Convenient: AURGA Viewer streams switch to tablets and laptops, but how well does it work?

The namesake feature of Nintendo’s hybrid console might already have been the Key factor for continued success. The ability of the switch, well, Switch means it fits seamlessly into any lifestyle, whatever your situation, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t use cases it’s not entirely suited to. For our part – and especially in the OLED days before the Switch – we’ve often wished we could use our laptop screen or even play through a tablet to increase the screen size over the Switch’s screen in tabletop mode. We’re surrounded by big screens in the office, but we can’t play on as many of them as we’d like.

This is where the AURGA Viewer comes into play. Described as a 5-in-1 HDMI wireless streaming transmitter, when coupled with the required app, it turns your phone, tablet or laptop screen into a wireless display for whatever content you want to throw at it via Bluetooth 4.1 . By broadcasting a 1080p/60Hz signal, you can turn your iPad into a second monitor, for example, but for our purposes it’s the ability to output your docked Switch to those screens that’s the draw. Devices like the Genki Shadowcast offer similar features for Switch gamers, but with Aurga quickly breaking through its original Kickstarter goal, we were curious to see how this option fared.

Aurga – the Hong Kong-based company behind the device – cites various use cases for its eponymous viewer that Switch owners might find appealing, but gaming on a phone just isn’t worth the effort given the Switch’s perfectly usable 720p screen, quite not to mention the nice panel of the Switch OLED.

Aurga kindly sent us an early sample unit with a non-final power converter for testing. As you can see from the photos on this page, the dongle itself is powered by an adapter that sits between the power slot and the switch’s power supply. We couldn’t close the back door on our Switch dock with this setup installed, although a planned redesign will switch USB-A to USB-C. Likewise, the current setup isn’t physically compatible (at least not conveniently) with the Switch OLED dock.

Once installed and powered, the dongle becomes a wireless hotspot and you simply plug in your device before launching Aurga’s iOS or Android app (we’ll get to Windows in a moment). You can connect through a router if you prefer, although the hotspot option gives the best results in terms of latency. The app’s interface itself is clean and intuitive, with various gestures to navigate the menu in full-screen mode.

With everything hooked up and running, we launched Sonic Origins for a blast through Sonic 1. As with any streaming solution, most gamers savvy enough to get tech-savvy will have a question: how is the delay We couldn’t get exact measurements, but the results with the sample unit we tested were…mixed.

The initial results were perfectly playable, with synchronous gameplay and audio, and a relatively smooth and stable frame rate… However, a problem arose within a few minutes

While we could tell things weren’t quite as snappy on the iPad as we ran through the Green Hill Zone, early results were perfectly playable, with gameplay and audio in sync, and a relatively smooth and stable frame rate. Visually, it looked absolutely superb on the tablet; crisp and bright with no visible artifacts or blur.

However, a problem flared up within minutes. The frame rate got progressively worse, and a humming audio bug — which sounded like electronic “noise” — grew steadily until the app crashed. If you open the app right away, things look fine until the same one- or two-minute cycle starts again. This affected both tests on mobile devices (an iPhone SE of the second generation with iOS 16) and on tablets (an iPad Pro of the fourth generation with iOS 14.6). After speaking with the developer, they confirmed iOS issues and said an update is due very soon. Unfortunately, we were not able to test Android.

So not the best first impression! We persevered with our iPad, resetting and reconnecting everything multiple times. Next we moved on to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which ranged from passable at best to completely unplayable due to the same issue. You can connect multiple devices to the Aurga’s hotspot (which we did to snap a few pictures), but it’s not recommended for actual gameplay unless your Wi-Fi environment is terrific — ours is simply robust.

After troubleshooting, we gave up and opened up our laptop. Although not publicly available at the time of writing, we were able to test an early version of the Windows app. Thankfully, after some teething troubles, we were pleased to see things starting to work as advertised.

Given the convenience of Switch in its vanilla form, any device that expands its functionality needs to be similarly plug-and-play if it’s going to be successful

We reconnected to the Aurga’s hotspot and returned to the Green Hill Zone, and this time the game was perfectly playable with only the occasional hiccup. We were very conscious some Latency, but that’s an integral part of using streaming technology for games. We returned to Mario Kart 8 and lo and behold, our Waluigi stormed into first place with a very smooth and solid performance. Not perfect – that little snag here and there still has the power to annoy – but perfectly playable, with the streamed video not significantly hindering our enjoyment of the game.

Not wanting to spare the device on slower games, we threw something faster at it. Cuphead – which we expected the Aurga to struggle with – worked surprisingly well. The Aurga Viewer worked and had turned our laptop into a Switch screen, outputting the dock’s full 1080p very respectably. Praise be!

We slowed things down with Breath of the Wild, which was similarly impressive apart from a couple of instances where the image would slow down and then speed up. The desktop version performed admirably in our tests, feeling smooth and responsive for the most part. We also spent several hours playing Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova with the device for review and had little or no issues.

At least during this session. The next day we had trouble getting the PC program to run and when it did we saw framerate jitter that made the game all but unplayable. Obviously, the Windows app is in a beta stage, so problems like this are hardly unexpected, but combined with our iOS experience, it left a sour taste in our mouth. If we persevere we’re pretty sure we could replicate the perfect conditions again and have that good experience, but that brings us to the heart of the matter.

Given the convenience of Switch in its vanilla form, any device that expands its functionality needs to be similarly plug-and-play if it’s going to be successful. When players face it with a frustrated, “Oh crazy, I just play on the handheld” everything would be too easy. Given our time with this early example, we’d say that Aurga is fortunate that the applications for this device extend beyond gaming. Between the disappointments, we glimpsed the potential of the Aurga Viewer and managed a solid couple of hours of performance. However, the iOS mobile and tablet versions were not launchers and need to be addressed before launch. There is potential here under the right conditions.

“Irregular” is how we would describe our time with the Aurga Viewer. Assuming the significant iOS creases we experienced can be ironed out, thanks to the Windows app we’ve seen enough glimpses of redemption to still be interested, although our patience is waning. Ultimately, the effectiveness of this device – and your satisfaction – will depend on the type of games you play and your personal latency tolerance, although we generously assume it can fix any problems you’re experiencing. As with any streaming solution, locally or via the cloud, you should avoid playing Twitch Reflex titles or anything online. However, a slight lag is perfectly acceptable in many games – not optimalbut acceptable.

So the real question is, can Aurga fix things pre-launch in terms of iOS and make the Aurga Viewer plug-and-play enough to appeal to Switch owners who are used to the most convenient console the there is. While it might be perfectly usable in other areas, the jury is still out on its usefulness for gaming.

AURGA’s Kickstarter is running for a few more weeks at the time of writing. Many Thanks to them for providing the example of this function.