![]() ![]() The selection of local downloadable content is a bit sparse at the moment, but it's not completely devoid of good games. Dropped frames still happened occasionally during first-person shooters, like Borderlands, and fighting games, like Street Fighter x Tekken, but they happened less frequently and with fewer consequences than when I tested the service on the Nvidia Shield Tablet. Some can be played with the remote, but most, however, require you to use the controller.Īs I hypothesized in my Nvidia Grid hands on review, streaming works better when the system has a wired Ethernet connection. The latter are essentially Android games adopted and approved for the big screen. Of course, your mileage will vary greatly depending on your Internet connection speed.įlexing your thumbs on Nvidia's game console hybrid can be done in three ways: game streaming from Nvidia's cloud streaming service, streaming games from a nearby PC wirelessly or playing games local to the Shield itself. While I wasn't able to test 4K content on Netflix for this review, I've seen the feature enough in press demos to know that it looks as sharp and rich as you'd expect. YouTube in Ultra HD is absolutely gorgeous and works – like you might expect for a system with download speeds of 125Mbps – near flawlessly. (Editor's note: We were not able to test Netflix 4K streaming, as it requires a TV that supports HDCP 2.2 to stream UHD content.) The main event, of course, is the 4K content, available either through YouTube or Netflix. Here, you'll find the launching pad for Nvidia Grid, Android TV downloadable games and games available to stream from an Nvidia GeForce GPU-equipped PC. In the time since the Nexus Player's launch, little has changed for the better and it's mostly the same system I saw six months ago.Ĭontent is displayed in large, image-heavy blocks with recommendations appearing at the top of the home screen and individual rows for games, apps, settings, search and the Shield Hub. ![]() It's impossible to talk content on the Shield without acknowledging its underlying OS, Android TV. Like the controller, it has a volume slider, which is a nice addition over the Nexus Player's pad, but lacks a play/pause button. It's slimmer than both the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku 3's remotes, but doesn't come off as cheap or flimsy. ![]() In TechRadar's review package, Nvidia also included the optional remote, available for $50 (around £30, AU$65). What does a faster processor mean in terms of performance? You can play better looking games, apps and menus load faster and videos, especially those in Ultra HD, will buffer without issue as long as your internet connection is up to snuff. On top of being excellent gaming machines, those consoles host a bevy of streaming services themselves. The Tegra X1 processor makes the Shield the fastest, most powerful set-top box to date, only bested by the Xbox One and PS4. If you plan on downloading more games than you have time for, consider stepping up to the 500GB version, available for $299 (around £195, AU$385). Inside, the Nvidia Shield is packing some serious plastic: a Tegra X1 processor with 256-core Maxwell GPU, 3GB of RAM and, in the base package, 16GB of internal storage which can be upgraded via microSD. Spin it around back, and you'll find plenty of ports: Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, Two USB 3.0 (Type A) ports, micro USB 2.0 and a microSD slot. ![]() On the top of the obelisk-like device, you'll find an Nvidia logo, a touch-capacitive power button in the top-left corner and a green, v-shaped LED that lights up whenever the system is on. In either case, then you should probably save yourself some cash and buy one of the half-dozen other equally good, if not a hair more complete, set-top boxes. The Shield is exactly what you've been waiting for.īut maybe you can't see yourself enjoying gaming on a micro-console with a limited library of PC-quality games, or you've decided that you're not ready for 4K yet (or more likely it's not ready for you). Answering yes to all three means you can give up the search for a set-top box. (Unfortunately for those of you in Europe, Nvidia tells me that the Shield will release there in Q4 2015, and pricing will be announced closer to launch.)Īnswering yes to any of those questions means you'll find something about the Nvidia Shield to latch onto. "Are you interested in the Nvidia Grid game streaming service?" "Do you mind spending $199 (around £130, AU$255) for a faux-gaming system?" and "Do you even have a 4K TV?" Whether you need Nvidia's game console inside a set-top box of the future comes down to three simple questions. ![]()
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