NVIDIA Shield Review: At the Crossroads of PC and Mobile Gaming
by Brian Klug on July 31, 2013 12:14 AM ESTBattery Life
NVIDIA's Shield includes a 28.8Wh battery, which is large for a device its size but small compared to what you'd find in a 10-inch tablet for example. The good news is that it only has to power a 5-inch 720p display, which makes the choice of battery size quite nice. Since Shield is a fully functioning mobile device, we put it through our current battery life suite. Normally we'd start with our WiFi web browsing test, but given the target market for Shield I figured starting with our 3D rundown test made the most sense.
Here we have a loop of the Egypt HD benchmark, capped to 30 fps, running on all of the devices with their screens calibrated to 200 nits.
Shield manages just over 6 hours of use on a single charge, putting it up there with some of the best mobile devices we've put through this test. Being able to support 6 hours of locally rendered gaming without plugging in is pretty decent I'd say.
Video decode is also quite important, especially when you consider the use case where Shield acts as a remote display and controller for games rendered on your PC. In that case, the GPU is mostly powered down and only the video decode block is used to display what's being rendered on your PC. Our video playback test might be a good simulation of this use case. Our test remains unchanged from previous tablet reviews. Here I'm playing a 4Mbps H.264 High Profile 720p rip I made of the Harry Potter 8 Blu-ray. The full movie plays through and is looped until the battery dies. Once again, the displays are calibrated to 200 nits:
Tegra 4's video decode engine combined with a tiny 720p display and a 28.8Wh battery results in awesome battery life here - almost 19 hours on a single charge. If you can deal with the small screen, Shield might make for a good companion on long haul international flights just for video playback.
Finally we've got our standard web browsing battery life test:
We regularly load web pages at a fixed interval until the battery dies (all displays are calibrated to 200 nits as always). The differences between this test and our previous one boil down to the amount of network activity and CPU load.
On the network side, we've done a lot more to prevent aggressive browser caching of our web pages. Some caching is important otherwise you end up with a baseband/WiFi test, but it's clear what we had previously wasn't working. Brian made sure that despite the increased network load, the baseband/WiFi still have the opportunity to enter their idle states during the course of the benchmark.
We also increased CPU workload along two vectors: we decreased pause time between web page loads and we shifted to full desktop web pages, some of which are very js heavy. The end result is a CPU usage profile that mimics constant, heavy usage beyond just web browsing. Everything you do on your device ends up causing CPU usage peaks - opening applications, navigating around the OS and of course using apps themselves. Our 5th generation web browsing battery life test should map well to more types of mobile usage, not just idle content consumption of data from web pages.
Once again, excellent battery life from Shield.
NVIDIA ships Shield with a 10W (2.1A) power adapter, capable of completely charging Shield in 5.45 hours:
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PC Perv - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
Sure weight balance matters.. for first 10 minutes or so. And no doubt it will be easier to hold something with evenly distributed weight than, say, something to heavy. But that doesn't mean it's absolute weight dissipate in the air because of shape. You will be holding 579g of weight no matter what. If you think 579g is "light," then I have nothing more to say. But the reviewer's bias is palpable.I'm looking forward to encountering someone holding this abominable. Hopefully he didn't buy this junk after reading this irresponsible "review." Look how this dude goes length to convince readers how this ugly is somehow "elegant."
tabascosauz - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
Who are you to hate on Brian?Do you seriously think that a portable game console will weigh the same as a 290g Nexus 7? It's a first step for Nvidia and it's performed well, so how did Brian write an "irresponsible review" and "convince readers how this ugly is somehow elegant"? He already said that he spent 2 hours playing BL2 and didn't feel too uncomfortable, what else do you need? Do YOU have a Nvidia Shield?
Spunjji - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
3DS XL: 336gPS Vita (3G): 279g
Not to defend the original poster too much, but the weight is very high for a product of this sort of category and that is indeed something that can only be properly assessed by a longer period of game-play.
Death666Angel - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
They are much less powerful, feature fewer and different (in my opinion, a bit inferior) controls, have much less battery life in them and are much less versatile. :) To think the Shield is a hand held console the kind Sony and Nintendo make is very misguided imho.jeffkibuule - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
Neither are designed to be very comfortable to hold for an extended period of time. Neither are ergonomic to your hands.PC Perv - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
Here is the question I pose to you: when do you think this author will realize this thing is heavy and ugly?Answer: when the next iteration of the Shield comes out. (If it does come out, lol) when the next version sport slimmer, lighter body then he will gush over how much improvement NV have made. He will THEN tell you how NV's first "attempt" was rather clunky and heavy (per "some" users). Until then he will be "oblivious" to the ugliness and monstrosity of this "Shield," and keep asserting how "elegant" and comfortable it is, blindshading potential buyers.
Of course he already knows all this. But in this type of "reviews" often there is something else is at work.
spugm1r3 - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link
Most people don't know how heavy or bulky something is, in particular if it is a joy to use, until the next iteration. I used to own an iBook that weighed just shy of 6lbs. It was hardly top of the line, but I loved it. Now, even Apple's most powerful portable is less than 5lbs.Other portable gaming consoles (3DS, Vita) play portable games or, at best, portable versions of console games. This plays PC games, in particular, PC games that are not exactly visual lightweights.
Honestly, some tech websites I could understand your cynicism, but Anandtech generally does a pretty good job of keeping it honest.
Subzero0000 - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
579g is definitely "light". There, I said it.I've been using iPad2 for almost 2 years, and I tend to feel it too"light" personally.
As for the Shield, you will hold it with two hands anyway. That weight would means nothing to a full grown man.
Spunjji - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/relative3.
You're entitled to your opinion but that doesn't make it valid for everyone else. ;)
chizow - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
I'm not going to argue the semantics of what you wrote, you questioned whether weight is relative to shape, in the hands, and yes of course it is. Overall the impact of total weight is relative sure, but you also seem to miss the fact people have different tolerances and preferences. Some contemporary and relevant examples today include the 360 controller vs PS3 controller and the iPhone vs. Samsung Galaxy. You will find people on both sides of the fence who prefer or abhor the different weight characteristics of each, based purely on personal preference.As for the commentary on aesthetics, you do realize that is one of the most subjective criteria out there right? That's about as subjective as people's tastes in cars, or even computer chassis. Yet in your criticism of Brian's choice of words, you do realize you come off as every bit the extremist in your own choice of words right?