Gadgetory

hey guys this is Dimitri and welcome back to another her honest review so the Nvidia shield is definitely a unique device which is meant to show off the integration of different technologies from Nvidia like Tegra zone GeForce experience and the seamless communication between the two the shield is not meant to replace nor compete with consoles while providing a similar casual gaming experience the shield is a whole new portable solution for gamers but at $299 this really is a novelty item considering you require dual band router for perfect connection and a GTX 650 or higher to enable PC streaming because earlier graphics cards do not have the built-in h.264 encoder specs wise the shield houses a Tegra 4 quad core processor with up to 1.9 gigahertz 2 gigabytes of ddr3 RAM 16 gigabytes of built-in flash memory within 28.8 watt hours battery and it's running pure Android jellybean 4.2.1 the 5-inch touchscreen is 1280 by 720 pixel display with a PPI of around 294 so you never see any pixels plus the viewing angles are excellent with basically a 180 degree screen tilt to suit any holding style there's also quite a bit resistance on the screen so it doesn't flop around which makes this a perfect fit for the shield my main complaint here is the bezel size which is quite large and minimizes the total real estate of the display also it's quite easy to make out the touch grid and brighter conditions but of course that does not affect functionality the form factor of the shield is something every gamers want to be familiar with as it resembles some sort of console controller and the body is very comfortable to fold but actually quite heavy and 579 grams ergonomically its top notch but I find the shield quite large and nowhere near to what we've come to expect as portable I mean you can't fit it in the pocket and will require a bag of some sort now luckily Nvidia does sell the optional carrying pouch for an extra 40 dollars with a small pocket to house the charging brick and the USB cable with a cleverly placed cut out the back to charge your shield the two joysticks at the front are extremely smooth but not too light either and there is some resistance as they always return to the middle and the rest of the buttons at the front have a clicky feel and we've never experienced any key gems the trigger and bumper buttons are well within reach and also very responsive and never Jam so overall it's a well designed gaming controller from the balanced weight to how the buttons feel to the materials used the five buttons in the center are your controls for the Android so adjusting the volume revealing all your running apps back and play button and in the center this is your shield button which when held reveals a few system options and when pressed once opens up Tegra zone this is also the only button that is illuminated although I think all the five buttons should be to allow flawless navigation in darker environments all the connections are located at the rear with a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack micro USB mini HDMI and a micro SD card slot for expandable storage now at the time this review the micro SD slot cannot be utilized to store games or apps which is rather disappointing but the future update will get rid of this limitation now throughout our testing the shield held up pretty good with temperatures with rear exhaust that helps to keep the shield cool although not completely silent as fan noise was audible the shield has an amazing pair of stereo speakers that are not only loud but extremely clear and non distorted at higher volume also lowering the lid slightly will allow bit more directionality control now there isn't much customization with a shield like there are no other color options but the top magnetic shield like cover can be swapped for a glossy or a carbon fiber tag which at $20 a piece is a ridiculous price for such a useless tag alright so finally let's talk of how the shield handles regular Android games and later for PC streaming so giving this as an Android device we get a very similar Android experience just on a different form factor opening it up accessing Google Play to populate the shield with applications is easy but the issue is recognizing which app supports shield or controller going to the description of each tired app is inefficient and currently there's no icon to indicate whether or not a controller support is available but this is where Tegra zone comes in handy as the shield store is basically a shortcut for all the supported games that can be purchased through Google Play and this works seamlessly and while there's a good variety of shooters racing and adventure games available with excellent graphics and performance the supported games list is quite short and quite frankly they either get dull quickly or are too short now luckily these games are around 2 to 5 dollars so you pretty much get what you pay for now let's talk about the main selling point of the shield and that's PC streaming it takes upon a similar idea as the Nvidia grid using a host PC to process and render out a display and wirelessly transmit the video stream to the shield with the help of a built-in h.264 encoder on Kepler's GPU this is possible with us today using the Asus Dark Knight dual band router with PC connected through the Ethernet port and the shield through the 5 gigahertz band to avoid any wireless interference with the 2.4 gigahertz band opening up Tegra zone it will start searching for compatible pcs sometimes it doesn't find it upon initial boot but after it's connected there are no issues and it quickly navigates into a menu where you can access steam and already installed supported games launching steam you enter big picture mode where you can navigate into your library to view games and other added executables I've added premier which you can see opens up perfectly and this opens up possibilities for other gaming services like origin for example to be used with shield flawlessly tapping the screen with two fingers while streaming will give you the option to quit the app in use and open up a keyboard that will definitely come in handy for logging in obviously because the screen size the touch interface and the controller not all games are going to be favorable for the shield for example strategy games like Company of Heroes is a complete write-off but dirt 3 is another story basically racing games and shooters are blended well within the shield environment and to write an enjoyable experience while away from your PC playing your favorite games now battery life was also impressive with around 6 hours of android games and 12 plus hours of PC streaming which is plenty enough on one charge when it comes to input lag the shield as long as your network isn't honked by traffic performed almost flawlessly even from 6 meters away with a few walls in between there was no noticeable lag which means gaming on the shield is fun and it's not meant to be competitive but instead casual gaming experience off your PC of course PC streaming is not without its issues but considering it's only in beta mode we are expecting certain things to improve like audio channels sometimes work mixed up suffering framerate during heavy traffic and drop connection during initial scan but the shield portrays a good representation of the future of portable game the shield is a blazingly fast Android device with absolute amazing pair of stereo speakers excellent battery life and the really nice touch interface as a gaming device it works as ergonomics are top-notch and despite its heavy weight you must often have it on your lap or on some surface the shield controller is very well built and provides responsive navigation with the joysticks and the more proper experience for Android games that support the shield also the ability to stream your PC games into the shield without lag and enjoy casual race match or finish Crysis 3 level with the help of a seamless integration of GeForce experience Tegra zone and steam however there are unavoidable issues with a shield starting with a large bulky an efficient size that could definitely see improvement in future revisions starting with a larger screen more sleek and lighter body and perhaps more customization in terms of color now while the Android and PC gaming list is quite short at the moment it is bound to grow and expand the gaming potential of the shield and in order to have the full shield experience GTX 650 or higher and a dual band router is a must which add up to the overall price of the package but it is undoubtedly a unique demonstration of what Nvidia is capable of it's definitely not for everyone but we can sure appreciate the potential the shield brings in to portable gaming environments so given you guys have now seen shield work and it's hopeful promising future when you consider gating it tell us why or why not in the comments below and we'll see you in the next one