Nvidia Shield Gaming Tablet Review

Peter Donnell October 31, 2014Last Updated: October 31, 2014

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Final Thoughts

Price

The Nvidia Shield Tablet is one of the most competitively priced tablets on the market right now, at least in terms of price vs performance and features. Overclockers.co.uk currently sell the WiFi only 16GB model (the one we reviewed) for £239.99 and the WiFi/LTE 32GB edition for £375.97. The controller is a little expensive at £49.99, but it’s on par with the price of other wireless console controllers and finally you have the Tablet Cover which is just £25.99, a good price given its overall quality and functionality. The total cost of the WiFi only model, the controller and the cover I reviewed today is £315.97.

Overview

The original Shield is still one of my all time favourite gadgets; it goes everywhere with me when I’m travelling and given my line of work, I travel around the world quite a bit. Being able to play my emulator games, Android games and even stream my PC games to the device is an absolute blast and a refreshing change from the often closed system nature of devices such as the VITA and the 3DS. The Shield Tablet offers all of that same functionality, with the added bonus that it’s also a fully fledged Android tablet.

The original Shield wasn’t ideal for anything other than gaming, but the new Tablet form factor provides you with a device that’s perfect for all kinds of media consumption; checking Facebook, emails, or just generally browsing the web, reading eBooks, watching movies and even listing to music through the surprisingly rich sounding speakers. Then you also have a vast array of gaming features that really set the bar high compared to most other tablets and the mappable controller tools make setting up any game you want to play a piece of cake.

The price is competitive, the build quality is superb and the move of making the controller a separate entity is a smart one; you can buy this as a normal day-to-day tablet and it’ll certainly impress, but if you want a fully fledged Android gaming system, you’ll find the Shield Tablet has a lot to offer. I’ve already covered the many features of the original Shield since it launched and it’s great to see those features are all still alive and present in the Tablet. I may not have gone into the extensive range of game streaming capabilities, USB OTG and more in this review, but if you’re considering purchasing this tablet, it’s worth taking a look at these articles as they’re just as relevant to the Shield Tablet as they are to the original Shield:

Pros

Competitive price
Incredible GPU performance for a mobile device
Powerful speakers
Integrated stylus functions
Stylish design
Great range of Tegra optimized games available
Game streaming from compatible Nvidia gaming PCs
High quality wireless controller (sold separately)
Versatile tablet cover (sold separately)

Cons

The original Shield was much more travel friendly as the controller was integrated, but there are perks to having the controller and the device as separate units.

“The Nvidia Shield is mobile gaming done right, it’s every bit a fully fledged Android tablet with all the functionality you would expect from a premium grade tablet, with the added bonus of extra gaming features such as the impressive Tegra K1 GPU, the wireless controller and game streaming features; all of which set it above the competition. It has lost some of the simplicity of the original Shield, but gained a broader range of features in the process.”