The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Review
by Joshua Ho on July 29, 2014 9:00 AM ESTWiFi Performance
For the most part these days it seems that the situation for WiFi is much better in mobile than it is anywhere else, but it's still important to test throughput, especially on a device like the Shield tablet that requires low latency, high bandwidth connections in order to support GameStream and GRID. To this end, while NVIDIA hasn't shipped 802.11ac the Shield tablet ships with a 2x2 antenna configuration for a maximum PHY rate of 300 Mbps. Like the Shield portable, this is a BCM43241 chip, likely shared to improve economies of scale. To look at how it performs, we turn to iperf. Before we get into the results of the test, I'd like to thank ASUS for providing the RT-AC68U router to test WiFi perfomance.
Surprisingly, the Shield tablet performs about as well as some single stream 802.11ac solutions like the one found in the Galaxy Note 3. Performance is generally in line with what we'd expect for such a solution, although it would be nice to see 802.11ac for future products.
Camera
While I currently don't have the means to properly test camera, there are still some things to talk about for camera. Both the front and rear camera modules use OmniVision's OVT5963 sensor, which appears to be a 1/4", 5MP sensor. The rear camera has an F/2.0 aperture with 2.95mm focal length, and the front camera has an F/2.8 aperture, with a claimed 4.76mm focal length, although the field of view appears to be somewhat wider. This is the same sensor as the camera in the Nexus 7 (2013). As a rear facing camera, the quality is nothing special but as a front facing camera it's surprisingly high quality. The photo above is with the rear facing camera, the photo below is from the front facing camera. The stock camera application also doesn't show the correct aspect ratio for the camera, so the preview is cropped.
Audio
While I don't have the equipment available to test audio quality and peak volume quite yet, subjectively the two bass reflex ports and dual front facing speakers make for a great experience. It's definitely a major advantage over other devices when it comes to watching movies and playing games as I don't have to cup my hand around the speaker. The larger size of the tablet formfactor means that the stereo separation is much more obvious. On the headphone jack, the device appears to be using a Realtek RT5639 codec. It seems that NVIDIA has continued to use their own speaker protection system that runs on the SoC, as there isn't any clear evidence of a speaker protection IC connected via I2C.
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ams23 - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Oh and by the way, Shield tablet has a native resolution of 1920x1200. The 1080p offscreen tests in GFXBench are done at a resolution of 1920x1080. They are not the same thing! Shield tablet native resolution is higher than the 1080p offscreen resolution, and that is why fps is always a bit lower onscreen vs. offscreen.lucam - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
I almost agree with you. Nevertheless it's worth saying this is the first Nvidia SOC with so fast GPU. Having this sort of performance might have a drastic trade off on power consumption. I think if the A8 will have similar performance of K1 and better energy saving then yes. I doubt, by the way, the A8 will have better performance. In this round Nvidia has made better GPU performance. Question would be...isn't enough to sell enough tablets?UpSpin - Friday, August 1, 2014 - link
Nice how you throw around you with meaningless numbers. Let's get your nonsense right:Performance:
I use this benchmark comparison as base:
http://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?benchmark=gfx30&am...
The iPad Air has a 30WHr battery, got released on November 1, 2013 and costs $500.
The NVidia Shield tablet a 20WHr battery, got released now and costs $300.
The iPad Air has in the GFX battery rundown a power consumption of 5.4WHr.
The NVidia Shield tablet hasin the GFX battery rundown a power consumption of 9.38WHr.
The iPad Air vs. the NVidia Shiled tablet has an average frame rate of
Manhatten: 12.7 FPS vs 31 FPS -> 2.44x
T-Rex: 26.2 FPS vs 65 FPS -> 2.48x
Long Term: 21.3 FPS vs 56.3 FPS -> 2.65x
Now let's put all the things together, considering the higher performance of the Tegra K1, together with the higher power consumption but also higher battery capacity of the iPad Air and we get:
The Shield Tablet consumes 1.73 times the power of the iPad Air, but performs 2.65 times faster.
If Apple clocks the A7 higher, so it consumes the same power the Tegra K1 does, the Tegra would be 1.53 times faster. Now add the fact that the Tegra K1 supports Full Open GL 4.4 and one should see, the GPU of Tegra K1 is a monstrosity. Not so the outdated A15 CPU, but for this they will release the 64bit version soon, which will fix this limiting factor.
Efficiency:
Web browsing: 10hr vs. 10.8hr -> iPad: 3Whr vs. Nvidia: 1.85Whr
Conclusion:
The Tegra K1 is faster and more efficient.
Guspaz - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
The GPU is definitely fast, but how power efficient is it? If they've made a GPU that produces 2x the performance at 3x the power draw, then that's not going to be terribly competitive.Are there any tests that could validate this? Something like a GPU benchmark performed at a fixed framerate with the screen off?
ams23 - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
One would have to measure at the voltage rails (which is what NVIDIA did when comparing TK1 to S800 and A7).grahaman27 - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Its definitely more efficient. Nvidia claims its 1.4x as efficient.melgross - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Over the years, Nvidia has made a lot of claims that have turned out to not be true. I'd like to see the measurements.FriendlyUser - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
The technology is cool and it really looks like a premium product, something relatively rare in the android space. However, I'm still looking for a use case. I mean, why would I stream from a PC instead of playing on the PC, if it is in the vicinity? And why would anyone pay serious money for gaming on the go instead of just using a smartphone for the few moments were mobile gaming might be interesting. And, if someone really needs to game on the go, 2.5h seems too few...Anyway, the technology is really nice and the execution is quite good. If I were in the market for a tablet I would think about it. Not tempted to upgrade, though.
SpartyOn - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
I have a 1st gen Shield and it's for people like me: someone who sits at a desk all day and when he comes home doesn't want to sit at another desk or use a mouse anymore. I used to hook my mITX PC up to the HDTV and play with a controller, but then when I wanted to play an RTS or an MMO, I would move it back to my study. That's just cumbersome and requires a ton of wires in both locations.With the Shield, I can carry it around easily as a handheld and hook it up to my TV in Console Mode to get 1080p game streaming - all while now leaving my PC in the study for good. A couple other great use cases: playing PC games in bed while still being able to chill with my wife, outside enjoying fresh air, sitting on the toilet, and I've even sat on a lounger in the middle of my pool and streamed games.
If playing PC games in the middle of a pool surrounded by sunshine doesn't sound boss, then I don't know what is.
FriendlyUser - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Yeah, admittedly playing in a pool does sound cool. You do have a point there. My major obstacle would be paying for the pool, I guess...