Nvidia Shield Tablet

[ams23]

Yeah, hopefully we will find out more soon, as I was planning on getting a unit sometime within the next week or two.

 

[Homer Simpson]

as i mentioned in my review above (yeah, the long one) i was disappointed in the wifi performance. i ended up with a second shield tab and im hesitant to open it until i know if this is software fixable or a hardware design failure.

in case you're wondering, i got a second delivered today because amazon couldnt cancel my order last week after i picked one up locally. 12hrs after i tried to cancel (and couldnt) they shipped it. you'd think somewhere in that 12hr window before it shipped, they couldve stopped processing the order but no. if the wifi is fixable, ill just keep it and give it to the girlfriend to use. she's been using my old note 8 lately but i got her playing and enjoying trine2 on my shield saturday so...

 

[ams23]

So I just ordered a Shield tablet, and should have it by sometime next week.

According to someone on the GeForce forums, the WiFi antenna is on the top right section of the picture below:

So when using this tablet in landscape mode (ie. with speakers on the left and right side of the tablet), try to orient it so that the camera is on the left side. And when using this tablet in portrait mode (ie. with speakers on the top and bottom side of the tablet), try to orient it so that the camera is on the bottom side of the tablet when not actually using the built in camera for face time.

Note that WiFi signal may become stronger by disabling the "WiFi optimization" setting in the settings power control menu, or simply by rebooting the tablet, but this issue is still being actively investigated by NVIDIA.

Wish me luck

 

[ams23]

Framerate testing with Dead Trigger 2, Sonic 4 Episode 2, Real Racing 3, Asphault 8, GTA San Andreas, Rochard (note that a couple of these games have a 30fps framerate cap): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2twSs8im9k

Eurogamer review on Shield tablet: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-shield-tablet-review

 

[ams23]

Anandtech has done a followup on GFXBench T-Rex Onscreen battery life and temps using a 30fps framerate cap: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8329/revisiting-shield-tablet-gaming-ux-and-battery-life

 

[jacktesterson]

Just ordered one today. Got it for a great price.

Will do some benchmarks, etc

 

[npaladin-2000]

How great is "great?" I'm contemplating one, but I have a G Pad 8.3 that I like quite a bit, so I'm debating.

Also debating waiting for the 32 GB model, but I get free tethering so LTE connectivity isn't that big of a deal...

 

[s44]

I'd wait on Volantis. K1 Denver should be the beast of all beasts... though Google could cripple it with storage limits.

 

[QueBert]

Nvidia did a bang up job with this tablet, nowhere local has it in stock, and none of the stores I called have any ETA idea whatever-so-ever. Amazon has some, but they're well above retail. Newegg has none in stock. I would have bought this yesterday if I could have found it. I'd understand if this had an iPad level following and the stores just couldn't keep them on the shelves. But half the stores I called didn't even know what I was asking about, and most of the rest haven't had it in stock yet.

 

[Raghu]

Some people have reported improved WiFi performance with the latest update

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ield-tablet-ota-1-1-official-feedback-thread/

 

[Phobic9]

I sold my iPad mini retina for the Nvidia shield tablet and my opinions are mostly positive. This is my first Android tablet (I've had nearly every version of the iPad) though I've been using Android phones since the original Droid. I actually bought my tablet at Gamestop and I picked up a controller at Best Buy. The controller is very well made and much needed IMO. I will say that I wasn't a heavy gamer on my iPad but I did have a LOT of games and generally I feel iOS has better games in general. I will be getting an iPhone 6 to replace my Moto X though. I like having both platforms.

The game streaming is very quirky. Initially, Limelight worked better than Nvidia's own software. That was until yesterday when Valve pushed a patch for Steam and "broke" it. Normally, I'd launch Steam from the tablet and it more or less remotes into my desktop using big picture mode. Well, after the patch, big picture mode is borked on the tabled due to a resolution mismatch or something. No one has been able to fix it yet though. I can still add games directly using Nvidia Gamestream (on desktop client) but it's a minor gripe.

Battery life has been pretty good for me overall. Nothing scientific at all but it lasts similar to my iPad mini in terms of how I used it. The wider aspect ratio has been the most challenging for me to get used to and the screen isn't as good as as my iPad was but it's tolerable.

WiFi was very off when I first got it but the patch definitely helped. I'm baffled they didn't include wireless AC though. Very odd choice. I'm not having the problem with cracked edges either and I've mishandled the tablet a couple of times as well. D:

I could go on and on but again, so far so good for now.

 

[jacktesterson]

I ordered my nVidia Shield on August 31st - It just shipped out today.

Says should have it Thursday.

 

[jacktesterson]

Mine arrived, Picking it up from the Post Office after work

 

[jacktesterson]

Got mine

Super fast.

 

[jacktesterson]

Here is a screen cap:

 

[badb0y]

How good is the stylus?

 

[Roland00Address]

Super fast. This thing fly's. Nothing slows it down.

Scores around 40k in Antutu - crazy score.

I am glad it is crazy fast.

That said Antutu is junk

[url="http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2013/07/18/time-to-stop-the-insane-smartphone-benchmark-practices/]Lots of benchmarks are bad, but Antutu is special[/url]

 

[Soccerman06]

Common google release L so we can get a fair comparison between the Nexus 9 and the Nvidia tablet.

 

[jacktesterson]

I returned it for a Tab S 8.4

The Shield is a buggy mess. WiFi is weak, the screen is dull and it's a really heavy 8 inch tablet. It was an impulse buy but I returned it. The screen and weight difference of the Tab S alone make it so much better. It's also stable.

I couldn't even use profiles on the Shield..it would bring the performance of the Tab to a screeching lag fest when you had more than 1 profile setup. As soon as you deleted the 2nd profile it's back to zippy fast.

I also experienced a lot of screen tearing.

Way way way too many crashes and app issues. HD Widgets for some reason messes the Shield up.

Chrome and Chrome Beta both ducked as well.


Nvidia has some work to do. It has potential but what good is all that muscle when the OS is not stable?
Also very poor choice of screen. Whites look too yellow for my liking.

I have had the Tab S 2 days and it's wayyyyyy better overall. I should have done my research first.

 

[cbrunny]

Curious about other's experiences with this tab as well. Reviews seem mostly positive, but its been out for a while now. Is it holding up?

 

[ams23]

My experience has been great so far with Shield tablet. I prefer to use the stock AOSP browser included on the device rather than Chrome because it seems to be better optimized. I use this tablet primarily for video streaming, video playback, and web browsing with some music listening and gaming too. Note that the midrange and high frequency audio quality and detail is even better than Shield portable!

I was able to play Trine 2 continuously for more than half an hour with the device being only slightly warm to the touch. The only time the device got very warm to the touch was when I continuously ran the Digital Ira "Human Head" demo for several minutes which made use of all the 192 CUDA compute cores.

I would have preferred to get the 64-bit Tegra K1 variant with Denver CPU, but for the price and feature set (microSD, stylus, etc) I really can't complain and am quite pleased with it.