Nvidia Shield Tablet, why you need one..

[MUSTKILL]

I've had this tablet for a few months now and it's nothing short of spectacular.
It's only $199.99 and has knocked off the Nexus 7 as the top price/performance tablet on the market.
I've been more than amazed by it's streaming capabilities. For example, I arrived at a clients office an hour early and wanted to kill time on my tablet. I was able to connect to a TimeWarner Wifi hotspot and stream Dark Souls 3 from my home PC to tablet. You'd expect some sort of game breaking lag, but the performance was similar to an Xbox 1. Not the 1080p @ 60 fps on my desktop obviously, but 30fps @ 720p was very playable with no lag considering I was 200 miles away from home:

Besides the game streaming, the actual hardware is by far more powerful than anything in it's price range.
It handles any Android game at max settings for what it's worth. Emulators (PSP, Dreamcast, MAME, etc) all run buttery smooth with the K1 processor.

The additional controller and stylus are totally worth it. While the stylus isn't Wacom quality, it does the job for basic drawing. Here's something I've doodled with it:

There's also some Nvidia Games now thing that's like Netflix for gaming. Subscription required but a huge library of games to stream from Nvidia's servers. I've used this service before, and it's actually quite good for casuals.

 

[echohead]

Your sales pitch had me up until the end; no filthy casuals on this forum.
Only big swinging dick players banging LA tens and benching teh 275 around these parts.

 

[MUSTKILL]

The subscription thing is only for plebs without master race machines.
If you have a legit gaming PC, there's no reason to sign up for that shit.

 

[Madmick]

If they have the spontaneous combustion issue sorted out, then it's an insane deal at $200:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/31/nv...-tablets-after-overheating-poses-fire-hazard/

But at this point the Android manufacturers and developers have been phoning it in so routinely for so long with their tablets that I carte blanche recommend against them, and urge users to save up and get iPads instead. People who get iPads are always happier.

 

[Primitivo]

People who get iPads are always happier.

You know this isn't true if it was a gift from your partner.

 

[Blayt7hh]

I bought one when they came out, and it was good until it got recalled. The new one they sent me has some weird issue though now where sometimes it drains the battery through the day, I think it's running a program or something when it should be asleep.

I wish I could give you a more fair review, but I have hardly ever used it for gaming. Really, I use it for reading about 90% of the time. They don't have a great selection for it, so I would recommend you browse the list of games available on it and make sure there is enough to justify it if you really do want it for portable gaming. Otherwise, it has a good screen and great speakers for a tablet. If you need a general purpose tablet on the cheap, it's a great option and actually I doubt there is anything out there better than it at $200. If you got the 5 or $600 to burn and you would make enough use of a tablet to justify it, get an iPad. For me, and iPad doesn't make sense because I hate tablet for just about anything other than reading. My wife likes them though, and she uses her iPad all the time and as Madmick said, it is just flat out better.

One caveat though, if you pirate videos like I do VLC works great on it and can play anything. I'm not sure the same is true for iPads

 

[thoughtsone]

Hmmm, is it worth selling my old Surface Pro 2 (I can get probably 200.00 for it) for this is I already have a kindle tablet and would be using this mainly at work to replace my old galaxy tablet for streaming screenconnect instances in browser as well as normal android stuff and apps for sysadmin stuff we have. It works on play but I dont know if the Nvidia is a closed environment like the kindle is.

The Surface is absolutely useless with its old RT windows installed...

 

[MUSTKILL]

If they have the spontaneous combustion issue sorted out, then it's an insane deal at $200:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/31/nv...-tablets-after-overheating-poses-fire-hazard/

But at this point the Android manufacturers and developers have been phoning it in so routinely for so long with their tablets that I carte blanche recommend against them, and urge users to save up and get iPads instead. People who get iPads are always happier.

I haven't had any issues with mine and Best Buy's 4.4/5 star rating shows it's been good.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-...lack/4701400.p?id=1219803088257&skuId=4701400

The iPad gpu doesn't come close to what the Shield can do and at half the cost. But that doesn't matter because it's an iPad?
People who get iPad's are happier because it's an iPad, that has nothing to do whether or not its better.
Even without the gaming stuff, it's still an amazing tablet with great specs (Tegra K1, SD card input, 4K video output, Android 6.0.1) and a low cost.

 

[MUSTKILL]

Hmmm, is it worth selling my old Surface Pro 2 (I can get probably 200.00 for it) for this is I already have a kindle tablet and would be using this mainly at work to replace my old galaxy tablet for streaming screenconnect instances in browser as well as normal android stuff and apps for sysadmin stuff we have. It works on play but I dont know if the Nvidia is a closed environment like the kindle is.

The Surface is absolutely useless with its old RT windows installed...

Definitely. Especially if you're used to the Android environment, it'll be a breeze. The Nvidia market is just another place that actually just links you to the Play store, so it's essentially all the same. Just certain applications are supported with Nvidia's seal of approval for optimization (Half-Life 2, Portal, etc). And these games run native on the device, NOT streaming. The device can run games locally, streaming from home, or Nvidia's servers. This video is a direct comparison between a galaxy tablet and the Nvidia Shield.

 

[Madmick]

I haven't had any issues with mine and Best Buy's 4.4/5 star rating shows it's been good.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-...lack/4701400.p?id=1219803088257&skuId=4701400

The iPad gpu doesn't come close to what the Shield can do and at half the cost. But that doesn't matter because it's an iPad?
People who get iPad's are happier because it's an iPad, that has nothing to do whether or not its better.
Even without the gaming stuff, it's still an amazing tablet with great specs (Tegra K1, SD card input, 4K video output, Android 6.0.1) and a low cost.

What are all these things it can do that the iPad can't? The iPad has a tremendous advantage of apps over it- especially for gaming. The Shield has wonderful specs including the Tegra K1 processor, and it was great in theory, but it didn't pan out. It also isn't like it's hardware is superior to the iPad's. It isn't. The iPad has superior effective processing power: hands down. It has greater overall graphical power. Ultimately, though, it comes down to the fact that the entire internet offers optimized versions of their websites for the iPad, and almost none do for the various Android resolutions. Same thing goes for apps. There's a reason this thing debuted at $399 and is now selling at $199 while the newest iPad always debuts at $499, and stays at $499.

I agree this is the best deal for an Android tablet right now, hands down, but the iPad is just flat out superior for what the majority of people want to use tablets to do. I think the NVIDIA Shield TV (w/Tegra X1) at $199 caters to a better niche for Android's advantages. No need to waste money on the screen. Android is strongest for phones and HTPC's. iOS is strongest for phones and tablets.