The biggest surprise of the 2013 International CES for Android fans had to be NVIDIA’s Project Shield announcement. How NVIDIA was able to keep the device a secret is beyond me, but it’s certainly making headlines around the globe now. As you will see in the video above, we stopped by NVIDIA’s booth to learn all about it. Unfortunately, the Shield was under glass at the time, so it was eyes-on only, but the footage is still very revealing and informative.
The portable Android gaming console is equipped with a 5-inch 720p LCD display, NVIDIA’s new Tegra 4 quad-core A15 processor with 72-core GeForce GPU, and a full-size console-grade game controller with a d-pad, dual thumb sticks and front-facing speakers. I would say the control scheme is very similar to gamepads for home consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Shield also has WiFi connectivity, an HDMI-out port, a microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, and, of course, it runs Android 4.x Jelly Bean.
Aside from playing upcoming Tegra 4-optimized Android games, like Blood Sword: Sword of Ruin THD, Madfinger Games’ Dead Trigger 2, SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode III, Real Boxing, rochard, Burn Zombie Burn! and Arma Tactics, the Shield can also stream high-end games, like Battlefield 3, Assassin’s Creed III and Need for Speed Most Wanted, directly from a GeForce GTX-powered computer (supports Steam, too). On top of all that, users will have access to the full Android OS, including apps like the Chrome Web browser, YouTube, email and more – TegraZone and full Google Play Store support.
Look for the Project Shield handheld system to be released in Q2 2013 at an undisclosed price-point.
More from NVIDIA at CES 2013:
- NVIDIA Grid cloud gaming service for Android
- NVIDIA Tegra 4 Android gaming (Blood Sword)
- NVIDIA Tegra 4 webpage load test
- NVIDIA Tegra 4 4K video output to LG 4K TV