Admit it, even with a shiny new Galaxy Nexus or DROID RAZR or iPhone 4S, you’re still a little jealous of the humble Sony XPERIA Play’s physical controls. Soon enough you won’t have to be, the Gametel Bluetooth controller emulates the experience pretty perfectly, and works with almost any Android phone and iOS device. Slide the phone into the gripper, connect it via Bluetooth and boom, you’ve got classic physical controls at your fingertips.

If you think it looks slightly similar to the controller on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, well you’re right. Basically, there’s the directional pad on the left, four buttons on the right, and two shoulder buttons for additional input hidden behind the device. Gametel is compatible with both iOS and Android devices, though you’ll need Android 2.1 and above and Apple iOS 4.0 OS and above for the smartphones.

Gametel also comes with a built-in battery offering 9 hours of gameplay on a single charge via a standard microUSB port.

As for supported games, Gametel’s website has a list of them, and they’ll be the same for any Bluetooth game controller, because they’re all using the same method to communicate with the smartphone or tablet. (They’re all just mimicking keyboard input.) Because of this, I expect more game developers will start supporting physical buttons, creating a platform within a platform for button-based games.

The device is available now in the U.K. for about GBP50 and expects to make it to the U.S. soon. Lund, Sweden-based Fructel designs and manufactures the product.

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