Hey guys this is Austin and this is the new
Nvidia Shield. Crack open the box and inside
you’ll find the Shield itself along with
a decent amount of accessories. You’ve got
the controller which comes with every Shield,
an HDMI 2.0 ready cable, MicroUSB for charging
the controller, power adapter for the Shield
and a bit of paperwork to get you up and running.
The star of the show is definitely the Shield.
It’s a lot closer to an Apple TV than an
Xbox in size and with the optional stand it
should fit nicely with an entertainment system.
Powering everything is the new Tegra X1 with
eight cores, three gigabytes of RAM and what’s
essentially a smaller version of a full GTX
900 series desktop GPU. This is some serious
power for a set top box and the Shield takes
advantage with full 4K support. Not only can
it run Android TV in 4K at a smooth 60 frames
per second but this also means you have easy
access to 4K video on YouTube, you know, like
the video you’re watching right now but
of course also other 4K content from Netflix
with other services coming soon. Considering
how quickly 4K TVs have come down in price
this is a big win for Nvidia, nothing else
in this category can handle 4K right now even
including consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One.
Speaking of consoles, the Shield has some
gaming cred as well. There’s a decent selection
of native titles including classics like Half-Life
2. While playing Half-Life takes some getting
used to with a controller this is basically
the full experience. There’s also Doom 3:
BFG Edition which I’ve spent the most time
playing, it holds up nicely on the Shield
with a solid frame rate and some PC like options.
The Talos Principle takes this even farther
with full control over the graphics which
makes the nerd in me happy and it’s paired
with vaguely Portal-like puzzle solving gameplay
that’s a lot of fun, especially because
the original Portal is also on the Shield.
Many of these games have been ported to Android
TV by Nvidia but you’ve also got normal
titles like Leo’s Fortune which the Shield
handles easily. There are quite a few more
games on the way too such as Borderlands and
Crysis 3. The only problem is that the 16
gigabytes of built-in storage gets filled
up fairly quickly. There is a 500 gigabyte
Pro model for $100 more but it’s easy to
add a MicroSD card or even a normal USB hard
drive when you need to expand the storage.
On top of the native games there’s also
Nvidia’s Grid streaming. This is still in
beta at the moment but it allows you to stream
PC titles over the internet. It works reasonably
well although connecting over AC wireless
or even better Ethernet will help cut down
on latency. If you have a PC with an Nvidia
GTX 650 or better you can use GameStream to
play games from your PC on Shield. It works
really well, there’s almost no lag when
both the PC and Shield on the same Wi-Fi network.
All of this gaming is done on the Shield controller.
It’s on the bigger side but it’s comfortable
to hold with a nice weight. You’ve got a
MicroUSB for charging along with a headphone
jack and a few capacitive touch buttons for
navigating Android TV. There’s also a built-in
microphone which is really helpful for searching.
Half-Life 2.
Google Cast is also included which allows
the Shield to replace a Chromecast for apps
that don’t support Android TV, letting you
control media from your iOS or Android phone.
There’s also built in streaming to Twitch
straight from the Shield along with the ability
to record your gameplay without needing a
capture card. When Nvidia asked me to check
out the Shield I wasn’t sure what to expect
but after spending some time with it I’ve
got to say I’m impressed. At $200 it has
a lot going for it. Gaming is solid with more
titles on the way and the ability to handle
4K is a big win. So what do you guys think
about the Shield? Let me know in the comments
below and if you enjoyed and want to see more
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to the channel. Anyway guys thank you so much
for watching and I will catch you in the next
one.
