[UPDATE] Nvidia refreshing entire Shield line-up (Shield TVs CONFIRMED) + rumor round-up

[Enover5]

Disclaimer : While the first two devices are almost certainly coming (unless Nvidia pulls out a Shield Tablet X1-type move), the third one is just extrapolation based on previous news dating back to April 24^th, and experience as to Nvidia’s method of announcing new Shield products.

 

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we. On June 15^th, XDA-Developpers reported that they had found a device codenamed “mdarcy” in "the Google Play Developer Consoles’ Device Catalogue". The product was supposed to boast the revised, shrunk-down version of the Tegra X1 found in the new Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite, the t210b01. What supports this is the fact that “mariko” is the codename for the t210b01 chip, and “darcy” is the device name for the 2017 Shield TV, and “mdarcy” is obviously a “darcy” device based on “mariko”. The device will likely have a smaller footprint conpared to the 2017 current-gen Shield TV, and could go fanless (I personally don’t back up this claim, as even the Nintendo Switch Lite, which consumes certainly less power than a fixed set-top-box, needs a fan and heatsink in order not to overheat, so imagine a device that would stay in your living room 100% of the time and that would have higher clock speeds in order to output 4K at 60fps… Yeaaah, it’s gonna be a no for me).

 

But while we knew Nvidia was planning mdarcy, on August 5^th, some new leaks coming directly from the related FCC filing by Nvidia have taught us that they’re planning a second Shield TV device codenamed “sif”. And unlike mdarcy, sif is supposedly the next-gen Shield TV. It is currently unclear which chip Nvidia chose for sif, but I would expect the Tegra X2 or the low-power version of the Tegra Xavier, since it will need to be more powerful than mdarcy (also, don’t trust the website when it says mdarcy and sif will share SoCs as their claim isn’t backed up by any source whatsoever and it simply doesn't make any sense). IO-wise, sif will apparently present no USB port (which I find quite strange and disappointing but oh well…) nor will it support/feature a TV tuner.

Fast forward to the 30^th of September, and mysmartprice.com reported that sif was just certified for Bluetooth 5.0 by the Bluetooth SIG, confirming what we know from the FCC filings and the Shield Experience 8,0 update. And we know the device concerned is not mdarcy because of the model number, that is to say P3430. The Bluetooth certification usually happening near the release date of new products, we can definitely expect the new Shield TVs some time soon, possibly before the end of the year (I really can’t imagine Nvidia unveiling these alongside the 1660ti Super, 1650ti and 1660 Super), or Q1 2020 (although I have no clue as to why they would do that). Both Shield TVs will also likely come out with new accessories, two of which were leaked in March: a controller, “stormcaster”, and a remote, “friday”.

 

But that’s only two devices, right? And I promised you three. So, the Shield 2-in-1 convertible tablet, codename “mystique”. I know, there haven’t been any more leaks pointing to a release being due for the same time frame as the two above (the only clue we got of the existence of such a product was on the 24^th of April), however the thing is Nvidia has always released their Shield products all at the same time, and around that time of the year. Plus, it’s been 4 years since we last got a mobile device from Nvidia (NO, the Nintendo Switch DOESN’T COUNT), and more importantly, between April and present time, a game-changing event (for this device, at least ) occurred: Android 10 has dropped, and it features a desktop mode. You can see where this is going, right? I predict that if the tablet ever comes to exist, it will use it as following: when handheld (only the tablet, not the keyboard), it will run Android normally. But as soon as you’ll snap on the keyboard, it will switch to the desktop mode WHILE still outputting to the primary display, "Desktop" which is one of the three leaked modes Nvidia has worked on (more precisely, the “NVIDIA Desktop Experience”). From the April leak, you can also choose to activate a specific mode on start up. And with the new Surface line up just announced, I wonder if they’re not thinking about taking on Microsoft’s solution head to head before it is too late, as Microsoft plans to combine Android and Windws in one device. I REALLY hope mystique will come out before the end of the year alongside mdarcy and sif, so we can finally have a decently-priced top-spec Android tablet again (2015 vibes anyone?). Another thing I hope for is support for stormcaster with mystique, like the the precedent Shield Tablets have supported the STBs' controllers.

 

Sources: https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/new-nvidia-shield-tv-gets-closer-launch-passes-bluetooth-sig-certification/

https://www.xda-developers.com/nvidia-shield-android-tv-refreshed-tegra-x1/

https://www.xda-developers.com/nvidia-shield-tv-2019-rumors/

https://www.xda-developers.com/nvidia-new-shield-controller-shield-remote/

https://www.xda-developers.com/nvidia-desktop-experience-shield-tablet-2019/

 

NEW STUFF : Hey, itsa me, your boy, about 3 days late, to tell you "sif" got certified by the WiFi alliance for... WiFi 5 (802.11 ac if you prefer). So yeah, no WiFi 6, which isn't all that great (although users tend to prefer to connect SHIELD TVs via Ethernet). If it helps bringing the price down, like the absence of NFC on the Shield Tablet K1, then why not. No need for me to tell you the launch is nearing rapidly. My guess is Nvidia is targeting a release after the announcement at CES 2020, as other SHIELD TVs were announced there at that time of the year.

By the way, we have a problem of conflicting sources here, as although I said sif was the device that was just certified, 9to5Google claims the model number P3430 (the model that got certified) refers to mdarcy, while literally every single other source has said P3430 was in fact sif. And by reading their article, it seems as though they don't know about sif's (or simply the other SHIELD TV in the works) existence.

 

 

New sources : https://www.wi-fi.org/product-finder-results?keywords=P3430

https://9to5google.com/2019/10/03/nvidia-shield-tv-dongle-bluetooth-certification-android-pie/

(Take this one with a pinch of salt, like the mysmartprice link)

[porina]

I'd love a new tablet from them optimised for gaming performance. Something rather lacking in other offerings currently.

[Enover5]

Especially if Nvidia increases the number of ports of PC games to Android via their Lightspeed Studios.

[Dabombinable]

Now if only I could get a standard tablet similar to my old TF201 and TF700 with the X1 (and storage that isn't ridiculously slow).

[vanished]

I loved the original shield tablet for its insane focus on value.  In terms of performance it was hitting levels that only got matched by flagship phones years later and for twice the price.  On top of that it had great speakers, thin bezels (for the time), very stock software and was highly unlockable for rooting, custom roms, etc.  Of course they achieved this in part by sacrificing on things like the main camera, but my point stands.

To be honest, I've kind of moved on from that stage in my life now though and wouldn't necessarily want another one.  However, if they could take the same philosophy that built it and turn it into a phone, I would be very interested.  With that said though, my priorities have changed too.  It's not so much the performance or the gaming aspect that I'm after, just the feeling of perfectly targeting everything I care about and nothing I don't, and for a fantastic price.

[Enover5]

4 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Now if only I could get a standard tablet similar to my old TF201 and TF700 with the X1 (and storage that isn't ridiculously slow).

They were quite nice, but I think a modern design with rounded corners such as the Galaxy Tab S6 or S5e, with an IPS LCD that has a variable high refresh rate would be better suited.

[Dabombinable]

1 minute ago, Enover5 said:

They were quite nice, but I think a modern design with rounded corners such as the Galaxy Tab S6 or S5e, with an IPS LCD that has a variable high refresh rate would be better suited.

I did say similar. And OLED or nothing at this point as far as I'm concerned (power saving plus looking better than my dead laptop's 1080p IPS)

[Enover5]

Just now, Dabombinable said:

I did say similar. And OLED or nothing at this point as far as I'm concerned (power saving plus looking better than my dead laptop's 1080p IPS)

Oh no. Nope, no chance. You do NOT want an OLED screen or the screen's price will be double of that of the entire tablet alone and the device's price will hit the roof. Plus, they can go higher res without sacrificing affordability, one of the key areas in which the Shield Tablets crushed everything back in the day.

[MageTank]

1 hour ago, Enover5 said:

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we. On June 15^th, XDA-Developpers reported that they had found a device codenamed “mdarcy” in "the Google Play Developer Consoles’ Device Catalogue"

If nobody else is going to do it, then I'll have to.

"M'darcy".

 

In all seriousness, I thoroughly enjoyed the original Nvidia Shield clamshell handheld device. I just felt that it came out too soon, and didn't have the backing force of devs to drive it. With games making a mobile push (PUBG for example) and the advent of 120hz screens for phones, I feel these would be far better received this time around.

[Enover5]

8 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I loved the original shield tablet for its insane focus on value.  In terms of performance it was hitting levels that only got matched by flagship phones years later and for twice the price.  On top of that it had great speakers, thin bezels (for the time), very stock software and was highly unlockable for rooting, custom roms, etc.  Of course they achieved this in part by sacrificing on things like the main camera, but my point stands.

To be honest, I've kind of moved on from that stage in my life now though and wouldn't necessarily want another one.  However, if they could take the same philosophy that built it and turn it into a phone, I would be very interested.

Although I disagree on the fact that it had small bezels for the time (to their credit, the speakers were huge and innovative) and the camera (let's face it, at the time you couldn't rely on mobile devices for photography), it was a great device. And for the phone part (pun intended), look into the Surface Duo... if you can afford it, that is.

[vanished]

Just now, Enover5 said:

Although I disagree on the fact that it had small bezels for the time (to their credit, the speakers were huge and innovative) and the camera (let's face it, at the time you couldn't rely on mobile devices for photography), it was a great device. And for the phone part (pun intended), look into the Surface Duo... if you can afford it, that is.

Well, I thought they were small, and I specifically remember some reviewers at the time knocking it for them being too small, the way some people complain about wrap around screens these days.

[Enover5]

2 hours ago, MageTank said:

If nobody else is going to do it, then I'll have to.

"M'darcy".

 

In all seriousness, I thoroughly enjoyed the original Nvidia Shield clamshell handheld device. I just felt that it came out too soon, and didn't have the backing force of devs to drive it. With games making a mobile push (PUBG for example) and the advent of 120hz screens for phones, I feel these would be far better received this time around.

Yeah, the Shield Portable (that's what it was called) was YEARS ahead of its time... And a software implementation failure like I had never seen before. Imagine it with thinner bezels, Dolby Atmos and a high refresh rate screen... Oh boy.

 

2 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well, I thought they were small, and I specifically remember some reviewers at the time knocking it for them being too small, the way some people complain about wrap around screens these days.

I must've been too absorbed by its shear power and beauty to have noticed the haters hatin' in the background

[Dabombinable]

41 minutes ago, Enover5 said:

Oh no. Nope, no chance. You do NOT want an OLED screen or the screen's price will be double of that of the entire tablet alone and the device's price will hit the roof. Plus, they can go higher res without sacrificing affordability, one of the key areas in which the Shield Tablets crushed everything back in the day.

I dunno, my Galaxy J2 Pro cost under $160 AUD, and it has one. And my current Windows tablet with its 14" (something x 1440) screen has one and that cost under $600 new...it doesn't add as much as you think. Plus said 14" tablet was far cheaper than the TF201 (64GB version) and TF700 (32GB version).

And OLED are woth the price increase, its just that the majority of the times you see them they are on flagship devices, which are where the profit margins are widest.

Anyway, I'd at least settle for a keyboard/dock for a shield tablet that has a built in battery+extra I/O.

[Salv8 (sam)]

GODDAMNIT!

i JUST got a shield tv! i've only had it for 3 months!

FUCK!!!!!

[Derangel]

I would love a new Shield TV with 4K and HDR support. I have the current one in my bedroom. Not having a USB port would kill it for me though.

[Enover5]

18 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

GODDAMNIT!

i JUST got a shield tv! i've only had it for 3 months!

FUCK!!!!!

I can only hope you paid a good price for it then xP

 

As for OLED, of course small panels can be found on affordable devices, but remember OLED is very difficult to produce in larger dimensions. And we've only recently seen laptop-sized screens get equipped with them, and for a hefty price. Keep in mind the price of the Shield Tablet line-up, if the MSRP is above 500$ (maybe even 400$), it completely defeats its purpose.

[vanished]

47 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

GODDAMNIT!

i JUST got a shield tv! i've only had it for 3 months!

FUCK!!!!!

I'd recommend just using a computer.  It costs more, but it will do so much more, and (at least the majority of the time) more easily as well.  It's likely to not become obsolete for an extremely long time either.

Edit: just checked the prices, and I may have to even take back the "it costs more" part

[LeSheen]

@Ryan_Vickers I loved my original shield tablet as well. However stereo broke at some point for me. Do you think its because of a patch? Or just one of the many drops it had to endure?

[Enover5]

57 minutes ago, LeSheen said:

@Ryan_Vickers I loved my original shield tablet as well. However stereo broke at some point for me. Do you think its because of a patch? Or just one of the many drops it had to endure?

Since I left mine with the stock ROM, I can't tell you what patching does to it (plus mine was the K1, not the original one), but it is very safe to say it probably is because of the drops, man. Tablets just aren't as resilient to drops as modern day smartphones. But have you tried to open it up and see if one of the speaker connectors was simply loose?

[Bananasplit_00]

Another sheild tablet sounds pretty nice, wanted the first one but didnt get the chance to get one. Hopefully there wont be any battery issues with these...

[LeSheen]

10 minutes ago, Enover5 said:

Since I left mine with the stock ROM, I can't tell you what patching does to it (plus mine was the K1, not the original one), but it is very safe to say it probably is because of the drops, man. Tablets just aren't as resilient to drops as modern day smartphones. But have you tried to open it up and see if one of the speaker connectors was simply loose?

I meant the k1. The original is the controller with a screen attached? Haven't tried opening it up. Bit scared to do so since I have two giant cracks crossing each other. I just use it if I need some info displayed(character builds,code example, quick wiki search). Bought myself a cheap mi tablet to watch videos instead.

[Enover5]

13 minutes ago, LeSheen said:

I meant the k1. The original is the controller with a screen attached? Haven't tried opening it up. Bit scared to do so since I have two giant cracks crossing each other. I just use it if I need some info displayed(character builds,code example, quick wiki search). Bought myself a cheap mi tablet to watch videos instead.

As long as it's not important... And no, there was a Shield Tablet prior to the K1, featuring the same Tegra 4 SoC as the Shield Portable (the "controller with a screen attached" if you prefer) and that cameout in 2013, one year before the K1 was announced (although this model had battery overheating problems, so the K1 really came out in 2015)

[LAwLz]

Don't you think it's a bit misleading to say new Shield TVs has been confirmed when it's only some comment in code, and a mention in a Bluetooth certification list?

It would be really cool with an updated Shield TV. It is by far the best implementation of Android TV out there. But the chip is getting old. Sure it can handle most if not all the things you can throw at it, but I still feel like the X1 is an outdated chip. It's kind of silly to say something which handles everything you throw at it is "outdated", but it could be so much better than it is today.

 

• It uses A57 cores which are now 5 generations old (we are on A77). It's been roughly a 30% increase in performance each generation, so we're talking a like 1/4 the performance of a modern ARM CPU.
• The big.LITTLE implementation is quite poor and can only use 4 cores at a time, and doesn't support the much more granular per core voltage control of DynamIQ.
• The GPU is still pretty good, but imagine what it would be like if it was updated from Maxwell to Turing or Volta.
• The process node is old (but might get updated) so it runs hotter and uses more power than necessary.
• The Shield TV might benefit from some more RAM (currently has 3GB), especially at higher resolutions. Also, I believe it's LPDDR3 so it could benefit from a speed upgrade to LPDDR4(X).
• No TPU which might be great for things like the new offline Google speech-to-text.
• No support for WiFi 6.
• No support for variable refresh rate (not sure if it's software or hardware limitation).

[Enover5]

25 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Don't you think it's a bit misleading to say new Shield TVs has been confirmed when it's only some comment in code, and a mention in a Bluetooth certification list?

For sif: The Bluetooth certification clearly mentions a "SHIELD Android TV Game Console" with the same model number than in the Shield Experience leak and FCC filing. That's a lot of coincidence if you ask me.

 

For mdarcy: making a lower footprint refresh is far from usual in the industry, and Nvidia has filed for a revision (Class II) of the 2017 SHIELD TV. This points towards a "slim" refresh. And darcy is a well established product. Making a mdarcy means something. Either the m stands for mini, or it stands for mariko. Or both, according to the sources. Plus, we have new peripherals on the way, which don't come out outside of other SHIELD product launches.

[Enover5]

33 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

 but it could be so much better than it is today.

 

• It uses A57 cores which are now 5 generations old (we are on A77). It's been roughly a 30% increase in performance each generation, so we're talking a like 1/4 the performance of a modern ARM CPU.
• The big.LITTLE implementation is quite poor and can only use 4 cores at a time, and doesn't support the much more granular per core voltage control of DynamIQ.
• The GPU is still pretty good, but imagine what it would be like if it was updated from Maxwell to Turing or Volta.
• The process node is old (but might get updated) so it runs hotter and uses more power than necessary.
• The Shield TV might benefit from some more RAM (currently has 3GB), especially at higher resolutions. Also, I believe it's LPDDR3 so it could benefit from a speed upgrade to LPDDR4(X).
• No TPU which might be great for things like the new offline Google speech-to-text.
• No support for WiFi 6.
• No support for variable refresh rate (not sure if it's software or hardware limitation).

I know, I know. Unless they go fanless and Chromecast-style for mdarcy, I have no idea who it will be designed for.

But that's why I don't support the first source when it says mdarcy and sif will share the same SoC. Sif will need a more modern SoC to claim back the SHIELD TV's throne of being the most "balls to the wall"/price-to-performance champion of Android TV/game console implementations.

 

EDIT: There is currently no Tegra SoC based on Turing, but who knows what Nvidia is planning for its most unpredictable division. So yeah, Pascal or Volta it is (lettuce pray for the latter).