I’m sitting in a coffee shop in front of four monitors. One of those screens is just my laptop, a very normal thing to have a cuppa joe next to. The other three are the portable displays of the Aura Triple Aero 15.6-inch Pro Max, a monumental contraption of aluminum and matte glass that’s looming over my computer, giving off Mr. Universe vibes. Nobody seems to care about this very conspicuous tech monstrosity, and that’s a blessing because with all of these screens in front of me, I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m the Worst Person Here.
“Portable” triple-monitor accessories that give your laptop more pixels to work on spreadsheets or whatever multitasking you may require to boost your productivity aren’t new. In recent years, cheap display command centers have been flooding social media as a life hack product. I thought it would be fun to take the Triple Aero out into the wild, both to test its tote-ability and to see how socially capable I am of using it in public. I don’t know why I do these things to myself.
Aura Triple Aero 15.6-inch Pro Max
The Aura Triple Aero 15.6-inch Pro Max is a cool idea to add three screens to a laptop, but it’s hampered by bad displays and a too-high price.
Pros
- Three displays!
- Great form factor that packs up neatly
- Passthrough charging
- Minimal cabling required
Cons
- Display quality sucks
- Buggy software
- Awkward to use in public
- Tinny built-in speakers
- Hard to safely transport
- Too expensive
This setup has appeal, especially if, like me, you find the cramped confines of a laptop display unworkable, but sitting in the same room for hours and hours, every day, with your dedicated multi-monitor setup feels a little like hell to you. My usual solution for working away from home is to use my 11-inch iPad Pro as a wireless external display. It’s not ideal, and I always wonder if I can have it both ways.
Functional, Not Fashionable 
© Wes Davis / Gizmodo
The Triple Aero features three 15.6-inch, 1080p IPS LCD displays on a folding, height-adjustable stand that put it high enough for me to work with proper computer posture instead of hunched over like a laptop gremlin. The displays are just bright enough that I didn’t have trouble viewing them in a window-filled coffee shop, but you might have trouble seeing if, on a very bright day, one of those windows is behind the Triple Aero. The display casings and stand are black and made of aluminum. There are technically speakers, but they’re harsh and tinny, and you should not use them.
On the bottom edge of the middle display, you’ll find two USB-C ports: one to power the screens and the other to accept video from your laptop, as well as give it passthrough power. There are also three Micro HDMI ports, each corresponding to one of the displays, useful if you want to connect multiple devices rather than just a single computer. The Triple Aero comes with a 65W power adapter that generously features two USB-C ports and a single USB-A port.
This isn’t a pretty device, but that’s not really the point, is it? To buy something like the Triple Aero is to admit that all you’re after is a hojillion displays. Given its utilitarian vibe, it’s irritating to me that, presumably for misguided aesthetic reasons, Aura put its port labels on the back of the Triple Aero instead of the front. I don’t care about that in a stationary desk monitor that I’m only ever going to hook up once, but the Triple Aero is meant to travel, and it’s too unwieldy to spin around to make sure I’m plugging things into the proper ports, so you have to lean around back to see which one is which. Aura also doesn’t label the buttons, leaving you to figure out how to adjust the monitor’s internal settings. I guess I could label everything myself with a strip of tape and a Sharpie, or Aura could just put the labels on the front!
Lowered Expectations 
© Wes Davis / Gizmodo
Actually using the Triple Aero is a mixed bag, and I don’t just mean because it feels weird to set it up in public if that’s what you choose to do with it. On one hand, the matte finish IPS displays keep a fairly consistent image, even from broad viewing angles. But on the other, they’re better for spreadsheets and text documents than they are for, say, Oppenheimer. And they’re not even great for that if the software you’re working with calls for a monitor with very good color separation—for instance, in macOS, I had a hard time telling between the gray of an active Safari window and the slightly lighter gray of an inactive one. As a result, I just kept trying to type in windows I thought were in the foreground and weren’t.
© Wes Davis / Gizmodo
© Wes Davis / Gizmodo
It’s not just the color reproduction that makes the Triple Aero unsuitable for more than casual content consumption. Driving the displays requires software—in this case, SiliconMotion’s InstantView—that essentially screen-records virtual displays on your computer, compresses the video for transmission over USB-C, then hardware-decodes it inside the Triple Aero. This is fine for basic tasks, but it takes a decent chunk of CPU power to run, and I’ve never met a version of it that doesn’t needle you with small bugs. It can take a few tries plugg