If you can't afford the Nintendo Switch 2, you're not alone, and you might already have the ultimate budget-friendly alternative.
It's not a Switch Lite or even the original Switch. It's your phone with cloud gaming. You may be scoffing at the lack of Mario Kart, but hear me out. I used to overlook my phone as a gaming device, too, until one game-changing accessory changed my mind. It might change your mind, too.
With cloud gaming and the perfect mobile controller, you can turn your phone into a surprisingly powerful handheld gaming device with better ergonomics than the Switch 2 and access to your PC game library.
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The Razer Kishi Ultra turns your phone into a cloud gaming beast
One of my biggest complaints about gaming on my phone used to be the awkward form factor.
Touch controls are generally a pain, phone clips on controllers are awkward, and propping up your phone to use with a controller requires you to be sitting at a table.
The Razer Kishi Ultra was the key to solving that problem and tapping into my phone's potential as the ultimate cloud gaming device.
This mobile controller connects via USB-C and snaps onto your phone in a Switch-like layout. However, unlike similar controllers like the Backbone, the Kishi Ultra features full-size, ergonomic grips equipped with tactile clicky buttons, similarly sized sticks, and even analog Hall Effect triggers. It also features haptic feedback and customizable RGB lighting strips.
The Kishi Ultra clipped onto my Nothing CMF Phone 1 is about the same size as my Switch Lite, but far more ergonomic with a larger game library and a better display.
There's a growing number of great mobile games out there, like the Netflix Gaming port of Death's Door, but you're not limited to that. I installed Nvidia GeForce Now on my phone and effectively turned it into a handheld gaming PC.
Through GeForce Now, I was able to access games from my Steam library and play them on my phone, which definitely doesn't have a secret RTX 3080 inside. You wouldn't know that from the performance I got, though.
I played Avowed on my phone with the Kishi Ultra through GeForce Now and got smooth, seamless performance with an average of 60 frames per second. That's a bit lower than what I'd get natively on my PC, but still a perfectly playable experience. The Razer Kishi Ultra worked flawlessly with GeForce Now, as well.
Cyberpunk 2077 ran great, as well. I averaged 60 fps as I roamed Night City, with smooth, vibrant graphics and responsive controls. I don't have the Switch 2 to compare it to, but at the very least, this game looks far better on my phone's AMOLED display than it would on the LCD on my Switch.
The Razer Nexus app for the Kishi Ultra makes it easy to collect all of your cloud gaming apps in one hub and access Razer's PC Remote Play feature, which uses the Razer Cortex app to stream games installed on your PC to your phone.
This isn't true cloud gaming since it still relies on your PC hardware, but it's convenient if you want to play a PC game on the couch.
Cloud gaming: Smartphone vs. PC
You can access cloud gaming services from just about any internet-connected device, but is the experience just as good on mobile devices as it is on a laptop or PC?
In my experience, yes, but there are some differences.
I noticed when I first tried cloud gaming on my phone that I got a different interface after launching games through GeForce Now. On PC, GeForce Now boots you into a virtual desktop environment, but on mobile, it actually boots you into a virtual Windows 11 handheld gaming PC. I was pleasantly surprised by that change since it made the cloud gaming interface easier to navigate on my phone without impacting performance.
Unfortunately, that interface had one quirk. When I was playing Avowed, I noticed cutscenes would re-scale to a different aspect ratio, most likely because the game wasn't designed to run on the ultra-narrow 20:9 aspect ratio on my CMF Phone 1. That didn't impact playability or performance, but it might bother some people. The game always returned to full screen after cutscenes without any issues.
That was the most significant difference, but I also noticed slightly weaker performance on my phone. It was still completely playable, I just got slightly lower framerates compared to streaming on my PC or laptop.
Overall, though, with cloud gaming and the Razer Kishi Ultra, you can have a shockingly good gaming experience on your phone. If you're on a tight budget, it could be the ultimate alternative to a Switch 2 or a handheld gaming PC.
