NVIDIA Shield Review: At the Crossroads of PC and Mobile Gaming
by Brian Klug on July 31, 2013 12:14 AM ESTBattery Life
NVIDIA's Shield includes a 28.8Wh battery, which is large for a device its size but small compared to what you'd find in a 10-inch tablet for example. The good news is that it only has to power a 5-inch 720p display, which makes the choice of battery size quite nice. Since Shield is a fully functioning mobile device, we put it through our current battery life suite. Normally we'd start with our WiFi web browsing test, but given the target market for Shield I figured starting with our 3D rundown test made the most sense.
Here we have a loop of the Egypt HD benchmark, capped to 30 fps, running on all of the devices with their screens calibrated to 200 nits.
Shield manages just over 6 hours of use on a single charge, putting it up there with some of the best mobile devices we've put through this test. Being able to support 6 hours of locally rendered gaming without plugging in is pretty decent I'd say.
Video decode is also quite important, especially when you consider the use case where Shield acts as a remote display and controller for games rendered on your PC. In that case, the GPU is mostly powered down and only the video decode block is used to display what's being rendered on your PC. Our video playback test might be a good simulation of this use case. Our test remains unchanged from previous tablet reviews. Here I'm playing a 4Mbps H.264 High Profile 720p rip I made of the Harry Potter 8 Blu-ray. The full movie plays through and is looped until the battery dies. Once again, the displays are calibrated to 200 nits:
Tegra 4's video decode engine combined with a tiny 720p display and a 28.8Wh battery results in awesome battery life here - almost 19 hours on a single charge. If you can deal with the small screen, Shield might make for a good companion on long haul international flights just for video playback.
Finally we've got our standard web browsing battery life test:
We regularly load web pages at a fixed interval until the battery dies (all displays are calibrated to 200 nits as always). The differences between this test and our previous one boil down to the amount of network activity and CPU load.
On the network side, we've done a lot more to prevent aggressive browser caching of our web pages. Some caching is important otherwise you end up with a baseband/WiFi test, but it's clear what we had previously wasn't working. Brian made sure that despite the increased network load, the baseband/WiFi still have the opportunity to enter their idle states during the course of the benchmark.
We also increased CPU workload along two vectors: we decreased pause time between web page loads and we shifted to full desktop web pages, some of which are very js heavy. The end result is a CPU usage profile that mimics constant, heavy usage beyond just web browsing. Everything you do on your device ends up causing CPU usage peaks - opening applications, navigating around the OS and of course using apps themselves. Our 5th generation web browsing battery life test should map well to more types of mobile usage, not just idle content consumption of data from web pages.
Once again, excellent battery life from Shield.
NVIDIA ships Shield with a 10W (2.1A) power adapter, capable of completely charging Shield in 5.45 hours:
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This Guy - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
My tablet is 1.3 kg and I have no problem using it like a book. At first I lent it against my leg, desk and bed until I got used to the weight. If 500 grams is to heavy for you try resting your elbows on an arm rest while your playing.The device is very elegant. Nvidia is providing gaming with VNC. Try using an openGL game on a wired network with RDC. It sucks and it uses PC hardware. This is an 500 gram handheld android device that lasts for 10 hours.
Please don't be "That Guy." There are links to Dailytech in the side bar if you must use that tone.
RYF - Sunday, August 4, 2013 - link
Ergonomics play a big part is determining if an item can be held for a long time. It is about the weight distributions. E.g. holding a stick of 0.5KG as compared to holding a spherical item of 0.5KG give totally different feeling.Your irresponsible choice of words like "junk", "bias", "ugly" simply shows your prejudice.
Peanutsrevenge - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
You clearly don't handle objects of differing weights, sizes and shapes very often.A 30Kg object can feel lighter than a 15Kg object if it's easy to hold, well balanced and controllable shape if the 15Kg one is awkward.
I remember when Anandtech had almost exclusively readers with an IQ >90.
jeffkibuule - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
I miss those days. Guess when you become popular, common sense comments go out the window.nathanddrews - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
Haters gonna hate. Never heard of weight distribution?Refuge - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
I don't see how that could have been considered a rant.Troll perhaps?
superflex - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
Maybe you should put down the Xbox controller and pickup a dumbell or barbell once in a while.Or would that hurt you quest to become the ultimate dungeon master?
Sabresiberian - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
What is unbelievable is how clueless and stupid some people can be. You have no idea what Brian and Anandtech are about, you are blatantly rude, and are so ignorant about weight and balance I'm surprised you can actually type. And if Anandtech feels that this response to your post goes overboard I'm sorry, but it is no more offensive than someone calling Brian dishonest in any way, and I don't believe in letting bad behavior go unchecked.I used to swing a 1-lb hammer all day long, and there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions over the years, of construction workers who did the same. That's one pound at the end of a stick, swinging it with one hand, not holding it in 2 hands relatively close to your body. Since you are so ignorant let me point out that 1 lb is 454 grams, and that measurement is for the head of the hammer, not the whole hammer. There ar many workers in many fields who deal with a lor more weight than that, 8 or more hours a day, 5 or more days a week.
Oh, and by the way, a regular wireless Xbox 360 controller weighs 265 grams. So, what you are talking abut here is a little over 1/5 a kilo more weight.
I'm sorry that the heaviest thing you lift in your life is a Big Mac and you have no muscle tone. I'm sorry that your Mommy was mean to you all your life and so now you have a bad attitude about everything. Here's a clue though - regardless, you are responsible for your behavior in public, responsible for your physical condition, and responsible for your beliefs. Consider this a wake-up call. Get a clue before you post next time.
Seriously, a good counselor can help a lot, I highly suggest you find one ASAP.
gi_ty - Friday, August 2, 2013 - link
Excellent, well said sir!twotwotwo - Wednesday, July 31, 2013 - link
People hold 7-inch tabs that are 400-500g with one hand and a funny grip. So a little over a half-kilo with two hands and real grips seems doable.