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The NVIDIA SHIELD is now available for purchase! For $300, you’re getting a Tegra 4 gaming handheld that can do a whole lot of things. Aside from being able to play TegraZone games and more hot titles from the Google Play Store, the SHIELD also allows you to stream full-fledged PC games from your eligible NVIDIA GeForce-based PC.
Other specs for this device include a 5-inch 720p display, 2GB of RAM, HDMI out, 2×2 MIMO WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and more. It also has a full-fledged gamepad built-in which features a full suite of triggers, analog sticks and face buttons to control any game you want to play — Android, PC, or otherwise — with ease.
The device is shipping from NVIDIA now, so if you’re interested be sure to head to the silicon vendor’s site to order one. Be on the lookout for our official review in the hours to come, and don’t forget to visit the NVIDIA SHIELD section at AndroidForums.com to get going with community discussion, questions, and more!
Before me
No Comments = No Interested Buyers
Was never looking forward to this. It’s just to big and Bulky. Might run circles around other options but eh.
Couldn’t agree more. If they dropped it down to $150 it would be worth it. I hope they do this type of device again, but seriously focus on design/ergonomics. I think the next device running their next gen chipset would be an interesting thing to look at. Read somewhere that their next gen mobile GPU will have better graphics than the PS3.
Look, Xperia PLay 2
Yes this would be awesome but they’d have to design it all purdy, or just make a wifi only version.
Except it doesn’t also work as a phone so you have to carry two devices. I would be all over a phone like the Xperia Play but with better specs.
It’s hard to believe that at one point in the not too distant past there was a room full of college educated, successful, people at a major tech company who somehow all agreed to green light hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars for the research, development, and deployment of this guaranteed to flop device no one has any interest in. The mind reels.
Yea, but I’m glad they did. It’s gonna kick ass for emulation and retro-gaming enthusiasts, like me :) Screw the cheap, Chinese portables. This is the one I’ve been waiting for since the GP32 came out.
LOL.
Retro gaming hardly benefits from that hardware. My custom firmware PSP is a retro dream machine and a zillion times more portable than that ginormous abortion. You can get one of those for like $60 these days. Ditto a hacked Nintendo DS system.
If you insist on a separate setup and an Android device, get a used phone (or employ one you already have lying around for free) and a Moga/Controller setup and just use that as a dedicated setup for < $100. It will easily have the horsepower to do retro gaming.
Hacking is the spirit of retro gaming.
Yeah, you try running the arcade version of NARC on one of those, and let me know how that works :P Tried a PSP a long time ago, and it couldn’t even run all SNES games at full speed. Note that I realize I’m blowing past ‘retro’ here, but I’m thinking anything pre-1996 :)
The problem here is that anyone that might be interested in one will probably have a decent to high end smartphone that can do every thing it can. You are better off getting a MOGA or similar.
Here’s the main problem with using my smartphone to play games: it destroys my battery life.
Since I got the Nexus 7, I’ve been using that as my dedicated Android gaming device and even then, a lot of high-end games suck with touch controls.
I think the SHIELD is perfect for Android gamers that have already built up a huge library of games in Google Play. Think I might even sell my Nexus 7 for this…
I did say decent to high end ;)
I have a Note 2.
I am sure there is a market for these things, but I won’t be part of it.
If you have a phone with a removable battery you could just get a spare battery and a charger rather than a second device
Most phones these days don’t have removable batteries, or Tegra 4’s :) And I’m not really into having to pair up a controller when I want to use it, then trying to remove my phone from whatever janky controller clip it is attached to when I get a call. Trust me, I tried out this setup, and it sucked balls.
Yeah, I can understand that. Just offering a suggestion since Chris said battery was his main problem.
Or, better yet, get one of the many inexpensive super high capacity external batteries with USB. Then you just top off the battery with your external 12000mah battery. Plus it’ll charge your tablet, phone, whatever.
It’s not like most people are with high end smarthpones are going to switch devices midstream and be doing hours of gaming with something like that…. and the external battery is cheaper and smaller than that thing.
One less $300 device to carry around is a win, IMHO. Saving battery would be a dumb reason to make that trade off if you already have a high end phone. If you’re going to drop that much coin on yet another device I would get a dedicated system like the 3ds or Vita that has more console style games.
Yes, I find external batteries a bit awkward to use while carrying or using the device, but that is of course another option :)
I have a hard time seeing this device succeeding.
I just got shield in today(ordered it 2 months ago). Thus things his a BEAST. It scored 40293 on Antutu (highest one by far), 4390 on Geeckbench and 20014 on Quadrant!
I guess this end the debate which processor is more powerful the 2.3 GHz snapdragoin 800 or 1.91Ghz Tegra 4
before you buy it just ask yourself “am i a hotdog or a weenie gamer?” This one’s for all out hotdog gamers.