NVIDIA Shield Tablet

[nicklmg]

NCIX: http://bit.ly/1lgALlt

Amazon: http://geni.us/1quK

 

Our review of the NVIDIA Shield Tablet is here. Linus loves his Shield Portable, but this is a completely different beast... Is it a cut above the Portable, or did NVIDIA stray too far from what made the original Shield great?

 

[BonBon Scott]

Oooh, I'm looking forward to this.

[cyberlocc]

oh man private shoot 

[elan2468]

40 more MINUTES COME TO ME MY PRECIOUS

[nicklmg]

40 more MINUTES COME TO ME MY PRECIOUS

6 hours and 30 minutes!

6am PDT

[legend8887]

can't wait!

[elan2468]

6 hours and 30 minutes!

6am

i have reached ultimate failure the cat is discraced

[Deli]

Just preorder mine. But have to wait until mid-August for delivery in Europe.

[Kevinkt]

6 hours and 30 minutes!

6am PDT

40 more mins yolo

[onlyoncloud9]

I wish this had an attachable controller it would make it look like a Wikipad or Wii U controller and I would LOVE IT!

[Tassadar]

I think you were being too kind to Nvidia on this one. Usually you're more forward and brutal! Good job anyways   

[Fuzzy112]

So...do you eat grilled power supplies often?

[menendez1293]

Seems like this fits the category I want to fill, a tablet that has the potential to game. I might be picking one up in the future. 

[baconite]

My questions:

Can it receive phone calls and text messages in Canada? And if yes, on which carriers?

Does a Shield Portable works as a controller for the tablet?

 

Basically, I have a shield already and want to get one of these to replace my phone, if I can use the shield portable as a controller to this while it's connected to a tv, I feel that would be optimal.

[Cheerscake]

I believe it's a brilliant device especially due to it's versatility! At least for me...

If connected to a TV it basically provides a console experience with PC games and graphics using the Nvidia Game Streaming technology. 

At the same time it works as a smart TV and while Chromecast is a beautiful thing, having a complete android experience on your TV is something else. Kinda reminds me of Googles set top box thing which they announced at I/O ..I believe it was called Android TV. Except in this case you just use your tablet instead of getting a whole new device.

But I believe that's not the only application for the mini HDMI port. You could probably even connect it to a beamer and use it for a presentation. ... Even though I don't know if there's any app support for that yet it probably won't take long since the hardware is there.

Furthermore I believe that tablets of that form factor are as Linus already said when refering to the stylus brilliant for students. I used a Nexus 7 for a long time to simply display scripts at University but with the integrated and apparently well functioning stylus and the reasonably sized and shaped screen it could probably even resolve the clutter that note taking is at the moment since smartphone notes are honestly not the greatest way to go. Another great application for this are I guess conferences or minor meetngs. I use to go to so called MUNs which are simulations of the United Nations where you work together in committees in order to attempt to find solutions to international issues. There I need to take a ton of notes (during other people's speeches, for my own speeches, ideas for operative clauses in resolutions, things I wanna talk about with others, and so on and so forth. There I easily collect like 20 sheets of A5 paper everyday with tons of random notes on them. Using the tablet for this would be just awesome. 

So yeah there we are... I already sold my Nexus 7 and am waiting for the Shield Tablet to finaly release in Germany in 15 or 16 days...

Great and honest review though! (y) Anyone anything on battery life?

[ShogunZ]

I was looking forward to this thing. Unfortunately it only streams from gtx graphics cards, which I don't have. Not to mention the atrocious non-offset thumbsticks. If there's one more thing they should've stolen from the Xbox controller it's that. It seems great as a tablet alone though.

[ObeseWalrus]

I have never owned a tablet before and I think that this is going to be my next one if the new rumored HTC Nexus tablet isn't very special.

[ROK]

i was in the process of cancelling my order for the shield tablet but this review restored my faith in the device.

[silberdrachi]

None of the above, i got an Asus Transformer TF701 with a wired 360 controller if i really want to play stuff like emulated games. I don't see the appeal of playing games that would normally require a desktop on a tiny ass screen. I don't even get why people play "desktop grade" games on laptops with 14in screens.

 

Personally i only see game streaming really being a thing for playing stuff on my TV in my living room, which i already can do through steam streaming kinda well. If i want to play a game like Borderlands or Skyrim or god knows what else, i want to be able to sit down and enjoy the sights. Not hunch over squinting at a tiny screen with tinny sound quality.

[Derpotatoes]

Guys, let's just forget that this is made for gaming, and see it as an Android Tablet only. If you see it that way, it is the BEST bang for the buck you can get. For just $300 ,You will get:

- The fastest Chipset available right now for Android Tablets (even beats Apple's iPad in GPU benchmarks for HALF the price) and 2 GB of RAM
- DirectStylus 2 that is fast and responsive
- Full HD 8" IPS screen that is awesome
- Dual Front facing speaker
- Near-Stock Android with timely updates like a Nexus device (they proved it with nvidia shield and tegra note 7)
- 5 MP front and back camera
- Micro SD Card Slot that supports up to 128 GB.

Competition :
- Samsung tablets does have active stylus (which doesn't differ much from shield's stylus) but costs way more and it's slower
- Nexus 7 is cheaper but way slower without SD card slot and stylus
- Kindle Fire HDX is also cheaper but it's amazon exclusive and there aren't any SD card slot nor stylus too.

At least for me, the Nvidia Tegra Shield Tablet is a steal. I would buy this as soon as this becomes available in my region.

[suicidalfranco]

Can the controller be used on PC, specifically Linux (Ubuntu and Arch) and OSX (I don't use Windows)?

[TestedMATTIA]

i seriously dont know if i have to wait for the next Nexus tablet or this.... i can use this as a "console" im the living room and stream games if i want...

[Paul567]

 

My questions:

Can it receive phone calls and text messages in Canada? And if yes, on which carriers?

 

 

I found this on the Nvidia page regarding the shield 

 

 

Cellular Connectivity North America: Unlocked (Coming soon to AT&T's 4G LTE network) LTE, HSPA+, 3G, 2G, GSM, EDGE

Cellular Bands: North America: LTE: Bands 2,4,5,7,17 (1900, 1700, 850, 2600, 700) HSPA+: Bands 1,2,4,5 (2100, 1900, 1700, 850)

 

So as long as your carrier works on those bands you should be good to g.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Paul567

[Paul567]

I am very interested in this. The price seems very comparable to a Nexus tablet, the specs are crazy good and from what Linus says, it runs an almost vanilla version of Android.

 

The only downside is that my toaster doesn't have an Nvidia card in it so I doubt I can make use of the game streaming until I update my rig.

[EChondo]

How much heat is generated? Does it feel hot after X hours of gaming? What is the tablet made of?

 

I can't game on my phone for too long because of 1. battery life and 2. it gets way too hot(my phone is the HTC DNA).

 

Thanks for the overview Linus, but there's still questions left unanswered.

 

My opinion on this tablet+controller as is: I don't see the point in buying this if I don't have a Nvidia GPU already in my desktop/laptop. Without feeling the controller in person, it looks way too bulky and narrow for comfort. The tablet looks solid and loving that 1920x1200 screen, but I'm gonna wait until revision 2.0, just to see if they will bump that resolution up some more and redesign the controller.