WEBVTT 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:14.679 The Bit Phoenix Prodigym is compact and ready for anything. Click now to learn 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:17.840 more. Welcome to my full review of 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:19.680 NVIDIA's Shield handheld gaming device. 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 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:28.560 life to other smartphones and tablets or um you know give you empirical numbers 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 00:00:31.439 --> 00:00:39.760 comparison to the Ghetto Shield, which was an Xbox 360 controller bolted to a 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:44.960 smartphone running Splashtop in order to simulate the Shield gaming experience 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:50.079 where you can run PC games over wireless to your handheld device. Let's start 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:54.239 with the overall usage experience. So, first things first, it feels extremely 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 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 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 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:11.040 holding it above your head and trying to play with it that way, then you might 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:14.240 run into a little bit of difficulty with your with your arms getting fatigued 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 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:22.479 that said, it really doesn't feel like they added the extra weight for no 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:25.840 apparent reason because it's got a nice beefy battery in it. you don't really 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 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. 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 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 00:01:41.119 --> 00:01:46.640 charge this device fast enough to keep it charging while you're playing an 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 00:01:48.240 --> 00:01:54.880 compact 2.1 amp charger, so that's definitely a plus. In terms of 00:01:52.399 --> 00:01:57.680 ergonomics, I found that with my hands, um, it seems like it's designed for 00:01:56.320 --> 00:02:02.079 someone with slightly bigger hands than me. I do have really small hands. I wear 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:06.880 like women's small motorcycle gloves, but I was able to reach the ABXY buttons 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:11.680 and the D-pad without any difficulty, without shifting at all. The joysticks 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 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:17.920 directions without without too much of a challenge. I don't stand a chance of 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:21.680 reaching any of these middle buttons without shifting. And uh actually at the 00:02:20.160 --> 00:02:26.800 back, the shoulder buttons as well as the triggers were fine as well. I didn't 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:30.959 notice any heat that really bothered me. So nothing really transferred through 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:34.319 the game pad itself. And the exhaust vent on the back moves the heat away 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 00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:44.080 as charging and a headphone microphone combo jack if you're not already 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:48.800 familiar with the way that Shield works. And as far as the ergonomics or as well 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 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:56.239 buttons here have a great tactile response. The joysticks feel really 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 00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:06.640 something like oh you know weapon switching or um you know functionality 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:09.720 that's not critical. Uh whereas if you 00:03:06.640 --> 00:03:12.239 were you know doing um platforming on 00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:15.680 it, yeah, it's it's really really not that special. The speakers are excellent 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:18.879 though. So, it's loud enough that you can easily use it in an environment 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:24.159 where there's a fair bit of ambient noise. And the screen is nice and IPS, 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:28.000 has great viewing angles, and looks outstanding. It's also got a great range 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:31.760 of brightness. And running a running a stock Android device was really 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 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:39.760 actually used a stock Android device before. So, there you go. That's my 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:43.599 impressions overall of the Shield. I don't really see myself using the whole 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 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:52.640 accessory that I sort of recommend picking up. This is their carry case, 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 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:59.200 traveling around with it. It's got a little, you know, plug at the back that 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:03.360 allows you to charge the device even when it's inside. Comes with a little 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:07.040 wrist strap, and the overall feel is is very rugged. There's little carrying 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:10.159 pouches up here on the top. The one reason why I wouldn't recommend picking 00:04:08.799 --> 00:04:14.560 it up, because otherwise I really, really would. It's quite nice, is that I 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:19.600 didn't find myself traveling with Shield much, by the time you've got the case 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:23.919 and the Shield, it's quite bulky and quite heavy. So, I found myself using it 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 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 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:34.400 like, "Oh, what what is he playing on?" I personally do believe that devices 00:04:32.479 --> 00:04:38.639 like this are the future of mobile gaming with an open platform versus, you 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 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, 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:50.160 having something that behaves more like a PC where we can get hardware upgrades 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:54.479 as they come. We can play the entire back library of games and expect new 00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:59.440 games to come. This is the future. But right now, the game library is 00:04:56.479 --> 00:05:05.040 relatively small. However, that brings us to the game streaming experience. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:08.639 NVIDIA's whole claim to fame with this device, other than the fact that you can 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 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 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:20.479 it's not running correctly. It ran like a dream on this thing. No difficulty 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 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:29.840 streaming is how they are planning to augment the slightly smaller subset of 00:05:28.479 --> 00:05:34.240 Android games that do have full controller support and will work just 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:38.000 fine. And in my experience, man, is it awesome. Now, we did do the whole ghetto 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:42.720 shield thing where we were using Splashtop and we did show that it can be 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 00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:51.759 motion footage I'm going to be showing you is that NVIDIA Shield really does 00:05:48.479 --> 00:05:54.479 deliver a nearly latencyfree experience. 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:58.400 So, we took this slow motion footage at 480 frames per second, which means if 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:02.960 you really felt like it, you could slow down the footage and you could find out 00:05:59.919 --> 00:06:06.039 exactly how many milliseconds of extra 00:06:02.960 --> 00:06:08.800 delay the wireless connection is adding. 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 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 00:06:15.280 --> 00:06:22.720 over to our Ghetto Shield with Splashtop that not only is not running as high 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:28.000 resolution. So it's 640x480 instead of 1280 by 720. Although it still looks 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 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:34.400 looks fine. Uh so it's lower resolution. You obviously get less battery life cuz 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. 00:06:37.039 --> 00:06:43.199 And there's all these things, but the latency is not even close. We found we 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 00:06:46.080 --> 00:06:51.600 proper Shield. Not only that, but the experience of getting Shield running is 00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:56.000 much more seamless. With the Ghetto Shield, you have to manually configure 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:59.759 your desktop resolution. It'll only work with games that are able to run in full 00:06:58.080 --> 00:07:03.199 screen windowed mode. And there's a bunch of caveats like that. With the 00:07:01.520 --> 00:07:06.960 Shield, you press the big NVIDIA button in the middle, which brings up your 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:11.199 Tegra optimized games, your Shield Store, and aha, your PC games. It 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:15.599 launches Steam. It changes the resolution for you, gives you a bunch of 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 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:23.840 list. So, we used Borderlands 2 and Crisis to validate that things were 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:27.280 working correctly. Crisis was the one that being an older title, it streamed 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:30.639 great, it looked great, but you can really tell the HUD elements aren't 00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:34.319 optimized for it. There's a lot of key bindings that are designed for mouse and 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:38.880 keyboard, so there wasn't really a corresponding button that made any 00:07:35.840 --> 00:07:40.319 sense. Um, it's not Yeah. So, it wasn't 00:07:38.880 --> 00:07:44.960 perfect, but it looked great and it was very playable. Not having auto aim when 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:49.639 you're relying on using a controller is definitely a disadvantage. Um, but 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:55.680 Borderlands 2 was a fantastic experience. And this, I think, really 00:07:52.080 --> 00:07:57.840 makes my point about how well how the 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:00.639 experience differs from something where you're manually setting things up every 00:07:59.039 --> 00:08:04.000 time. You can be anywhere in your house and running this and not really thinking 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 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:11.680 be noted that your PC does display video while you're gaming on the Shield, but 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:15.520 it doesn't play audio. So, it only pushes audio to the Shield instead of 00:08:13.599 --> 00:08:20.319 just your speakers being blaring anytime you're anywhere else in your house 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:22.840 gaming on the device. Now, wireless, you 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. 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 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:34.000 out the list of recommended ones on NVIDIA.com. We found that there were 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:39.240 routers that worked just fine even from a a floor away um such as the EA4500 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:45.440 that was not on the list, but you need a strong concurrent dualband router. So 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:47.440 that is 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz at the same 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:50.720 time because the wireless solution on the NVIDIA Shield is excellent and 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:54.320 that's part of what makes the technology work so well. So I think that pretty 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 00:08:56.640 --> 00:09:01.920 at $299? Hard to say because much like 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:05.279 any other console, it depends on the game library. So if you look at that 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." 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 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 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 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 00:09:20.959 --> 00:09:26.959 actually found I'd used it a lot just for watching videos on Netflix or even 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 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:34.000 thing to me. I mean, the touchcreen is excellent. Uh there are some there are a 00:09:31.839 --> 00:09:37.680 few sort of UI things that are weird like apps that are expecting to be 00:09:35.839 --> 00:09:41.519 running on a phone when they're running on a low resolution device and are 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 00:09:44.160 --> 00:09:50.240 it like this. But overall, it was it was 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:53.120 a good usage experience. Um, other than 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:56.959 other than that UI weirdness, would I recommend it for 300? You know what? 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 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:06.160 processor, which is extremely fast. It really does feel like a very buttery 00:10:04.160 --> 00:10:10.240 smooth Android experience. everything you're doing, whether it's graphics or 00:10:07.760 --> 00:10:14.560 the CPU itself, and you look at how much something like a phone costs. This is 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 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:22.959 wireless connection for mobile data. That's the only real difference here. 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 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:31.920 thing and it's expensive to make. I think 300 is reasonable in terms of the 00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:35.040 hardware. And I think I've rambled quite enough. Leave a like if you like this 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:39.279 video. Leave a dislike if you disliked it. and leave a comment. Let me know, do 00:10:36.640 --> 00:10:43.360 you think the future of mobile gaming is portable devices like this that run on 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:46.040 an open platform? Even if maybe NVIDIA Shield isn't the one, maybe it's 00:10:44.880 --> 00:11:00.460 something that's a little bit more pocketable. I don't know. You tell me.