Most people are not familiar with the tech company Nvidia, but that could change very, very soon. The graphics chip maker looks to take over your living room with an all-in-one entertainment machine.
On Tuesday, Nvidia Shield unveiled the world’s first 4K Android TV console. The company is marketing the device as the “Netflix for Games.” The Shield will offer countless games through the Grid store. The cloud gaming network is a subscription service that promises to stream top-tier titles up to 1080p and 60 frames per second. The games will be “click and play,” so that means no wasting valuable time waiting for games to download. To start, Nvidia will offer two tiers of subscription, a free version and of course a premium; pricing was not announced.
At launch, the library will reportedly have more than 50 games. There were teasers that numerous epic games will be available at some point such as Batman: Arkham Knight, Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, The Witcher 3, Portal, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Doom 3 and the latest game in the Borderlands franchise.
Nvidia has been working on the Shield for the last five years and the results look to be promising. The entertainment console runs on the Nvidia X1 processor and has a 256-core Maxwell architecture GPU and 64-bit CPU. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang claims that the Shield’s Tegra X1 chip allegedly has about twice the gaming performance at half the power output as the XBOX 360.
It can play movies in crystal-clear 4K resolution and games can be streamed in 1080p (30 Mbps connection is necessary for that super high definition. 10 Mbps will get you 720p). It is the first Android-powered set-top box that is 4k compatible. It comes with 16 GB of internal storage and users can add up to 128 GB of additional storage with a MicroSD card.
The Shield will be available this May, and start at $199, which includes one controller and a rechargeable Bluetooth remote that allows you to plug in headphones for private listening much like the Roku 3. Both accessories will give you 40-hours of battery life. It will also offer “one click, one touch voice search” menu navigation.
It has tremendous promise for a console that is much, much more discounted than the Xbox One and PS4. Would you ditch your conventional consoles like Xbox and PS4 for this streaming beast?
CNET gives us the first real look at the high-performance entertainment console.
[Mashable]