All you need to know about Nvidia Shield: specs, features, and availability

In the words of my colleague Joe Hindy, the Project Shield is the bomb that Nvidia just dropped over Las Vegas, the host of CES 2013. While the Tegra 4 chip was pretty much what we expected, and the new Icera i500 programmable modem was a reasonable surprise, no one expected Nvidia to come up with a stock Android handheld console that can play Android and PC titles and stream them to your HDTV.

Here’s our live event video documenting the launch of Project Shield (it’s not clear at this point if this will be the commercial name of the device).

If you want to learn more, we’ve compiled all the available information on the Project Shield specs, features, availability, and pricing. Check it out.

Specs

Project Shield is powered by Tegra 4, Nvidia’s freshly unveiled quad-core Cortex A15 chip. All the details on Tegra 4 here.
The amounts of RAM and storage have not been announced yet. We assume that the device features 2GB of RAM. Users will be able to expand storage using a microSD slot. Ports include a USB port, a standard audio jack, and HDMI output.
Apparently, the device will support LTE, although at this point the beta version we were shown only supports WiFi.

Battery

The Shield comes with built-in Li-Ion batteries of unspecified capacity. Nvidia says that playing PC games on the Shield (see below) will not require that much battery juice, because all the hard work is done by the PC. The Tegra 4 chip is said to be more power efficient than the Tegra 3, which could also contribute to an extensive battery life for the Shield.
Nvidia promises 38 hours of gaming for the Shield, without being more specific. We have to wonder about the weight of the device, considering how quickly a 3D game can munch through a regular smartphone battery. To achieve 38 hours of gaming, Nvidia must have fitted the Shield with some extra-large batteries.

Controller

Nvidia calls the controller on the Shield “console-grade”, and from the looks of it, the device delivers on the promise. At first glance, you could even mistake the Shield for a PS3 DualShock 3 controller.
The Shield controller buttons and sticks:

• 2 joysticks
• a D-pad
• ABXY buttons
• left/right bumpers
• left/right analog triggers
• Start/Back/Home/Volume buttons
• a multi-function NVIDIA/Power button.

Display

The Shield incorporates a flipping 5-inch display, with a 1280 x 720 (HD) resolution. Nvidia somehow dubiously calls the display on Project Shield “retinal”. In non-marketing speak, the screen boasts a 294ppi pixel density, which makes the Shield better than direct competitors, such as the Sony Vita and the Wii U.
Nvidia also claims that the touch response of the Project Shield’s display is three times better than other, unspecified, devices, thanks to Tegra 4’s Direct Touch technology.

Speakers

Nvidia highlighted the dual speakers of the Shield, which are “custom designed to take advantage of the controller’s deep body”. Also, the controller features two tuned ports for better bass response. The Santa Clara-based company claims that this speakers setup provides a better sound than many high-end laptops.

Stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and ecosystem

The Project Shield runs stock Android 4.2. Kudos to Nvidia for acknowledging that the latest iteration of Android is a great operating system with a great interface, that doesn’t require tweaking and skinning just for the sake of it.
Because Shield runs stock Android, users will have access to all the 600,000+ apps in the Play Store, all the Google services, and all the media content (music, movies, and books) in Google’s store.
Nvidia revealed that Android games optimized for Project Shield would be made available in the TegraZone portal. These include so far:

• Arma Tactics
• Blood Sword
• Burn Zombie Burn
• Dead Trigger 2
• Real Boxing
• Rochard

Check out one of the first demos of Android title on Nvidia Shield – Dead Trigger 2 courtesy of MobileGeeks:

PC games and Steam

Project Shield’s most amazing feature is the ability to connect to an Nvidia GTX-powered PC and play PC titles. Moreover, because the Shield also acts like a streaming station, it lets you play your PC games on your HDTV, wirelessly.
Here’s how it works – a PC equipped with a GeForce GTX 650 (Desktop) or GTX 660M (Notebook) video card or higher does all the work and streams it wirelessly to the Shield. This is made possible by the fast H.264 hardware encoder that Nvidia baked into its Kepler architecture. The encoder converts the HD gameplay and streams it to the handheld at very low latency. When the user pushes a button, the signal is beamed back to the PC, and the game reacts.
All this is done through Steam, the popular gaming service, meaning that you will need to purchase games through Steam to play them on the Shield. Steam provides the Big Picture mode, which is a UI specifically designed for big screens.
The technology is similar with how game streaming services such as OnLive or Gaikai work, except the server is your own PC. However, at least at first look, Project Shield enables much better looking HD gameplay than the mentioned cloud-based services.
To summarize, the Shield’s unique PC streaming capability will allow you to enjoy your PC games from anywhere in your home, even from your couch while playing on your big screen TV.

PC requirements

According to Nvidia, the following specs are required to stream PC games on the Shield:

• GPU: NVIDIA® Kepler™-based GeForce GTX 650 (Desktop) or GTX 660M (Notebook) or higher
• CPU: Intel Core i5 or equivalent or higher
• System Memory: 4 GB or higher
• Software: GeForce Experience™ application and latest GeForce drivers
• OS: Windows 7 or higher
• Router: Router: 802.11a/g/n (Recommended: 802.11n Dual Band / MIMO Router)

PC games supported

Nvidia says that any PC game that supports controllers can be played on the Shield, and, even if the game does not support controllers natively, users will be able to map controls to the joystick and the buttons of the device.
During the CES demo, we’ve seen the Shield running Assassins Creed 3 flawlessly and beaming it to a HDTV. Another impressive demo was Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which ran without glitches, and with almost no perceptible lag.
PC titles that Nvidia features on its website are:

• Assassin’s Creed 3
• Battlefield 3
• Borderlands 2
• Dishonored
• Hawken
• Portal 2
• Skyrim

In addition to Steam games, it seems that Nvidia will start offering PC titles through its TegraZone portal. We have nothing official on that, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Check out one of this demo of Need for Speed: Most Wanted running on the Nvidia Shield, courtesy of MobileGeeks:

Nvidia Shield price and availability

Nvidia has stubbornly avoided giving hints about the price of the Project Shield, but at least it conceded an “anticipated ship date” – Q2 2013. In the first stage, the Shield will only sell in the United States and Canada, with more regions to be added “as soon as possible”.
But how much can we expect the Project Shield to cost? Given the technology that goes inside the handheld console, we think that the Shield will cost about the same as a high-end smartphone. However, Nvidia needs to balance its margins with the need to be competitive against handheld consoles, like the Sony Vita and the Wii U, and also against smartphones and tablets. With handhelds costing $250-$300 and subsidized smartphones and tablets hovering in the same price range, pricing the Shield right could be a tough call for Nvidia.
Stay tuned on Android Authority – we’ll bring you more details as we find them out. Meanwhile, you can check out Nvidia’s press release.
Source: Androidauthority

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