NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet: The Fastest Tablet Available

Name: NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet: The Fastest Tablet Available
Brand: NVIDIA

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, July 31, 2014, 11:00 AM EDT

Last week, NVIDIA officially announced the SHIELD tablet (powered by the Tegra K1 SoC) and its companion SHIELD wireless controller. Just in case you missed the initial announcement, we’ve got it posted for you all right here, along with some early hands-on video, the device’s full specifications, and a handful of pictures and additional info.

To quickly recap, the SHIELD tablet’s specifications include NVIDIA Tegra K1 SoC (clocked at up to 2.2GHz), paired to 2GB of RAM and an 8”, full-HD IPS display, with a native resolution of 1920x1200. There are also a pair of 5MP cameras on the SHIELD tablet (front and rear), 802.11a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO WiFi configuration, GPS, a 9-axis motion sensor, and Bluetooth 4.0 LE. In addition to the WiFi-only version (which features 16GB of internal storage), NVIDIA has a 32GB version coming with LTE connectivity as well.

The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet and Wireless Controller - Find it @ Amazon

A few days after the initial announcement was made, we got our hands on a SHIELD tablet, wireless controller, and cover. We’re still working (and playing) with the SHIELD tablet, and will be posting up some more information about its gaming prowess in the days ahead, but in the meantime, we thought you’d all like to take to see just how the device performs.

Hands On Video and NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Demos

3DMark Ice Storm

Cutting-Edge 3D Rendering and Mobile Graphics Benchmark

First up, we have some tests with 3DMark Ice Storm. We've come to place a lot of stock in this test. This benchmark evaluates a device's performance in a number of key areas, from pure polygon and shader processing to physics calculations. Futuremark is also good about policing benchmark results in their database, looking for manufacturers trying to gain an edge by "optimizing" for the benchmark.

As you can see in this first result, the Tegra K1 powered SHIELD Tablet decimates all in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark. The SHIELD Portable and recently-released Samsung Galaxy Tab S put up decent scores as well, but nothing comes close to touching the SHIELD Tablet here.

Tags: Nvidia, Gaming, Mobile, tablet, Controller, tegra, SHIELD, K1

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com