What better way to welcome the new season of life than by bursting into a spending spree, right? While gamers probably wished there were no need to wait for seasons to have sales, we'll take what we can. NVIDIA has just kicked off Spring with a SHIELD-centric sale. And while the titles are admittedly on the thin side, at least one game comes with a PC code as well.
Who said Android couldn’t have triple-A games? Well, technically some Android devices, specifically NVIDIA’s SHIELD devices, can, but through GeForce NOW or GameStreaming. Given hardware constraints, it just isn’t possible to have native, resource-intensive games on Android. Or is it? Square Enix and NVIDIA certainly don’t think so. Showing off both Square Enix’s development chops as well as the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TVs powerful hardware, the two have made the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider available natively on Android, though limited only to the NVIDIA SHIELD.
This week the folks at NVIDIA have announced their intention to deliver the newest in Android Nougat features to their own NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet. This is another example of NVIDIA providing support for devices well beyond the efforts of their other Android-based competition. This makes the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet, again in my mind, one of the most excellent and - certainly for Android - the best tablets in the world today.
At CES 2017 early in January, NVIDIA made a surprising but still welcome announcement. It had a new SHIELD Android TV, but in many aspects, it’s as good as the old SHIELD Android TV. In fact, in at least one aspect, it may be seen as worse. The new NVIDIA SHIELD, in the process of shaving off some size, also shaved off the microSD card slot. If that feature, however, is of utmost importance to you, then worry no longer. NVIDIA has just announced the immediate availability of the new SHIELD Pro, which is almost exactly like the older SHIELD Pro, microSD card slot and all.
NVIDIA's original SHIELD TV is getting its big SHIELD Experience 5.0.2 update today, bringing the media-streaming games console up to date with Android 7.0 Nougat and a host of other features. The new software was promised back at CES 2017, and unexpectedly comprehensive refresh of the first-generation SHIELD TV that brought to it many of the abilities of the brand new, second-gen model also announced. After a false-start earlier in the month, Software Update 5.0 for the Shield TV (2015) is available today.
It must have been an emotional roller coaster for owners of the original NVIDIA SHIELD. At first, it seemed that NVIDIA was rolling out the big Android 7.0 update to the first gen SHIELD, including all the sweat features in the new SHIELD. But just as suddenly, it yanked away that update. The good news is that the update will still come. The bad news, owners will have to wait a bit later, hopefully until next week at the earliest.
Over the past two years just one device has been in near-constant use at my home - that's the original NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV. This piece of hardware sits quietly to the side of my television and serves content to my family almost every day of the year. Unlike any other device I've used over the past half-decade, the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV has never failed to feel like a natural part of my everyday routine - without the need for an over-abundant amount of software updates, and completely functional in every way I'd needed it to be. That's why I was skeptical when NVIDIA announced they'd be releasing another newer NVIDIA SHIELD device this year.
In our first hands-on experience with the NVIDIA SHIELD TV, I made a strong suggestion that the Game Controller was the major upgrade of this generation in SHIELD hardware. As such, I've separated this review from our primary review of the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. The review here suggests that this new controller is largely worth purchasing on its own if the user already owns the Gen1 NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV device, and will be a positive piece of the puzzle for those that purchase Gen2.
While NVIDIA did make a big splash at CES 2017 by completely embracing Google Assistant in its SHIELD Android TV box, there was one resounding thread that begged to be heard: give us a new SHIELD Portable. The gamepad cum tablet form factor, the original bearer of the "SHIELD" brand, has not seen a refresh since, well, since it launched. Those prayers may be close to being answered as what is allegedly the SHIELD Portable 2 was just seen at the FCC, hinting at its imminent announcement.
NVIDIA SHIELD has suddenly begun to look like a smart home master this week at CES 2017, adding Google Assistant and SmartThings to take the IoT in one swift stroke. For new users, all that's needed is the NVIDIA SHIELD TV device - it includes a standard TV remote and a gaming remote, both of which have microphones to accept voice commands. NVIDIA SPOT also has a microphone as well as a speaker, acting as an extension of the smart home functionality of NVIDIA SHIELD with Google Assistant and SmartThings connectivity.
My initial experience with NVIDIA SHIELD 2017 was a positive one. While the device does not - at first - seem to be all that different from its predecessor, several key distinctions make the release of 2017's SHIELD an important one. One of these is the dedication to legacy users NVIDIA is showing with this new product - all software features and connectivity to new devices will be given to the previous model - it'll work just as well as this new one.
NVIDIA has just revealed its next-generation SHIELD TV at CES 2017, and it arrives offering a number of improvements over its predecessor. Not only has the aesthetic design been overhauled, but the new SHIELD is capable of streaming content in HDR at 4K resolution. Users will be able to stream 4K video from a variety of services, including YouTube, Amazon Video, Netflix, and Google Play.
