Android tablet for most people is still the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1. Other Android tablets are thinner or less expensive, but the K1 offers the best combination of speed, display quality, and features for the price. Its hardware is a few years old, but it continues to be more than fast enough for what most people use a tablet for. That said, if you’re not already invested in Android, an iPad is a better tablet in general.
Nvidia Shield Tablet K1:
The K1 has a high-resolution screen, enough RAM and processing power to be responsive, and a microSD slot for extra movie or music storage. It also has some unique features for gamers.The resolution of the K1’s 8-inch screen is high enough (1920×1200) to provide a very crisp image, but not so high that it wastes battery life on unnecessary additional pixels. The tablet has a fast Tegra K1 processor, 2 GB of RAM, a microSD slot for expansion, and a Mini HDMI output for gaming on your TV. The fast processor and 2 GB of RAM are enough to run Android smoothly, and the microSD slot helps make up for the K1’s puny 16 GB of internal storage. The K1 runs an uncluttered version of Android 6 Marshmallow, though its update prospects are currently unknown if Android 7 Nougat is a priority, you should look at our upgrade pick, the Pixel C.
The Shield Tablet couldn’t be more unassuming. It’s a generic black rectangle covered in soft-touch rubber; line it up against the wall with a Nexus 7 and a bunch of other competitors. I am not crazy about the way it picks up fingerprints, and the mushy power button is a little too difficult to press, but beyond that there really isn’t that much to even say about the Shield Tablet’s generic design. The display is any tablet’s defining feature, of course, and the Shield has a decent one. It’s not quite as contrasty or vibrant as the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX I keep by my bed for emergency Netflix, but it does have one big advantage: size. The Shield Tablet has an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 display, and it does make a difference next to the 7-inch screens that were table stakes for Android tablets years ago.
The Android operating system integrates heavily with Google's services. Using the card-based Google Now, Android quickly surfaces information for you whenever you need it, powered by the same Knowledge Engine that runs Google's web search. It's a personalized and customizable OS, allowing you to add your favorite apps or widgets to your homescreen. You can even download new themes using the Google Play Store, which offers access to more than one million apps, games, books, music, movies, and more. Android 6.0 Marshmallow overhauls permissions, allowing you to have finer control over what your applications have access to. It also marks the debut of Now on Tap, a context-sensitive update to Google Now that checks your current screen for keywords and then searches for them automatically. Other performance and security enhancements are included as well.
The Shield Tablet couldn’t be more unassuming. It’s a generic black rectangle covered in soft-touch rubber; line it up against the wall with a Nexus 7 and a bunch of other competitors. I am not crazy about the way it picks up fingerprints, and the mushy power button is a little too difficult to press, but beyond that there really isn’t that much to even say about the Shield Tablet’s generic design. The display is any tablet’s defining feature, of course, and the Shield has a decent one. It’s not quite as contrasty or vibrant as the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX I keep by my bed for emergency Netflix, but it does have one big advantage: size. The Shield Tablet has an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 display, and it does make a difference next to the 7-inch screens that were table stakes for Android tablets years ago.
The Android operating system integrates heavily with Google's services. Using the card-based Google Now, Android quickly surfaces information for you whenever you need it, powered by the same Knowledge Engine that runs Google's web search. It's a personalized and customizable OS, allowing you to add your favorite apps or widgets to your homescreen. You can even download new themes using the Google Play Store, which offers access to more than one million apps, games, books, music, movies, and more. Android 6.0 Marshmallow overhauls permissions, allowing you to have finer control over what your applications have access to. It also marks the debut of Now on Tap, a context-sensitive update to Google Now that checks your current screen for keywords and then searches for them automatically. Other performance and security enhancements are included as well.
I bought that Fire HDX (and the Nexus 7 it replaced) in an age where I used a tiny phone. Now I use a big phone, so tablets need to do more to justify their existence to me. And, at least until Google sorts out serious multitasking for its OS, eight inches is the right size for an Android tablet. It’s big enough to offer a meaningfully different experience over even a giant phone like the Nexus 6P, but small enough to mitigate the fact that Android still just doesn’t feel all that great on a tablet. You’re still dealing with stretched-out phone apps, but at least on the Shield they’re not blown up to the ridiculous degree that you’d see on something like the Pixel C.
Apart from the Pixel C and Google’s own Nexus devices, the Shield is one of the only tablets out there running the latest version of Android Marshmallow. It’s a mercifully clean build, too the software is almost untouched save for a few preloaded Nvidia apps, most of which you will actually want. If you’re into gaming, that is basically all of Nvidia’s software efforts are concentrated around building a premium gaming experience atop Android. This initiative has three prongs: native and optimized Android games, Steam game streaming, and the GeForce Now cloud service. For all of these, you are going to want a separate game controller, and you are probably going to want Nvidia’s own; I had little luck getting my regular Steelseries Bluetooth controller to work, with erratic results on almost every game. Nvidia sent along a Shield controller, though, which is a weird-looking, great-feeling hulk of a thing with all the controls you’d expect plus dedicated Android buttons and comfortable rests for your fingers. The 4000 Shield Controller works over direct Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth, which means it pairs very easily by using an app and offers great performance, but it’s only compatible with the Shield Tablet and Shield Android TV box
Privacy & Security:
- Direct boot: When restarting your device, Direct Boot helps it start up faster and ensures that important communications still run. So before you even put in your password, you'll still get that important text message and hear your alarm clock ring.
- Seamless software updates: On select, new devices running Android Nougat, OS updates can download in the background, so you can go on with your day while your device syncs with the latest OS.
- File-based encryption: Building on top of our security platform, Android Nougat introduces file-based encryption. By encrypting at the file level instead of the block level, Android can better isolate and protect files for individual users on your device.
- Scoped folder access: Apps can request access to specific folders that you can allow or deny access to (just like app runtime permissions). This is a reduced-scope version of the Storage permission for Apps that only need access to certain folders. It can also allow Apps to request direct access to removable media (on devices with that hardware).
- Trusted face: Trusted face, a part of Smart Lock, makes unlocking even easier thanks to a new face recogniser. The new recogniser is less sensitive to conditions like lighting, facial decorations (eyewear, facial hair, etc.), and how you hold your phone. Available on selected devices.
BATTERY:
With the same 19.75Wh lithium-ion battery as featured in Nvidia's original Shield tablet, you are looking at a similar battery life to before. The company claims that you'll achieve 10 hours of HD video playback; in our tests it was closer to 8hrs 30mins for continuous video playback. When it comes to gaming, I went from 100% battery to 40% in two hours playing a combination of Juju with the controller connected, Xenowerk and Tales from the Borderlands. This means you’ll get around three to four hours of intensive gaming on a single charge, as you lose around 30% battery per hour.
If you are going to try GeForce Now, or are planning to utilise the Console Mode, I had recommended plugging the Nvidia Shield into the mains to avoid any save game losses. For video playback, I lost only around 15% watching Netflix over Wi-Fi, and even less while watching video content stored on the microSD card with Wi-Fi turned off. What’s more, we are assuming that Nvidia has fixed the battery issues that plagued last year’s Shield Tablet. But only time will tell.
Verdict:
With the Shield, you also get the benefit of a largely stock Android experience. Nvidia's tweaks add features like handy Twitch streaming functionality rather than jarring UI overhauls. Nvidia's pretty speedy with updates too: the original Shield Tablet was one of the first devices outside of Google to receive the 5.0 Lollipop update. It's promising a Marshmallow update for Shield before the end of the year.
If there's one thing I really wish Nvidia had worked on for the updated Shield Tablet, though, it's the battery. It remains identical, and as such it will only just get you through a day of use. If you are gaming, you are definitely going to want to keep it plugged in, particularly if you are hammering the GPU with a native Android game. Hopefully this new Shield Tablet won't have the "hot batteries" issue that affected some of the last-gen tablets.Although the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 isn’t equipped with Dolby technology or any other audio enhancements, the pair of speakers do well to provide balanced sound. The tablet does have a dual-bass reflex port to help reduce distortion when operating at high volume levels.
Other small Android tabs don't fare much better, though, and it's a small sacrifice to make for what is a great tablet. Look at this way: for 10500 you not only get one of the best small Android tablets around, you get one with a bunch of killer gaming features that no other tablet offers. Move over Nexus 7, Android just got a new budget tablet champ.
| SPECS AT A GLANCE: NVIDIA SHIELD TABLET K1 | |
|---|---|
| SCREEN | 1920×1200 8-inch (283 PPI) IPS LCD |
| OS | Android 5.1.1 Lollipop (Marshmallow update coming by the end of the year) |
| CPU | Tegra K1 quad-core 2.2GHz Cortex-A15 |
| RAM | 2GB |
| GPU | Nvidia 192-core Kepler |
| STORAGE | 16GB or 32GB (plus up to 128GB micro-SD card) |
| NETWORKING | 802.11n 2x2 Mimo 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| PORTS | Micro-USB, headphone, mini-HDMI |
| CAMERA | 5MP rear camera, 5MP front camera |
| SIZE | 8.8" × 5" × 0.36" (221 x 126 x 9.2 mm) |
| WEIGHT | 13.7oz (390g) |
| BATTERY | 5200mAh (non-removable) |
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