1 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:14,679 The Bit Phoenix Prodigym is compact and ready for anything. Click now to learn 2 00:00:11,599 --> 00:00:17,840 more. Welcome to my full review of 3 00:00:14,679 --> 00:00:19,680 NVIDIA's Shield handheld gaming device. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:24,640 Now, it's not going to be a full review in the sense that I compare the battery 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:28,560 life to other smartphones and tablets or um you know give you empirical numbers 6 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:34,000 on how the GPU performs. This is more of a hands-on review as well as a direct 7 00:00:31,439 --> 00:00:39,760 comparison to the Ghetto Shield, which was an Xbox 360 controller bolted to a 8 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:44,960 smartphone running Splashtop in order to simulate the Shield gaming experience 9 00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:50,079 where you can run PC games over wireless to your handheld device. Let's start 10 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:54,239 with the overall usage experience. So, first things first, it feels extremely 11 00:00:52,399 --> 00:00:58,480 solid in your hands. If anything, I'd say maybe a bit too solid. It can be 12 00:00:56,879 --> 00:01:03,760 quite heavy if you're sitting with it in your lap or if you're laying on your stomach playing with it, then you're 13 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:07,439 you're not going to have any problems. But if you're laying on your back, uh 14 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:11,040 holding it above your head and trying to play with it that way, then you might 15 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:14,240 run into a little bit of difficulty with your with your arms getting fatigued 16 00:01:12,479 --> 00:01:18,320 after, you know, 5 or 10 minutes and you might have to shift a little bit. With 17 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:22,479 that said, it really doesn't feel like they added the extra weight for no 18 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:25,840 apparent reason because it's got a nice beefy battery in it. you don't really 19 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:29,040 feel like, oh, the battery in this thing sucks. I'm playing with it, and I'm 20 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:35,280 running out of battery. No, what happens is you play with it, you plug it in, and it'll be ready to go next time around. 21 00:01:33,119 --> 00:01:39,040 With that said, if you if you're not using the stock charger, which is a 2.1 22 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:43,040 amp charger, you're going to be wasting your time. A 1 amp charger doesn't even 23 00:01:41,119 --> 00:01:46,640 charge this device fast enough to keep it charging while you're playing an 24 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:50,560 Android game on it. So, make sure you're using the default charger. It is a nice 25 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:54,880 compact 2.1 amp charger, so that's definitely a plus. In terms of 26 00:01:52,399 --> 00:01:57,680 ergonomics, I found that with my hands, um, it seems like it's designed for 27 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:02,079 someone with slightly bigger hands than me. I do have really small hands. I wear 28 00:01:59,439 --> 00:02:06,880 like women's small motorcycle gloves, but I was able to reach the ABXY buttons 29 00:02:04,719 --> 00:02:11,680 and the D-pad without any difficulty, without shifting at all. The joysticks 30 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:15,040 are they're a bit of a stretch for me, but I can I can move them in all 31 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:17,920 directions without without too much of a challenge. I don't stand a chance of 32 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:21,680 reaching any of these middle buttons without shifting. And uh actually at the 33 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:26,800 back, the shoulder buttons as well as the triggers were fine as well. I didn't 34 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:30,959 notice any heat that really bothered me. So nothing really transferred through 35 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:34,319 the game pad itself. And the exhaust vent on the back moves the heat away 36 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:40,400 from your hands. In fact, it's a little bit warm right now, but really nothing unbearable. It's got mini HDMI as well 37 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:44,080 as charging and a headphone microphone combo jack if you're not already 38 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:48,800 familiar with the way that Shield works. And as far as the ergonomics or as well 39 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:52,480 as as far as the design of the game pad itself goes, it's excellent. Uh the 40 00:02:50,879 --> 00:02:56,239 buttons here have a great tactile response. The joysticks feel really 41 00:02:54,160 --> 00:03:00,400 good. The one exception is the D-pad which is kind of poopy. Um it's fine for 42 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:06,640 something like oh you know weapon switching or um you know functionality 43 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:09,720 that's not critical. Uh whereas if you 44 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:12,239 were you know doing um platforming on 45 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:15,680 it, yeah, it's it's really really not that special. The speakers are excellent 46 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:18,879 though. So, it's loud enough that you can easily use it in an environment 47 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:24,159 where there's a fair bit of ambient noise. And the screen is nice and IPS, 48 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:28,000 has great viewing angles, and looks outstanding. It's also got a great range 49 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:31,760 of brightness. And running a running a stock Android device was really 50 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:36,319 refreshing for me because I run an HTC1, which is using Sense um and I've never 51 00:03:34,319 --> 00:03:39,760 actually used a stock Android device before. So, there you go. That's my 52 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:43,599 impressions overall of the Shield. I don't really see myself using the whole 53 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:47,680 uh tag thing here, but you you can if you want. Also, oh yes, this is an 54 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:52,640 accessory that I sort of recommend picking up. This is their carry case, 55 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:55,599 which has a nice hard shell to it, so it's going to protect it if you're 56 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:59,200 traveling around with it. It's got a little, you know, plug at the back that 57 00:03:57,439 --> 00:04:03,360 allows you to charge the device even when it's inside. Comes with a little 58 00:04:00,879 --> 00:04:07,040 wrist strap, and the overall feel is is very rugged. There's little carrying 59 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:10,159 pouches up here on the top. The one reason why I wouldn't recommend picking 60 00:04:08,799 --> 00:04:14,560 it up, because otherwise I really, really would. It's quite nice, is that I 61 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:19,600 didn't find myself traveling with Shield much, by the time you've got the case 62 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:23,919 and the Shield, it's quite bulky and quite heavy. So, I found myself using it 63 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:26,880 at home more than out and about. When I was out and about, though, it was kind 64 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:30,639 of cool because you get some uh you get kind of a couple double takes. It's 65 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:34,400 like, "Oh, what what is he playing on?" I personally do believe that devices 66 00:04:32,479 --> 00:04:38,639 like this are the future of mobile gaming with an open platform versus, you 67 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,600 know, oh well, when we decide to release a new console, there will be a whole new 68 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:46,160 slew of games. We will re-release everything or we won't re-release everything and you will like it. Um, 69 00:04:44,639 --> 00:04:50,160 having something that behaves more like a PC where we can get hardware upgrades 70 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:54,479 as they come. We can play the entire back library of games and expect new 71 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:59,440 games to come. This is the future. But right now, the game library is 72 00:04:56,479 --> 00:05:05,040 relatively small. However, that brings us to the game streaming experience. 73 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:08,639 NVIDIA's whole claim to fame with this device, other than the fact that you can 74 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:13,120 run any Android game pretty much. I was running GTA Vice City on it, which has a 75 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:17,120 lot of warnings when you install it. Oh, don't run anything else at the same time. Turn the graphic details down if 76 00:05:15,759 --> 00:05:20,479 it's not running correctly. It ran like a dream on this thing. No difficulty 77 00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:25,280 whatsoever. It's my first time playing it, too, so I've spent a fair bit of time on that. But anyway, the game 78 00:05:23,199 --> 00:05:29,840 streaming is how they are planning to augment the slightly smaller subset of 79 00:05:28,479 --> 00:05:34,240 Android games that do have full controller support and will work just 80 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:38,000 fine. And in my experience, man, is it awesome. Now, we did do the whole ghetto 81 00:05:36,639 --> 00:05:42,720 shield thing where we were using Splashtop and we did show that it can be 82 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:45,919 done. Um, but I think what you guys are going to see with some of the slow 83 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:51,759 motion footage I'm going to be showing you is that NVIDIA Shield really does 84 00:05:48,479 --> 00:05:54,479 deliver a nearly latencyfree experience. 85 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:58,400 So, we took this slow motion footage at 480 frames per second, which means if 86 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:02,960 you really felt like it, you could slow down the footage and you could find out 87 00:05:59,919 --> 00:06:06,039 exactly how many milliseconds of extra 88 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:08,800 delay the wireless connection is adding. 89 00:06:06,039 --> 00:06:13,440 Um, but what's really going to stand out more than anything else is how close it 90 00:06:10,639 --> 00:06:17,759 is to the gaming grade 120 Hz monitor behind it. And now we're going to shift 91 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:22,720 over to our Ghetto Shield with Splashtop that not only is not running as high 92 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:28,000 resolution. So it's 640x480 instead of 1280 by 720. Although it still looks 93 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:31,360 great on a 4 4.7 in screen. Like let's be really clear about that. It still 94 00:06:29,199 --> 00:06:34,400 looks fine. Uh so it's lower resolution. You obviously get less battery life cuz 95 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,479 you're using your phone. You obviously have to like bolt it to something in order to have it be a great experience. 96 00:06:37,039 --> 00:06:43,199 And there's all these things, but the latency is not even close. We found we 97 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:48,160 could play games with the Ghetto Shield, but it's uh easy to play games with the 98 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:51,600 proper Shield. Not only that, but the experience of getting Shield running is 99 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:56,000 much more seamless. With the Ghetto Shield, you have to manually configure 100 00:06:53,759 --> 00:06:59,759 your desktop resolution. It'll only work with games that are able to run in full 101 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:03,199 screen windowed mode. And there's a bunch of caveats like that. With the 102 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:06,960 Shield, you press the big NVIDIA button in the middle, which brings up your 103 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:11,199 Tegra optimized games, your Shield Store, and aha, your PC games. It 104 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:15,599 launches Steam. It changes the resolution for you, gives you a bunch of 105 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:19,759 clues as to to what gestures you can use, and then boom, it gives you a games 106 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:23,840 list. So, we used Borderlands 2 and Crisis to validate that things were 107 00:07:21,759 --> 00:07:27,280 working correctly. Crisis was the one that being an older title, it streamed 108 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:30,639 great, it looked great, but you can really tell the HUD elements aren't 109 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:34,319 optimized for it. There's a lot of key bindings that are designed for mouse and 110 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:38,880 keyboard, so there wasn't really a corresponding button that made any 111 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:40,319 sense. Um, it's not Yeah. So, it wasn't 112 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:44,960 perfect, but it looked great and it was very playable. Not having auto aim when 113 00:07:42,319 --> 00:07:49,639 you're relying on using a controller is definitely a disadvantage. Um, but 114 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:55,680 Borderlands 2 was a fantastic experience. And this, I think, really 115 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:57,840 makes my point about how well how the 116 00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:00,639 experience differs from something where you're manually setting things up every 117 00:07:59,039 --> 00:08:04,000 time. You can be anywhere in your house and running this and not really thinking 118 00:08:02,319 --> 00:08:08,319 about what's going on in your PC unless someone happens to be on it. It should 119 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:11,680 be noted that your PC does display video while you're gaming on the Shield, but 120 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:15,520 it doesn't play audio. So, it only pushes audio to the Shield instead of 121 00:08:13,599 --> 00:08:20,319 just your speakers being blaring anytime you're anywhere else in your house 122 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:22,840 gaming on the device. Now, wireless, you 123 00:08:20,319 --> 00:08:27,280 can't just use any old run-of-the-mill $29.99 Best Buy special wireless router. 124 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:30,160 It's not going to work. You want to get a decent wireless router. You can check 125 00:08:28,879 --> 00:08:34,000 out the list of recommended ones on NVIDIA.com. We found that there were 126 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:39,240 routers that worked just fine even from a a floor away um such as the EA4500 127 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:45,440 that was not on the list, but you need a strong concurrent dualband router. So 128 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:47,440 that is 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz at the same 129 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:50,720 time because the wireless solution on the NVIDIA Shield is excellent and 130 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:54,320 that's part of what makes the technology work so well. So I think that pretty 131 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:59,680 much wraps it up for everything I wanted to say about it. Is it a recommended buy 132 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:01,920 at $299? Hard to say because much like 133 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:05,279 any other console, it depends on the game library. So if you look at that 134 00:09:03,839 --> 00:09:08,880 Android library and you go, "Yeah, sure. That's worth it to me. I'm I'm game." 135 00:09:06,959 --> 00:09:12,080 Then great. That's that's perfect for you. If you look at that library and you 136 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:15,200 go, "That's not good enough, but oh, I have a PC library that I can use to 137 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:18,880 augment it. I think I'll use this a lot around my house." Then then that might 138 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:22,880 be good enough for you, too. If you don't have an Android device at all, I 139 00:09:20,959 --> 00:09:26,959 actually found I'd used it a lot just for watching videos on Netflix or even 140 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:29,839 replying to emails when I'm just out and about and it happened to be the closest 141 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:34,000 thing to me. I mean, the touchcreen is excellent. Uh there are some there are a 142 00:09:31,839 --> 00:09:37,680 few sort of UI things that are weird like apps that are expecting to be 143 00:09:35,839 --> 00:09:41,519 running on a phone when they're running on a low resolution device and are 144 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:47,200 optimized for portrait and don't really switch to landscape very well. Some of those were kind of funny. I'm like using 145 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:50,240 it like this. But overall, it was it was 146 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:53,120 a good usage experience. Um, other than 147 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:56,959 other than that UI weirdness, would I recommend it for 300? You know what? 148 00:09:54,720 --> 00:10:01,680 It's your call. But I understand why it costs 300. It has the latest Tegra 4 149 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:06,160 processor, which is extremely fast. It really does feel like a very buttery 150 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:10,240 smooth Android experience. everything you're doing, whether it's graphics or 151 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:14,560 the CPU itself, and you look at how much something like a phone costs. This is 152 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:19,680 everything a phone is and more in some ways, except it doesn't happen to have a 153 00:10:17,519 --> 00:10:22,959 wireless connection for mobile data. That's the only real difference here. 154 00:10:21,279 --> 00:10:27,360 You know, like no camera on the back and stuff like that. But there's a lot of engineering that went into building this 155 00:10:25,519 --> 00:10:31,920 thing and it's expensive to make. I think 300 is reasonable in terms of the 156 00:10:29,560 --> 00:10:35,040 hardware. And I think I've rambled quite enough. Leave a like if you like this 157 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:39,279 video. Leave a dislike if you disliked it. and leave a comment. Let me know, do 158 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:43,360 you think the future of mobile gaming is portable devices like this that run on 159 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:46,040 an open platform? Even if maybe NVIDIA Shield isn't the one, maybe it's 160 00:10:44,880 --> 00:11:00,460 something that's a little bit more pocketable. I don't know. You tell me.