UPDATE: Whoops! It appears that Amazon took the listing down… No surprise there. I'm sure we'll be seeing them again VERY SOON. 🙂
Looks like the release of the new NVIDIA SHIELD console device, first revealed back at GDC in March, is nearly here. A listing for "NVIDIA SHIELD" as well as the new "NVIDIA SHIELD Pro" showed up on Amazon.com today.
Though we don't know what the difference between the SHIELD and SHIELD Pro are officially, according to Amazon at least, the difference appears to be the internal storage. The Pro model will ship with 500GB of internal storage, the non-Pro model will only have 16GB. You'll have to get an SD Card for more storage on the base model if you plan on doing anything other than streaming games through NVIDIA GRID it seems.
No pricing is listed yet and there is no release date on the Amazon pages either, but we have always been told this was to be a May or June on-sale date. Both models of the NVIDIA SHIELD will include an HDMI cable, a micro-USB cable and a SHIELD Controller. If you want the remote or stand, you're going to have to pay out a bit more.
For those of you that missed out on the original SHIELD announcement from March, here is a quick table detailing the specs, as we knew them at that time. NVIDIA's own Tegra X1 SoC featuring 256 Maxwell GPU cores powers this device using the Android TV operating system, promising 4K video playback, the best performing Android gaming experience and NVIDIA GRID streaming games.
| NVIDIA SHIELD Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Processor | NVIDIA® Tegra® X1 processor with 256-core Maxwell™ GPU with 3GB RAM |
| Video Features | 4K Ultra-HD Ready with 4K playback and capture up to 60 fps (VP9, H265, H264) |
| Audio | 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound pass through over HDMI High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192kHz over HDMI and USB High-resolution audio upsample to 24-bit/192hHz over USB |
| Storage | 16 GB |
| Wireless | 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4.1/BLE |
| Interfaces | Gigabit Ethernet HDMI 2.0 Two USB 3.0 (Type A) Micro-USB 2.0 MicroSD slot (supports 128GB cards) IR Receiver (compatible with Logitech Harmony) |
| Gaming Features | NVIDIA GRID™ streaming service NVIDIA GameStream™ |
| SW Updates | SHIELD software upgrades directly from NVIDIA |
| Power | 40W power adapter |
| Weight and Size | Weight: 23oz / 654g Height: 5.1in / 130mm Width: 8.3in / 210mm Depth: 1.0in / 25mm |
| OS | Android TV™, Google Cast™ Ready |
| Bundled Apps | PLEX |
| In the box | NVIDIA SHIELD NVIDIA SHIELD controller HDMI cable (High Speed), USB cable (Micro-USB to USB) Power adapter (Includes plugs for North America, Europe, UK) |
| Requirements | TV with HDMI input, Internet access |
| Options | SHIELD controller, SHIELD remove, SHIELD stand |
what does it do? Android set
what does it do? Android set top box that can stream from a nvidia card? am I missing something? Are there games on android that can use that GPU? Or is this a “here’s the platform, now run with it” kinda thing?
It runs everything the SHIELD
It runs everything the SHIELD portable and SHIELD tablet can. NV has ported Half-Life 2 and Portal to the platform, and there’s a port of Trine 2 that looks and runs about as good as the last gen console version. These new devices feature the Tegra X1 SoC, which should perform around 50% faster than the Tegra K1 in the SHIELD tablet.
If you have an Nvidia GPU you
If you have an Nvidia GPU you can stream your games off your computer to the tablet/controller on to another tv in your house. Also Nvidia Grid that will allow you do same thing from a cloud based machine.
Enter in Steam link, no
Enter in Steam link, no “requirement” for vendor specific hardware.
Nvidia grid has added latency if you don’t live near one of their few grid farms. but hey, if your ok wiht added latency and can mentally adjust to hte added delay, then go for it.
It does a little bit of
It does a little bit of everything, I agree it is ambitious on the part of Nvidia and lacks real focus, imo, but they are basically hedging their bets in every direction. Having such a powerful SoC (Tegra X1) and the Android ecosystem makes pretty much everything on the table but basically you get:
1) All Android games (meh)
2) All Shield capabilities (streaming, movies, Netflix)
3) *newish* GRID streaming, this will go subscription based eventually I think but for now Nvidia seems to be offering it free to Shield owners. You can also buy games on Shield console, and they will run free of charge on Nvidia’s GRID servers. So basically you buy the game, but you stream it from Nvidia’s servers. This is the new angle they are pushing.
All in all, this is a lot of bang for a smallish price tag. Only $200 for the fastest Android GPU on the planet and that includes a $50 MSRP high quality controller too.
All 3 upper posts, excellent!
All 3 upper posts, excellent! , you make a good explanation, and it sound good, but it still seems lacking in the “I need this” part. Perhaps it will be the next “must have” but for now, it still seems like a bit of a stretch.
It’s basically a “We designed
It’s basically a “We designed this SOC, committed to a minimum wafer order, and in lieu of customers, we’ll try to get some of our money back from direct-to-consumer sales”-kinda thing.
It is one of the more
It is one of the more pointless things to ever come out of nvidia.
And you have to have a Nvidia
And you have to have a Nvidia GPU on the rig to be able to stream to the device and TV. This vendor lock-in is not going to allow for the sales market coverage of the other devices. I would rather have a neutral device to stream to, something that could run a full OS both windows, or Linux, the new crop of AMD based APUs look like a better choice, especially the Carrizo and Carrizo-L SKUs. Hopefully the CompuLab Fitlet PC folks will have some of their Mint box, and other super mini PC based devices with the newer AMD kit.
In the Arm based market Imagination Technologies’ powerVR 7900 series could go up to 16 clusters with 512 cores, so maybe someone will put together a competing product, and pair it with either an ARM ISA based SKU, or go with one of Imagination Technologies’ new 64 bit MIPS cores. I would like a system that could run a full Linux distro, as the ability to run the Android VM is there also, as they both are using the Linux kernel.
Nvidia almost wants to become a streaming/cable like company, and I would like my hardware to be not tied to any closed software/hardware ecosystem.
I’d say that for gamers, the
I’d say that for gamers, the most compelling feature of a shield device is the capability of streamign games from a local machine. the other features are more geared towards the mass of casual gamers.
Good thing that Steam-Link is coming out this year, no requirement for a vendor specific lock-in.
Its not at all confusing to
Its not at all confusing to release every device you make over the course of years with the same name.
Least it has gigabyte nic
Least it has gigabyte nic port and ac wireless that alone beaten ps4 and xbone which still have 10/100 nic port. Plus this would be nice for running all my old snes game on TV instead of on my phone or tablet. Though if they released this in tablet form with the lte I’d buy in heartbeat then I’d ditch my shtty Xperia phone either and use BT headset and toss in my Sim card and never need a phone till google modular phone became available here in Canada.and yes I know nvidia is killing there lte soft modem irca 500 or something so I’ll have to buy a sheild tablet before there discontinued.
Not much point to this
Not much point to this product imo. It’s too much money for a so-so device which lags while gaming of all things. Better places to spend your money than this.
Epic fail.
Epic fail.
If this had a gpu like a 680
If this had a gpu like a 680 the consoles woulda been done in lol.