REVIEW – Do you find it easy to play action games on your iPhone with onscreen touch controls, or do you prefer a physical controller? If you answered that you prefer a physical controller, you will want to read this review of the Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY. Let’s go!
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $24.99 (pre-order price – $39.99 regular price)
Where to buy: Bitmo Lab
What is it?
The Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY is a combination case and gaming controller for the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
What’s included?
- Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY case/controller
- User manual
Tech specs
- Available for iPhone 15 Pro Max or 16 Pro Max
- Works without battery or Bluetooth
- Requires the Delta iOS emulator available from App Store
- Currently only works with Nintendo ROM files
Design and features
The GAMEBABY is a two-piece plastic iPhone case with a distinct Nintendo Game Boy vibe. If you don’t like Yellow, you’ll be sorely disappointed because, as far as I can tell, that’s the only color this case is available in.
The Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY does not require batteries, charging, WiFi, or Bluetooth to work. So it does have that going for it.
As mentioned, the case has two pieces that snap together at the sides.
When you’re not playing games, the GAMEBABY looks like an ordinary case…
It has built-in clickable buttons on the side for the Action and volume buttons.
The opposite side has a power button and a camera button cutout.
There are cutouts on the bottom of the case for the speaker and USB-C port.
Let’s look closer at the bottom half of the case with the game buttons. The buttons are made of soft silicone, with a metal core that is visible on the top surface where your thumbs press.
On the inside, the metal is covered with some type of conductive plastic. Think of the buttons like tiny flat capacitive styluses.
Pressing the button from the top side of the case causes it to make contact with the screen over the game’s built-in touch control.
But if you aren’t careful, the edge of the buttons can get wedged under the plastic…
Let’s play!
The first thing you have to do is download the free Delta emulator app from the App store. Then you have to download some game ROMs. Note that the Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY’s controller only supports the Nintendo controller layout. So you’ll need to find Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, DS, NES, and Super NES ROMs. Finding and downloading ROMs is not going to be discussed because it’s kind of illegal if you don’t already own the game cartridges. But you can find the ROMs with a little creative searching. Nuff said.
Once you have a ROM or three, you can unclip the bottom of the GAMEBABY and then slide it on the front of the iPhone. I found it really difficult to unclip the bottom of the GAMEBABY from the top half of the case so I just used the controller part all by itself.
The GAMEBABY sides on and off easily and takes up almost the whole bottom half of the iPhone.
I tried the controller with several classic Game Boy games like Prince of Persia, Tetris, and Pacman. It worked semi-well. Sometimes it would take a few presses before a press would be recognized. I attribute this to the fact that I have dry fingertips. I have always had issues with fingerprint sensors on smartphones and other devices and I think that might be why I also had issues using this gaming controller. If I lubed up my hands (fingertips) with lotion, I could play just fine, but once my thumbtips dried out again, the problems cropped back up.
Final thoughts
The Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY is a cool accessory and I love that someone took the time to design something so unique. While it didn’t work out that great for me, I think others would absolutely love to play with it. It really does take me back to the days of playing games on my Game Boy. Fun times!
What I like about Bitmo Lab GAMEBABY
- Simple to use
- No batteries or charging needed
- Affordable
What needs to be improved?
- Buttons can get stuck under the case
- If you have dry fingertips, you probably won’t like this controller
Price: $24.99 (pre-order price – $39.99 regular price)
Where to buy: Bitmo Lab
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Bitmo Lab. Bitmo Lab did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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