Turtle Beach's Atom Controller Turns Your iPhone Into A Switch-Like Handheld

Mobile gaming is more popular than ever, and it's only going to get bigger as cloud gaming expands, giving you access to console experiences on the go. But if you’re tired of tapping away at your iPhone screen to control the action or don't like carrying around a controller and clip to mount your phone, consider checking out the upcoming Turtle Beach Atom iOS Controller that’s now up for preorder at Amazon and Best Buy ahead of its September 10 release.

Turtle Beach Atom iOS Game Controller

$80

The Turtle Beach Atom was specifically designed for cloud gaming on iPhone. Its adjustable design allows it to fit all iPhone 11 models and newer, and it’s even large enough to accommodate phones with slim cases. Once your phone is secured in place, you’ll be able to dive into a companion app to customize the gamepad’s performance.

Preorder at Amazon

Preorder at Best Buy

As you’d expect, the Atom offers a full suite of buttons and triggers, including full-size thumbsticks, D-pad, bumpers, triggers, and face buttons. It also gets 20 hours of battery life on a single charge and can get back to 100% after less than three hours of charging.

Aside from the console-quality controls and companion app, the big selling point of the Atom is its design. Your phone sits in the center (turning your device into something similar to Switch or Steam Deck), but when you’re not using it, the two sides of the Atom magnetically connect to form a much smaller footprint--making it easy to toss in a bag before hitting the road.

It’s also been optimized for popular services like Xbox Game Pass, GeForce Now, and Steam Link, so all your favorite games should play great with the gamepad.

While the iOS version is currently up for preorder and expected to arrive on September 10, the Android version is already available. It offers many of the same features as this upcoming model and is currently available for $76.

The Atom certainly isn't the first controller of its kind for iPhone. The Backbone One currently leads the way for Switch-like controllers on iOS. Xbox and PlayStation editions are available for $100 each. Razer's Kishi V2 is another option for iOS users.