |
| Battery | 500 mAh, up to 10 hours | None; charges your phone while you play |
| Sticks | Capacitive, 20-degree throw, clickable | Low-profile sliding sticks |
| Triggers | Hall effect, 5.5 mm travel | Microswitch |
| Extras | Gyro, Z macro button, ambient lighting | Dedicated LS and RS buttons |
| Weight | 191 g | About 170 g |
| Early bird / list | $65 / $89.99 | $59 / $84.99 |
Price and delivery
The early bird pledges are $65 for the M6, $59 for the M5 and about $110 for both, plus flat-rate shipping of $10 for one unit, $18 for two or $25 for three. abxylute lists retail prices of $89.99 and $84.99. A limited green M5 Founder’s Edition is also available. The campaign runs until November 15, and when I checked on October 10 it had raised about $147,000 from more than 1,500 backers against a token goal. Android Authority covered the launch.
abxylute estimates delivery in November 2026 for the M6 and December 2026 for the M5 and any bundle that includes it, which means my bundle is a December estimate. The M6 date falls in the same month the campaign ends, and the campaign’s own timeline shows the M5 only reaching tooling in September.
The magnet question
A slide-out phone controller is only as good as the magnet holding your phone. abxylute’s previous phone controller, the M4, ran into exactly that problem: Retro Dodo’s review found the magnetic hold unreliable, with the phone coming loose from small bumps, and did not recommend it. For the M6 and M5, abxylute claims a magnetic hold of up to 4,098 gram-force, against the 2,500 to 3,500 it lists for Apple’s MagSafe.
That is a company figure, measured by abxylute and shown in a campaign graphic, and no one outside the company has tested it on retail hardware yet. It is the first claim I would want proven.
abxylute’s track record
abxylute does ship, but rarely on time. The M4 campaign estimated December 2025 delivery, and abxylute posted that all rewards had shipped on March 26, 2026, according to its campaign updates. My N6 started shipping on May 12, 2026, about a month after its April estimate, per the N6 campaign. The 3D ONE handheld began shipping about two months late, Notebookcheck reported, and the N9C from the same campaign as my N6, estimated for June 2026, had still not shipped as of abxylute’s August update.
None of that is unusual for crowdfunded hardware, and the N6 I received is excellent. It does mean November and December are best read as hopeful dates.
The MCON came first
The idea of a pocketable magnetic phone controller is not new. OhSnap’s MCON launched on Kickstarter in January 2025 and passed $1 million in eight days, according to OhSnap. It raised about $1.5 million from around 16,000 backers and reached retail in January 2026, as OhSnap announced. It sold for $99 on Kickstarter and $149.99 afterwards, per Retro Handhelds.
abxylute’s M4 followed on Kickstarter in November 2025, and the M6 and M5 now bring the same magnetic, pocketable approach at well under half the MCON’s retail price. The M6 and M5 are different designs in the details, with their slide-out rail and full-size buttons, but the concept and the timing are hard to miss.
Backed, but not fooled
I was tracking the MCON from the very beginning, and I saw that whole journey. So to me, it really does feel like abxylute is just taking that idea and its origin story and undercutting it. Now, the thing is, I do like abxylute’s products, and I like their value proposition. So I still went for it. I’m just not fooled by them simply coming out of nowhere with this one.
