Nvidia Shield gaming handheld arrives in June priced at $349

[Jos]

Update: Nvidia has apparently decided to open pre-orders today instead of May 20th as originally announced. You can buy yours for $350 at Newegg, GameStop, and Canada Computer, as well as Nvidia's Shield site. The estimated ship date also appears to have moved up from 'end of June' to June 4th.

- Original story below

Nvidia surprised many of us by announcing a dedicated gaming handheld during the company's CES press conference earlier this year. Codenamed Project Shield, the device went from idea to prototype in less than a year. Now, Nvidia is all set to take the final step into commercial product, announcing that pre-orders for Shield will open on May 20 at $349, with shipments expected reach customer’s hands by the end of June.

Based on the new Tegra 4 mobile chip, also announced at CES, the device comes in the shape of a console gaming controller and includes a 5-inch capacitive touch screen with 1,280x720 resolution. Tegra’s four CPU cores and 72 graphics cores support a maximum resolution of 3200 x 2000 pixels, however, so games can be played at full HD on a TV. Other specs include 16GB of storage, mini-HDMI, micro-USB 2.0, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a microSD card slot for storage expansion, 802.11n Wi-Fi, integrated speakers, and a headphone jack.

In terms of software the Shield will ship with an un-skinned, "pure" version of Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, and as such it should be able to receive any updates Google releases in the future without much delay.

Nvidia’s Tegrazone will be the main storefront for Shield-optimized games -- currently there’s 76 of them including Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Naturally, the Google Play store will also be available for a vast catalog of apps and games that aren’t featured on Nvidia’s storefront.

In addition to running Android games, the Shield can also stream games from your GeForce-equipped PC to the controller via Wi-Fi, where you can play them directly on the small screen or output to a TV. Paired with Steam’s Big Screen mode this means you can navigate your library and launch games without moving back to your PC.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52581-nvidia-shield-arrives-in-june-for-349-pre-orders-open-now-update.html

 

[mrcavooter]

Great price point.

 

[SirDigby]

Do you seriously need a GeForce GPU in your PC to stream? THEY'RE SO EXPENSIVE. Admittedly I would've preferred to get a GeForce over my Radeon but the price to power ratio was a lot better for 6870 to the GeForce equivalent.

QUICK. SOMEONE MAKE A MOD FOR IT. NOW.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Great price point.

Great price point? Apparently yours & my definition of a great price point varies wildly.

 

[Sunny87]

Is it just me who thinks this is just a $349 turd?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Is it just me who thinks this is just a $349 turd?

Nope but I was trying to be polite.

 

[Burty117]

Do you seriously need a GeForce GPU in your PC to stream? THEY'RE SO EXPENSIVE. Admittedly I would've preferred to get a GeForce over my Radeon but the price to power ratio was a lot better for 6870 to the GeForce equivalent.

QUICK. SOMEONE MAKE A MOD FOR IT. NOW.

Well you'll need a half decent graphics card installed at least since the games are rendered on the actual pc, but your right, there isn't a direct reason why it has to be a GeForce card, but then the product is made by Nvidia, maybe they are using functions within the cards that we don't know about to keep the latency low? Who knows, would be nice to see them release a patch or app that runs in the background that allows it to work with any other graphics card maker.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to this you can turn your PC into a console! Wait! WTF? I think I want it the other way around.

 

[SirDigby]

Well you'll need a half decent graphics card installed at least since the games are rendered on the actual pc, but your right, there isn't a direct reason why it has to be a GeForce card, but then the product is made by Nvidia, maybe they are using functions within the cards that we don't know about to keep the latency low? Who knows, would be nice to see them release a patch or app that runs in the background that allows it to work with any other graphics card maker.

In general I think I'd much prefer sitting at my PC and playing anyway, but for those sick days in bed, general relaxation and multitasking this would be brilliant. I wonder if this would work abroad?

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Is it just me who thinks this is just a $349 turd?

No PC Mag pretty much called it the same, with a bunch of explanation to the opinion. This is a similar idea to the Razer Edge isn't it?

We'll have to keep an eye on this to see if I we're all right, or if it turns out like the Galaxy Note and sells great.

 

[Jad Chaar]

This is so dumb. A 720P display plus it is a total gimmick. I would rather buy a Galaxy Note and the controller from Samsung for $100 less. Yes, I cannot stream games from my PC, but who cares. A bigger screen is so much better than this junk. The experience is 10x better.

 

[distantreality]

All I can say is just another waste of money and in the end will end up costing nvidia more money in the end they should stick to what they are good at...bringing out video cards every friggin time I update mine and making me wait til I can afford another then same crap happens again lol

 

[Duskywolf50]

That's cost are too darn expensive, two choice, video card or this? I think it should cost $199 is good start.

 

[Zeromus]

Technically, 349 + 499.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I would rather buy a 7970 than this garbage.

 

[Mallok]

Already pre-ordered, can't wait!

 

[dennis777]

Can the screen flip? so you could play with screen only?

 

[Jad Chaar]

Can the screen flip? so you could play with screen only?

It is so fat already lol. It would be hard to hold as a touchscreen device.

 

[Mallok]

Can the screen flip? so you could play with screen only?

http://www.dvice.com/sites/dvice/fi...e/public/nvidia-project-shield-hands-on-1.jpg

It looks like it flips open pretty far, but that would probably be pretty awkward to hold. Also it doesn't support portrait mode only landscape which may cause some issues with non- optimized android games.

I'm mainly interested in the streaming from PC since I can't sit in front of mine anymore due to time constraints. I don't expect this to sell a lot of units, except to dad's like myself. I already have the gtx670 so my only possible issue now is my router.

 

[Guest]

This fail will be dropped by Nvidia within months. No-one(Except Vita die hards) will want this s**t. Tablets and phones will kill this overnight. Why oh why do they want to chase a failed idea from the outset. Joke Joke Joke. The DS will outsell this 50000-1. Heck The lowest end (cr*p) android phones will kill this fail. Rich bored a**hol*s plaything...

 

[Misagt]

It's not for me but I like the idea behind it, being able to stream to your TV and relax without the hassle of connecting pc to the tv would be nice although it's not a feature I would probably use much. I do have my computer and steam big picture hooked up to my tv, but it is a pain to configure at this point in time.

 

[captaincranky]

"A fool and his money are soon parted company". Nvidia is banking on the fact they believe they can spot a fool from a mile away.

 

[Mallok]

"A fool and his money are soon parted company". Nvidia is banking on the fact they believe they can spot a fool from a mile away.

They say a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. Well, with God as my witness, I am that fool!

 

[Mallok]

"A fool and his money are soon parted company". Nvidia is banking on the fact they believe they can spot a fool from a mile away.

They say a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. Well, with God as my witness, I am that fool!

I meant to trim that to just: Well, with God as my witness, I am that fool!

But seriously, let me explain what this item is for me, and possibly others.

I have 2 very young children. My gaming PC is already in my bedroom to make room for the kids. So to game I have to walk upstairs to my bedroom. If I have an hour of "free" time I can't go hide upstairs. I have to be able to walk away at a moments notice to get to the potty, change a diaper, or any other of a million things. If the baby is sleeping and the toddler is watching an hour of Dora (while eating lunch) I can sneak in 45+ minutes of gaming. I already have a core-i7 860 I built a couple years ago and recently put a gtx 670 in it (merry christmas to me). It's mostly wasted since I'm not able to stay up past 10:30 anymore. $350 is a pittance to be able to play steam games. I can play on my couch and pause or quit in a second. Also, I can't play at night when my wife is asleep in my bedroom either - that 23" puts out some serious backlighting. This allows another potential 45 minutes at bed time. I'd have paid more than $350 for that (but only about $50 heh). I don't think a majority of folks need to be able to get away from the PC in the same household, but for those that do, this is a real winner.

I have zero interest in gaming on a tablet. I get that people like them, but for me it just doesn't make sense. If you could ultimately do this with a newer nexus tablet and controller I would be on board with that, but I can enjoy this for sure and the other is speculation at this point. For Android gaming I play solitaire on my SG3, and I just tried a free version of cut the rope. But if I'm gaming I'd much rather have my PC library than an android/ios game. So that is another potential customer (those that prefer PC gaming). I can also pick up 20 or more games from steam sales for less than the cost of 2 console games new.

If this doesn't sell well, I won't be surprised, but I feel like most people will be surprised if it does. You may just be underestimating the amount of people wishing for a portable PC gaming machine for the house. It's a niche market for sure, but perhaps the addition of streaming to the TV opens it up quite a bit if they can pull that off. I don't care either way, I'll use it all the time.

This is mostly therapy for myself since no one will read it. But /sigh anyway. <g>

 

[captaincranky]

No, I read (skimmed) it, and all it did for me was to see a huge opportunity in "device addiction rehabilitation centers".

Really, if you need to be that close to a gaming device, you're perhaps not as dangerous as the clowns I have to "share the road with", but a nuisance to yourself and others nonetheless.

This current crop of "Homo Sapiens Addictiensis", lacks the genetic ability to either be alone, shut its mouth, or do without some kind of electronic pacifier. Sadly perhaps, I fondly remember simpler times.