Step Aside, Switch Pro – The Orion Upswitch Wants To Turn Your Switch Into A Handheld TV

The Switch OLED model’s arrival gave us a bit of a bump in screen size, which is useful both for the quality of the screen and to make games / UI text a little easier to see. Yet we’ve stumbled across a quirky product that goes to the next level, and then some – Switch Pro, anyone?

The video above is a pitch video from August, though an Indiegogo campaign only launched last week and has attracted around 60 backers. It’s also popping up on retailers like GameStop with shipments expected in early December, though it’s actually less expensive via the Indiegogo page.

So what is it, and why is it a few hundred dollars? At its core it’s a 1080p 11.6″ monitor, which has a big ol’ battery of its own, speakers and even a Kickstand. Though it can be used with other devices through its inputs, its primary function is for the Switch, with Joy-Con rails and an integrated ‘dock’. It effectively gives you docked Switch performance ‘on the go’.

Ever since the release of the Nintendo Switch®, more than 80 million gamers globally have made gaming on the go a huge part of their daily ritual. Unfortunately, many of these gamers also believe that this handheld gaming experience is a bit underwhelming because of the miniscule size of the current Nintendo Switch® screen. That’s why the team at Up-Switch created the all-new ORION™ for gamers craving a larger and more immersive gaming experience without giving up portability. By increasing your actual gaming screen size by 188% and upgrading your audio experience with the integrated stereo speakers, your Nintendo Switch® combined with ORION will deliver the gaming experience that every gamer deserves!

It’s an interesting take to promote this as a great portable / mobile option, as it’s rather hefty. Our incredulity and joking aside, however, this sort of thing could be genuinely useful for short-sighted players.

It’s a beast, in any case; something tells us Nintendo’s next Switch iteration won’t be quite this big.