Gadgetory

I'm Sean Hollister with The Verge and this is the Nvidia shield graphics giant Nvidia has built a game handheld on top of the Android operating system it's like a smart phone smashed into an Xbox 360 controller and it's big and bulky but surprisingly in videos very first game system has pretty exceptional build quality the 5 inch 720p screen is gorgeous with excellent pixel density and fantastic viewing angles games and movies sound great the custom Tunes speaker system sounds better than many laptops the chassis itself feels solid and strong with only the occasional creak even the strength of the magnet in the interchangeable vanity plate exudes quality most importantly though those joysticks and buttons are truly on par with an Xbox 360 controller the joysticks are just taught enough to resist your thumbs but loose enough to swing and steer the face buttons have plenty of throw and enough padding to stay comfortable even when you're hammering repeatedly the shoulder buttons are unfortunately as shallow and clicky as those on Microsoft's controller but the triggers have some real pull the shield really feels designed for gaming through and through the question is how you hold the shield when you're doing anything else there's the full responsive touchscreen built into the lid of the device but how are you supposed to reach it with these controls the lid opens a full 180 degrees but it's the weakest link in the hardware assembly and it doesn't feel durable or grippy enough to hold the full weight of the handheld while you can control most of androids basic functions comfortably with the game controls and the virtual mouse cursor can help a lot there it's particularly difficult to do anything with the virtual keyboard or touchscreen gestures you could hold the shield in one hand in portrait mode like an open book but then you'd be blocking the system fan you might need to do that occasionally though because most Android apps are still designed with a smartphone in mind games like temple run - and where's my Mickey don't do landscape at all still the shield has way way more functionality than say a PlayStation Vita it also helps that Nvidia shield is an absolute speed demon it's the showcase device for the company's new Tegra 4 processor and we were hard-pressed to note a hint of lag it speeds through apps and games alike and even when we stuffed the multitasking tray full of different programs we still didn't feel the need to close any of them the shield's chunky frame holds some sizable batteries too we saw 11 hours in a browsing test and rarely found ourselves running out of juice it's hard to find enough android games to take full advantage of the shield though the dead trigger 2 demo looks fantastic graphically a cut above anything we've seen on android before but look through the larger catalogue of new mobile titles and you'll find a few that push the envelope or support the controller your best bet of supports of classic PC and console titles like grand theft auto vice city sonic the hedgehog and Max Payne all of which work brilliantly on the system oh and speaking of classic games what the Android game catalog lacks though you can augment with a beefy gaming PC if you've got a GeForce GTX 660 art or better and a capable wireless router you can play a full PC game on your couch or even in bed by streaming it wirelessly from your computer 15 games like Tomb Raider Dishonored Borderlands 2 and Metro last light or supported right out of the box and basically any steam game that supports an Xbox 360 controller can be played in big picture mode there's a little bit of lag and you might need to fine-tune the controls but it's easily the most awesome feature the shield offers at $299 a full $50 cheaper than in videos original asking price the shield offers a pretty unique compelling experience if you're both an Android and a PC gamer and if you believe that androids gaming ecosystem will get bigger and more controller friendly from here on out just be warned that it's not a complete replacement for a capable smartphone or tablet device