- May 8, 2012
- 4,334
- 3
Some may know that I imported to Australia a NVidia Shield Tablet. This marks the second venture into Android Hardware that NVidia has undertaken, and I have to say it's pretty amazing.
Processor Tegra K1 (basically a glorified PC GPU shoehorned into a tablet form factor)
Screen True 1080p 8" screen. For me, 8" is the new 7".
RAM 2GB
SSD size 16GB. This was the only option when first released. The tablet has a SDCARD slot that takes up to 128GB cards though. You can also used the baked-in app2sd solution to move large data files off the SSD and onto the SDCARD.
UNFORTUNATELY NOT WITH TPA BECAUSE AFTER TWO YEARS THE DEVELOPERS HAVE NOT YET FLICKED THE SWITCH TO LET US MOVE THE 700MB OF TABLE FILES EXTERNAL TO THE APP, GRRRRR
aaaanyway
The tablet's primary features are aimed squarely at the Tablet Gamer. There is a dedicated Shield Controller available with just as many inputs as a PS3 controller. Adding to that, the controller has a built-in track pad on the controller itself which is great for those games that require touch control. It also has a built-in headset jack so you don't need to run a long lead from the tablet to your headphones. And the biggest thing is that the controller uses Wi-Fi Direct, which offers half the signal latency of Bluetooth.
You can set the Tablet into Console mode. Connect the Tablet to your HDMI Monitor with a hardware cable and switch this mode on to make the tablet into a fully fledged Android gaming console. All controls are built into the controller for navigation. You never need to leave your seat. It also has native Chromecast/Miracast support built in due to the KitKat 4.4.2 ROM.
The tablet has a built-in stylus as well. I originally wasn't that concerned with this feature, but I have to say it is an absolute gaming plus when playing games like Sky Force 2014. Not having my huge pudgy digit blocking the view of the ship has made a huge difference to my scores on this game.
ROM updates are managed directly by NVidia, and I have to say they are really, really frequent. The launch of the device saw some serious issues with Wi-Fi performance, however about a month after the tablet went to market, I have installed an official fix to the issue. Very timely updates.
Speaking of the ROM, it also has native recording *with* mic audio. Twitch streaming direct from the device (should you have a decent upload speed, which I don't in Australia). Immersive Mode built into the Settings blind. And if you like annotating pictures (like we do when beta testing), removing the styus activates a lasso menu with annotation tools built in.
It is a very impressive device, at a very impressive price.
And, of course, it plays TPA very well. Doesn't even sweat when you activate 4xMSAA. I even turned on GPU compositing for everything and it didn't even blink.
I would love to try a build of TPA using PC assets on this device. I think that it would be able to cope easily with running the build. It's rumored that the Nexus 9 will be sporting a Tegra K1 64-bit processor (Shield runs 32-bit), so the new generation of devices might start to close the gap between PC and Mobile.
Processor Tegra K1 (basically a glorified PC GPU shoehorned into a tablet form factor)
Screen True 1080p 8" screen. For me, 8" is the new 7".
RAM 2GB
SSD size 16GB. This was the only option when first released. The tablet has a SDCARD slot that takes up to 128GB cards though. You can also used the baked-in app2sd solution to move large data files off the SSD and onto the SDCARD.
UNFORTUNATELY NOT WITH TPA BECAUSE AFTER TWO YEARS THE DEVELOPERS HAVE NOT YET FLICKED THE SWITCH TO LET US MOVE THE 700MB OF TABLE FILES EXTERNAL TO THE APP, GRRRRR
aaaanyway
The tablet's primary features are aimed squarely at the Tablet Gamer. There is a dedicated Shield Controller available with just as many inputs as a PS3 controller. Adding to that, the controller has a built-in track pad on the controller itself which is great for those games that require touch control. It also has a built-in headset jack so you don't need to run a long lead from the tablet to your headphones. And the biggest thing is that the controller uses Wi-Fi Direct, which offers half the signal latency of Bluetooth.
You can set the Tablet into Console mode. Connect the Tablet to your HDMI Monitor with a hardware cable and switch this mode on to make the tablet into a fully fledged Android gaming console. All controls are built into the controller for navigation. You never need to leave your seat. It also has native Chromecast/Miracast support built in due to the KitKat 4.4.2 ROM.
The tablet has a built-in stylus as well. I originally wasn't that concerned with this feature, but I have to say it is an absolute gaming plus when playing games like Sky Force 2014. Not having my huge pudgy digit blocking the view of the ship has made a huge difference to my scores on this game.
ROM updates are managed directly by NVidia, and I have to say they are really, really frequent. The launch of the device saw some serious issues with Wi-Fi performance, however about a month after the tablet went to market, I have installed an official fix to the issue. Very timely updates.
Speaking of the ROM, it also has native recording *with* mic audio. Twitch streaming direct from the device (should you have a decent upload speed, which I don't in Australia). Immersive Mode built into the Settings blind. And if you like annotating pictures (like we do when beta testing), removing the styus activates a lasso menu with annotation tools built in.
It is a very impressive device, at a very impressive price.
And, of course, it plays TPA very well. Doesn't even sweat when you activate 4xMSAA. I even turned on GPU compositing for everything and it didn't even blink.
I would love to try a build of TPA using PC assets on this device. I think that it would be able to cope easily with running the build. It's rumored that the Nexus 9 will be sporting a Tegra K1 64-bit processor (Shield runs 32-bit), so the new generation of devices might start to close the gap between PC and Mobile.