OnePlus’s first attempt at a gaming Android phone is a complete mess

Handheld gaming has transformed in its shape and size in the past couple of years. The days of adding flashing lights to a phone’s back and calling it a gaming phone have been rightfully left behind. They have made way for actually useful gaming features you would want on a portable gaming machine, whether a phone or a Steam Deck–like dedicated device.

OnePlus also wanted to do something like this with its upcoming Ace 6 Ultra smartphone. It has a snap-on controller that aims to give you physical, tactile button-like feedback. While it might seem promising at first glance, I can say — without even touching the phone yet — that the approach feels futile. It’s one step forward and two steps back.

The competition knows what it’s doing

We have seen a dedicated handheld gaming hardware boom in the last couple of years, and these devices come with a very clear idea of how they want you to experience gaming on the go. While many mainstream PC brands jumped on the bandwagon, the general design philosophy remains similar: a screen in the middle, flanked by grips with tactile joysticks, paddles, and shoulder buttons, just like a PS5 controller. It didn’t introduce a novel way of gaming, but brought the same experience you were used to on a bigger console in your living room to a portable one. That’s it.

Smartphones, on the other hand, have tried a lot of variations of high-end gaming to deliver a similar console-like experience wherever you go. I feel the most successful and practical approach comes from the controller add-ons available for the ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro. It’s a Nintendo-like, two-part controller that attaches to the phone from the sides, offering the full breadth of tactile controls you expect from a real gaming controller. It makes zero compromises to the gaming experience compared to dedicated handheld consoles.

But if carrying these extra attachments feels cumbersome and you prefer the idea of pulling out your phone and instantly gaming, Xiaomi’s POCO F4 GT pulled off a clever solution back in the day. It offers physical shoulder buttons built into the phone itself that pop out when you need them and retract when you’re done. It may not be as ideal as a full-blown controller, but it’s perfect for people sitting between casual and die-hard gaming.

Compared to these, the OnePlus Ace 6 Ultra feels like a confused mess.

Where’s the other half of the controller?

This new OnePlus phone is a regular phone trying to market itself as a gaming phone. If OnePlus wanted, it could have used POCO’s approach to offer built-in physical shoulder buttons for gaming enthusiasts and portrayed it as an actual gaming-first phone. Instead, it has taken a longer route to create a custom, snap-on controller attachment that feels half-baked — literally.

If you look at the phone’s marketing photos (above), you’ll see that the controller snaps onto the back of the phone and matches it in size. So, while it offers back buttons and paddles, on the front, you are still tapping your thumb on a slab of glass — there is no D-pad or joystick to use. It’s as if the entire front half of a controller is missing, leaving you with just the rear half. If you’re coming from a proper controller, this will seriously mess with your muscle memory.

It might seem like a minor adjustment, but in a high-stakes, fast-paced match where your performance affects your entire team, even small differences in thumb movement can make or break the experience. And we all know how high the stakes can feel in virtual battlefields!

My issue with this snap-on controller lies in its very concept, and that extends to the cost factor too. While we don’t have exact pricing yet, it’s safe to assume that OnePlus will sell this as an add-on to extract extra value beyond the phone itself. If this custom accessory, which works only with this specific phone, ends up costing as much as a proper controller, why would anyone choose this incomplete solution over a real controller that pairs with your phone?

One might argue that a full controller setup is ergonomically cumbersome because you’ll now have to find a place to put the phone. But there are plenty of mounts available that solve exactly this problem, offering a rather complete portable gaming setup.

The OnePlus Ace 6 Ultra doesn’t look like a dedicated gaming phone, and it’s not even trying to be one. That leaves it stuck in an awkward middle ground. Without its add-on, it’s just another upper mid-range Android phone, and with the attachment, the experience still wouldn’t feel complete.

If I’m an infrequent gamer, I’d just pick up any solid mid-range handset and call it a day. If I am more into mobile gaming and also care about portability, the POCO approach makes sense as a practical middle ground. But if I want to go all-in on portable gaming, there are far more complete and dedicated solutions than the OnePlus Ace 6 Ultra offers. Its biggest problem is that it doesn’t fit into any of those boxes — and in trying to do everything, it ends up falling flat on its biggest promise.