The Shield Tablet ships with Android 4.4.2 KitKat and is devoid of custom skins, launchers, widgets and other gee-whiz features that do nothing except get in the way. Nvidia’s only additions to the stock Android experience are some Shield-specific settings for the controller and stylus, along with several apps to enable gaming and stylus functionality. Kudos to Nvidia for providing a clean, uncluttered interface.
The home screen includes two folders in the lower-left corner that conveniently hold all of the Google and Nvidia apps, respectively, making it easy to access Google features and Shield-specific content. There are also dedicated buttons for the Shield Hub app and app drawer in the dock.
Nvidia could have created a custom skin to make the Shield Tablet’s gaming- and media-oriented features pervasive throughout the UI. Instead, the company bundles all of that functionality into the Shield Hub app, a design decision that doesn’t intrude upon the general-purpose tablet experience.
The Shield Hub app is simple to navigate and designed to be easily viewed on a TV from across the room. From within the app, you can shop for Shield-optimized games and accessories, and read gaming news. It also provides easy access to more general Android-based titles and media apps like Netflix. Any Shield tested and certified games/apps show up in the appropriate category automatically. Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to manually add Android games or apps, which keeps the Shield Hub from being an exclusive interface while in console mode.
This isn’t the case for accessing PC games via GameStream. Titles added by selecting Preferences, then Gamestream in the GeForce Experience App on the PC appear in the “My PC Games” section of the Shield Hub app.
Checking out gaming news from within Shield Hub
The Shield Wireless Controller app is simple and self-explanatory. Its sole purpose is to make pairing Shield Controllers with the tablet a painless procedure.
The interface for the Shield Wireless Controller app
In addition to the Shield-specific apps, the tablet comes preloaded with Adobe Reader and Camera Awesome. For capturing notes and general writing, you get Evernote, JusWrite and Write.
By focusing on simplicity and functionality, Nvidia provides a pleasant and efficient interface for Shield. Other than the inability to customize which apps appear within the Shield Hub, the only other quibble I have relates to color consistency. Nvidia uses a bright green accent shade for both hardware and software. However, Android uses blue for its highlight color. Using Nvidia green throughout the Android UI, as well as its own apps, would yield a more integrated experience.
- The Nvidia Shield Tablet And Controller: Defending Against Boredom
- Availability, Options And Accessories
- Shield Tablet: Look And Feel
- Shield Controller: Look And Feel
- Software Tour
- Stylus And Inking
- Console Mode And GameStream
- Grid, ShadowPlay And Twitch
- The Games
- Benchmark Suite, Methodology And System Specs
- Results: CPU Core Benchmarks
- Results: HTML5 And JavaScript Benchmarks
- Results: GPU Core Benchmarks
- Results: GPGPU Benchmarks
- Results: Display Measurements
- Results: Battery And Throttling
- A Multifaceted Shield Worth Carrying Into Battle



Lol this is epic! xD
Anyway, great and unique review. Especially for the so many GPGPU benchmarks.
Nvidia tablet at $299 seems to be a great buy.
I know people are excited about the raw performance of this tablet. But, other than raw GPU power, EVERYTHING else is compromised.
-matt64
After clarifying this with Nvidia, only the press kits included the cable. The retail boxes do NOT include the HDMI cable. I'm sorry for the confusion and we'll update the article to correct this.
-matt64
P.S.
How is the heat on the thing after a few hours in warm weather?
Heat can cause lock ups (as you will know); but maybe its a software thing that will be ironed out.
I was hoping it would be smoothe and excellent; but I knew it would get hot. Too slim you see. Look at the PS Vita as comparrison. Chunky and cool.
The heat was not an issue I was thinking about when I mentioned a design flaw for gaming (I have a neat solution for).
Although the heat issue did give me the idea for a slot on the back of the unit (maybe magnetic) to put 6mm thick (30mm diameter) frozen metal wafers in located on the back near the CPU/GPU housing, so that it can drop the heat off a bit during an hours play. You get a kit of two or three or somthing; keep one in the freezer and swop them.
Nobody plays them all day do they?
For general browsing, should not be required; but when you start pushing the graphics, they be pretty handy on a hot day.
My Terga 4 smartphone has automatically shut itself down due to overheating itself a hundred times in summers in the Far East..
10,000 ideas.
nice.