Tech

Nvidia Shield (Next-generation gaming meets portability)

The protect Sheild is powered by Tegra 4 processor that is Nvidia's recently unveiled quad-core Cortex A15 chip. The CPU in Tegra 4 is built on the same 4+1 design that we saw in Tegra 3. It is not yet confirmed on the clock speed but rumors suggest that it is running at 1.9ghz. The GPU in Tegra 4 is reportedly six times faster than the GPU in the previous Tegra 3. This is as a result of the seventy two Ge-force cores. In terms of Ram the Shield has a 2gb ram and 16GB internal storage.

It comes with a flipping 5 inch touch  display that is apparently called 'retinal' by Nvidia. The screen has a pixel density of 294ppi. The Shield come installed with Stock Android 4,2 Jellybean this means that the interface will undoubtedly be great. Users will also be able to access other android apps directly from their Shield through Android play store.

The coolest feature is the ability to connect to an Nvidia GTX-powered PC and also play PC games, this is quite remarkable. This is done through steam where the PC does all the work and then streams it wirelessly to the shield. This is made possible through an encoder that converts HD gameplay and streams it to to the device at very low latency.

The Shield has a 'console grade' controller that is almost similar to the PS3 controller. The controller contains  2 joysticks, ABXY buttons, left/right bumpers, volume/start/back/home buttons, a D pad, multifunction Nvidia/power button and left/right analog triggers. The Shield will support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. It also has a built in mic and dual speakers. The ports included are Video out, 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB, mini HDMI and a microSD slot.

This piece of work will start shipping from 31st July due to some delays from Nvidia and will retail at $299 which is approximately Ksh24,000.