I love a weird little gaming accessory, particularly when it solves a problem I didn't realise was annoying until someone actually fixes it, and 8BitDo's new FlipPad is one of those neat new gadgets. It's a tiny USB-C gamepad that turns your phone into a portrait-style handheld, complete with a proper D-pad and ABXY buttons, and then, neatly, you can just flip the whole thing out of the way when you need your phone back. If you don't want to buy one of the best retro games consoles and play on your phone, this is a smart little phone accessory.
This new little gadget aims to solve one of phone gaming's biggest frustrations: when someone calls mid-game, and you have a controller attached, you have to wrestle with it to get to your messages and calls. As the name suggests, the FlipPad's answer is basically to, well… just flip it down. Okay, so there’s a small part of me that loves how we’re heading back to the ‘90s with accessories like this, and I remember clicking on lights and magnifiers to my Game Boy in much the same way. And that’s part of the appeal, for me anyway.
The new gadget is built around portrait gaming, which makes it different to something like the GameSir X5 Lite or Backbone One controller, which simply turns your handset into a tiny landscape console. The FlipPad sits alongside your phone and gives you a physical D-pad and ABXY buttons, so retro games, arcade titles and controller-supported mobile games can be played with something a bit more tactile than virtual buttons. In some ways it’s more akin to the Evercade TATE Grip that turns the EXP-R retro game console vertically.
FlipPad is a return to physical buttons
The FlipPad appeals because touchscreen controls and virtual buttons just don’t feel the same as pressing actual buttons; it’s one of the reasons I keep picking up the newest retro handheld, the Sinclair GamerCard: its rubber discs may be a little weird, but they just feel good. FlipPad is aiming for something similar, and it’s a design I feel could be perfect for playing retro games on a phone.
8BitDo has gone for a wired USB-C connection too, so there's no Bluetooth pairing and, according to the company, no wireless connection dropouts or latency to worry about. Plug it in and play, which is pretty much what you want from a phone accessory. It's also small enough to carry around, doesn't need its own battery or charger, and is designed to work with most phone cases, so you shouldn't have to strip your phone down every time you fancy a quick game.
The FlipPad launches today for £24.99. It works with iOS 26.2 or later and Android 13.0 or later.
