nVIDIA SHIELD Pro Reviews

Make no mistake about it, the NVIDIA SHIELD is a great device. But whether it's worth the $300 USD price tag is entirely dependent on what you plan on using it for. There's no better Android gaming device on the market, but if that's all you want it for, the price tag may be a bit steep. Indeed, if you're not interested in the PC Game Streaming and/or Console Mode, I'd have to recommend a PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS instead. If you are interested in the PC Game Streaming, you better ensure your PC meets the minimum requirements. If you're running an AMD GPU, you're out of luck. Same goes for notebook users, as none of the mobile NVIDIA GPUs support PC Game Streaming (at least not currently). If you do happen to be a desktop member of the green team, not so fast – you still need a GTX600 series or better, which means a card released within the last year and a half. The good thing is, if you happen to be in the market for a new video card, NVIDIA is running a special Holiday Bundle promotion; you can grab a GTX 660, 660 Ti, 670, 680, 690, or 760 and receive $50 USD off the SHIELD, or go all out with a GTX 770, 780, 780 Ti, or TITAN and receive $100 USD off the SHIELD.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear very heated debates about people should get a SHIELD. It is an “extreme” device which has been designed to offer a “no-compromise” Android Gaming experience, and this is exactly what it delivers. Like any other extreme device, some will absolutely love it and some will find it overkill. In the end, it’s about what YOU want to play and how you want to play it, so make sure that there are great titles for you on Android (or on streaming PC). If you do find them, SHIELD will show you Android gaming like you’ve never seen it before.

At $300, NVIDIA Shield is a hard sell as a portable game console, but an easy sell in place of a similarly priced tablet. Sure, it doesn't have a camera, but it does offer extremely impressive PC streaming, along with wide viewing angles. The Shield remains a "truly strange device," but it's one that we feel comfortable recommending to hardcore PC gamers and Netflix junkies alike.

Though still in beta at this time, streaming games from a PC to SHIELD is also really cool. Sports, driving, and action games (and console ports) that work well with a game controller are best suited to SHIELD, but shooters work fine too. Though personally, I found it tough to adjust to the analog sticks for shooters after decades gaming with a keyboard and mouse. Consuming multimedia on SHIELD is great too. The 720P screen offers excellent brightness and contrast, Tegra 4 has absolutely no trouble ripping through HD video, and the custom tuned stereo speakers are some of the best we’ve heard yet, on a portable device. At $299 though, NVIDIA’s SHIELD is probably going to be a tough sell to some folks. Portable gaming systems from Sony and Nintendo are available for less, which will make Joe Sixpack do a double take seeing SHIELD’s price tag. But that $299 goes a long way in our opinion and SHIELD, in many ways, does more. The NVIDIA SHIELD is not only a cool portable gaming device, and a powerful Android mini-tablet, but it’s a great companion to a gaming PC in our opinion too. For $299, you get one of the fastest Android tablets out there, access to a boatload of free or very affordable games, and the ability to stream games from a compatible PC. SHIELD can also easily connect to a TV though HDMI or wirelessly using a Miracast compatible receiver. Though gaming is the main focus of SHIELD, quite simply, it offers a whole lot more.

While the Nvidia Shield may have a tough time finding its audience, it is an excellent portable gaming device. Yes, you can play games on your iPad, but not with this level of sound quality, and certainly not with the precise control offered by dual joysticks and plenty of face buttons, triggers, and bumpers. The Shield would be perfect for someone who is a hardcore gamer first, second, and third, and only peripherally interested in general tablet functions. While it is certainly capable of handling your Gmail or being used as a music player, it isn't exactly pocketable. But it plays, sounds, and looks beautiful, and works exactly as advertised...so long as you're playing Shield-enhanced games from the TegraZone. Otherwise it has some serious limitations, so carefully evaluate your needs before you take the plunge.

The Shield is an impressive bit of hardware but it's niche - and it doesn't really replace any of the devices you already likely own.

The Nvidia Shield is one of the most impressive handheld gaming systems we've ever tested; it has some great features, but it's still limited by the Android library.

The Shield is a high-quality device with stellar performance, and while most of what it currently offers will first and foremost appeal to hard-core gamers, I'm anxiously awaiting more compatible games to come to the device. Casual gamers should be satisfied by the cheaper Nexus 7, but the hard-core gamers will appreciate the Shield's superior performance and tactile controls, as long as they're willing to wait for more games that take advantage of them.

My time with NVIDIA’s SHIELD has been more exciting and compelling than I had expected. The Tegra 4 SoC is powerful, and the gaming performance is truly impressive for such a small device. The build quality of every component of SHIELD is top notch including the controller, the screen, the speakers and even the available accessories. Android gaming is an odd market to be sure, with the highs and lows we have come to expect with these app stores, but NVIDIA’s push the TegraZone initiative is doing a great job curating and promoting better practices for developers. Even though NVIDIA is not in any of the next-generation consoles, everybody wants to rule the world and they believe the mobile market is the doorway into it. NVIDIA promises this is just the first of many SHIELD devices to come and I can’t wait to see how the technology evolves and grows. I don’t consider SHIELD to be a “must buy” device, but users that find the feature set interesting and might utilize the PC streaming capability should definitely put this on your $300 gadget list.

This is just the beginning. It’s immediately apparent that SHIELD is capable of doing a lot more than we’re seeing here at launch, and not just in gaming. With wireless projection and this unit’s HDMI out paired with low-latency PC mirroring, wireless controllers turning SHIELD into a console, and untapped potential in abundance inside the processing power of Tegra 4, the possibilities are exciting.NVIDIA has never released a product like SHIELD before. Judging solely by the attention NVIDIA has given SHIELD in the weeks and months between its announcement and its final release, we’ve no doubt that there’ll be not just software support in the way of Android OS updates, but for accessories and uniquely optimized games as well. Deciding to engage with NVIDIA SHIELD will be less like purchasing an everyday smartphone or tablet than it will be like picking up the sole hero device sold by a company that up until now – for several years at least – has been building a software and hardware ecosystem to support it. This is a moment in NVIDIA’s history you’ll want to be a part of.

Pleasantly enough for PC gaming enthusiasts, streaming content is a video playback workload; the rendering happens on your desktop. That means you’ll get even more out of Shield’s battery if you’re playing GRID 2 or Skyrim. Right now, there are 21 games on Nvidia’s list of titles fully-configured for streaming. Some of them are well-suited to joystick control and others can be downright frustrating. There will be titles that never translate well from PC to Shield. But for now, there’s a ton of novelty in playing familiar games from somewhere other than next to a gaming box.