 I'm going to open this review by saying that when Nvidia first unveiled this thing, my only reaction was, Oh, I guess I'll have to keep waiting for a proper Tegra K1 handheld then. My feedback about the concept was actually so negative at the press event that my contact there asked me if I even wanted a review sound plan. I said, yeah, and don't worry. I'll be fair to it. So while Nvidia is not positioning the shield tablet as a replacement to the shield portable, I stowed my handheld for a week and have only used this one since then so that I can tell you guys about the experience. The Flash Voyager GTX USB 3.0 drive from Corsair provides SSD-like performance and fits comfortably in your pocket. Click now to learn more. So here's the package Nvidia sent. It includes the tablet itself and some optional accessories. The magnetic hinge tablet cover that supports auto sleep, wake, and three different viewing positions with the magnets in the back of the shield, and the wireless controller, which I'll actually cover in more depth later. Spec wise, this guy is very well equipped for the price. It's got a Tegra K1 processor with 192 Kepler GPU cores, 2 gigs of RAM, a 19.75 watt hour battery that was good for over two and a half hours of continuous trying to gaming, and 16 gigs of storage in the Wi-Fi model with 32 gigs in the LTE enabled model. At the front we find an 8 inch 1920 by 1200 IPS screen that I would describe as pretty darn good. Motion blur wasn't a problem when gaming. Its maximum brightness made it suitable for use in almost any environment, and this really stood out to me. This is the first device I've ever used whose minimum brightness is very comfortable to use, even in complete dark. Also on the front is a 5 megapixel selfie camera that captures 1080p video and can actually be used to stream to Twitch.tv natively on the device, as well as two loud stereo speakers. My only complaint about the front is that the edges of the screen are a little bit harsh and scrape my fingers a little bit when I swipe in from the side. Not a huge deal. On the back we find the other 5 megapixel camera. On the bottom we find the latches for the magnetic cover. On the top we find the GPU accelerated stylus pen whose chiseled soft tip and low latency stood out to me, even though I'm not really a stylus guy and it stayed stashed there throughout the review process. We find slots for a SIM and micro SD expansion card, a volume rocker and a lock button. Then on each side we've got bass ports for the front speakers with the left side also featuring a micro USB port, a mini HDMI output that can handle 1080p, 60fps and a 3.5mm headset audio jack. That pretty much wraps up the tablet, but I promised to say more about their WiFi Direct console grade controller, which is actually a significant product launch in its own right. The direct benefits of this controller over a Bluetooth one are potentially less interference on 5 GHz, much higher bandwidth for more simultaneous controllers, support for audio with the integrated mic which can also be used for Google Now when your tablet's mic is 10 feet away, or with the built-in headset jack and lower latency. Although most of these things aren't really my problem with existing Bluetooth controllers, my issue has always been the lamo build quality, even from products that claim to be console grade. Nvidia's solution isn't perfect. The triggers and D-pad feel a bit mushy for me, and the B and Y button placement has B basically on the edge of the controller, and Y actually too high for me to reach comfortably if I hold the controller along the grooves the way it's designed, but I gotta give them credit, it's still the best option I've seen so far. The pairing process takes just a few seconds with the included app, and other than the triggers, the tactile feedback has been pretty well received by everyone I've shown it to. The touchpad for mouse movement in a pinch is great, the joysticks are solid, and if you game a few hours a day, you'll only need to charge the battery once every week or two. I'd still use an Xbox controller where possible, but I actually prefer this one to Sony's DualShock. Alright, so now that we've covered the tablet and controller separately, let's discuss how they go together and how you might use them. Now my biggest objection to this device at the briefing was the need to carry around two pieces, instead of one when I'm using GameStream to be in PC games, to it around the house, or playing Android games on it when I'm out and about. So let's go through a few of the different ways that I already use a Shield device, and how this stacks up. So we'll start with the toilet. In this case, Shield Portable is the big winner. Unless you sit backwards on the toilet, there's really nowhere to put a screen that's not attached to the controller. Next up is the bath, where I actually spend a good 25% of my Shield gaming time. Once again, I prefer portable, but only because I don't have a better tablet stand. The bigger screen is definitely better here, but the integrated covers angles make it a little bit hard to view the screen straight on from there. Next up is in bed. Here, the tablet shines for a while. Laying on my stomach was the best gaming experience in bed, with the tablet propped up on a pillow in front of me, but I found that my neck got uncomfortable and strained, and when it was time to shift, I couldn't flip over and hold the device above me the way that I can with the handheld, so I'm going to call this another win for the portable, especially if you want to game for extended periods of time. In the car, propping up the tablet on your lap actually worked surprisingly well, and was reasonably balanced, as long as the driver doesn't break suddenly. Another win for the portable. But, as much as I'm kind of piling on here, there are some types of scenarios where the tablet is worlds better than the portable. If there's a flat surface in front of you, let's say an airplane food tray, dining room table, desk in the cafeteria at school, for example, it is a much more comfortable experience to game with a bigger screen, a lighter controller, and your hands in a more relaxed position on your legs. So, at the end of the day, it's going to come down to where you plan to use it, and if you're willing to trade the convenience of an attached controller that you don't have to carry separately with the convenience of a larger screen and a much better typing experience, I mean, typing on Shield Portable or using any apps that have to run in portrait mode is terrible. Mobile use aside, I guess you could buy this strictly as a tablet and as a game console for your TV. I've actually only done it a couple times because I have a media PC, but according to Nvidia, lots of people plug into their TVs using HDMI in console mode, and there's a compelling argument to be made for this. Android games, PC games at up to 1080p with an OTG Ethernet dongle and an enabled PC elsewhere in the house, and Netflix at 1080p makes for a pretty complete entertainment experience that you can have the added benefit of being able to pick up and take with you wherever you go. So, it's conclusion time, and it's a bit of a long one today. Sorry, guys. Outside of gaming, it's a wonderful piece of technology that I'd be very comfortable recommending to a wide variety of want-to-be tablet owners. With the Tegra K1 chip at its core, the performance is awesome. The stylus with the included handwriting recognition will be a godsend for students or anyone who wants to take a lot of notes, and their included physics-enabled painting app is going to be a ton of fun for artists to play around with. The software is nearly stock Android with only a few tweaks like an auto power down mode, so it's more likely to have some juice when you pick it up if you only use it once in a while, and it gets a big thumbs up from me there. For gamers, I actually feel like it's more than that. In spite of some frame rate dips in the preloaded copy of Trine 2, let's not pretend it runs as well as it does on a PC, the fact that this product exists proves that we're heading in a really amazing direction. We've got OpenGL 4.4 and DirectX 12 feature support on a tablet. We've seen the new features that Shield owners have enjoyed over the last year, like grid-powered remote gaming, keypad mapping for Android games, and over-the-internet game stream from your own PC, and what all of this demonstrates is NVIDIA's continued belief in this whole Android gaming thing, something that I actually agree with very strongly. I mean, sure, this is a little ahead of its time. I mean, other than older emulated console games, there's not much for local multiplayer or split-screen Android games if you want to play up the console experience with up to four attached controllers, but I'm just glad that someone's got the balls and resources to invest in the hardware we need to build a platform for developers to even want to work on these games, and that they've done it without falling into the same trap of creating a device that only really does one thing. Unlike previous attempts to create an Android gaming device, the Shield tablet manages to be a very compelling value as a tablet for normal people, while also delivering the right features to be a super cool gaming device. Not an easy thing to do. I still don't need a tablet, and this still doesn't change that, but I've got to give NVIDIA credit anyway. They nailed this one. Guys, thanks for watching. Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, leave a comment. Let me know. Shield portable, Shield tablet, or none of the above. Very curious to hear what you think. Also, don't forget to check out the video description where we're going to have a support us link. You can buy a cool t-shirt like this one. You can give us a monthly contribution. You can change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so that whenever you buy stuff, we get a small kickback. And I think we're pretty much done here. Thanks for watching again. And as always, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.