{"id":751187,"date":"2013-05-14T15:41:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T19:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=645244"},"modified":"2013-05-14T15:41:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T19:41:28","slug":"349-nvidia-shield-mobile-gaming-console-is-high-powered-and-premium-priced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/751187","title":{"rendered":"$349 Nvidia Shield mobile gaming console is high-powered and premium priced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nvidia debuted its Project Shield gaming console in January<\/a> and now the full details are available. On Tuesday, the company announced that Nvidia Shield<\/a> — it’s no longer a “project” — is available for early pre-orders at $349. People who registered for product updates can reserve their device, while the general public can place orders on May 20.\u00a0Nvidia plans to ship the first Shield devices in June.<\/p>

If you missed the original announcement, Shield is literally Nvidia’s play to get directly into the mobile gaming hardware business. The handheld device is shaped like a Microsoft Xbox 360 controller with two important additions: A 5-inch 720p touchscreen display and bass reflex stereo speakers. Inside Shield is Nvidia’s Tegra 4 chip with\u00a072 custom GPU cores and four Cortex-A15 CPU cores. Essentially, this is a mobile gaming console with hardware controls.<\/p>

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I was impressed by the device demo I saw in January: Not only does Shield play Google Android games it supports game streaming from a PC, provided that computer has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU inside. Nvidia has also worked with Steam<\/a> — an online computer gaming distribution company — to get PC quality games on Shield. I’m leery about the price, however.<\/p>

Sony’s PS Vita is at least $100 below the $349 Nvidia Shield price, and Sony’s game machine isn’t the hottest seller right now. Instead, mobile gaming has increasingly moved towards tablets and smartphones instead of dedicated mobile game consoles.<\/p>

I know that Shield has all of the whiz-bang features essential to mobile gaming — solid controls, a fast processor and multiple graphics cores, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a 720p display — but I have doubts about the market supporting the $349 price tag. Perhaps I’ll feel differently when I have the chance to spend more time with the device. For now, my enthusiasm for Nvidia Shield is somewhat diminished.<\/p>
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