Introduction and Specifications

NVIDIA made quite a splash at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show when they first unveiled their SHIELD portable gaming device. If you missed the original announcement, or the myriad of related posts we’ve put up about the device since then, SHIELD is a Tegra 4-based portable gaming machine that’s packing a 5-inch multi-touch screen, a console-grade game controller, and an unmolested version of Android Jelly Bean.



NVIDIA SHIELD Portable Gaming Device

In some respects NVIDIA’s SHIELD is simply a small Android tablet with a kick-ass game controller attached. But of course, NVIDIA has injected some of their own special sauce into SHIELD and is leveraging the huge install base of GeForce GTX graphics cards in many of today’s gaming PC as well, to enable some cool features on SHIELD that you won’t find anywhere else.



In addition to being able to play the myriad of games available in the Google Play store, SHIELD offers users the ability the play a number of Tegra-optimized games that look better than their mainstream counterparts, and also allows owners of GeForce GTX 650 graphics cards, or newer/more powerful GTX cards, to stream PC games to the SHIELD device and even back out to a larger monitor or TV if you wish. We'll show you what that’s all about (along with some other hands-on action) in the video below:



NVIDIA SHIELD Specifications & Features

Processor NVIDIA Tegra 4 Quad Core

Mobile Processor with 2GB RAM Display 5 inch 1280x720 (294 ppi) Multi-Touch Retinal Quality Display Audio Integrated Stereo Speakers with Built-in Microphone Storage 16GB Flash Memory Custom Tag Color Silver Wireless 802.11n 2x2 Mimo Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 3.0

GPS Connectivity Mini-HDMI output

Micro-USB 2.0

MicroSD storage slot

3.5mm stereo headphone jack with microphone support Motion Sensors 3 Axis Gyro

3 Axis Accelerometer Input controls Dual analog joysticks

D-pad

Left/right analog triggers

Left/right bumpers

A/B/X/Y buttons

Volume control

Android Home and Back buttons

Start button

NVIDIA power/multi-function button Battery 28.8 Watt Hours Weight & Size 579 grams

158mm (w) x 135mm (D) x 57mm (H) Operating System Android Jelly Bean OS Software Google Play

TegraZone

Sonic 4 Episode II THD

Expendable: Rearmed

Hulu Plus

TwitchTV

There’s more to NVIDIA’s SHIELD than just gaming, though. The device can do just about anything that other Android-based devices can, but it benefits from what turned out to be one of the fastest mobile processors we have tested to date, the Tegra 4. Take a look at SHIELD's full list of specifications below and we’ll give you the detailed scoop of the device on the pages ahead.



Gloss-Black "Tag" and Fitted Carrying Case

Before we dive in and get all up-close-and-personal with NVIDIA’s SHIELD, we want to quickly mention that NVIDIA will also be offering an array of accessories for the device. Here you can see a black replacement “tag” for SHIELD (out of the box, SHIELD comes with a silver tag) and a hard, fitted carrying case. NVIDIA will have a carbon-fiber tag available as well, and some third parties plan to release accessories for SHIELD too.



NVIDIA envisions users customizing their SHIELDs with different tags, which are quick and easy to swap out. They’re held in place with magnets and can be removed / replaced in seconds. Check out the video above to see exactly what we mean.

