After making its debut at CES in January , Nvidia's Shield gaming handheld is set to launch later this month. In preparation, Nvidia is showing off the finalized hardware and new demos this week at E3, including new Android and PC streaming titles.

Though largely similar to the original prototype, Nvidia has made significant improvements to the fit and finish. The Shield has taken on a higher quality plastic casing, which feels smoother to the touch and is slightly stronger. The thumbsticks have been recessed further into the base in order to make them taller, and the d-pad is more concave for improved accuracy. Even small details, like the magnetism of the customizable metal tag on its lid has been improved.The design has always been fairly beefy, but Nvidia says its somewhat heavier now — due, no doubt, to the higher quality plastics. Overall, the product has gone from what felt like a fairly rudimentary prototype to a well-constructed, premium-feeling product in an impressively short range of time.As for content, the company offered many of the Android demos its shown before — Conduit, Dead Trigger 2, etc. — but on the Shield's gorgeous 5-inch 720p, looked fantastic. In addition to the Borderlands 2 demonstration I saw in January, I was able to check out Skyrim running at max settings on the handheld via a nearby Nvidia Titan-enabled system.Even with the high-density of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots, the latency between the Shield and the PC was pretty minimal. While the controls didn't feel quite as tight and responsive, it didn't significantly diminish the experience — and for a game that offers hundreds of hours of gameplay, the ability to quest from your couch is certainly alluring.But is Android gaming and remote PC streaming worth the Shield's cost of a $350? I'll be conducting a comprehensive review later this month to find out.

Scott Lowe is IGN's resident tech expert and Executive Editor of IGN Tech. You can follow him on Twitter at @ScottLowe and on MyIGN at Scott-IGN