Late last year there was talk that Nvidia was already working on its second-generation Shield handheld system. That's not surprising; the company has a new chip to dazzle the mobile world with – the Tegra K1 – and the Shield seems to be the company's official launch vessel. Word on the street is that we just might see the new handheld at E3 2014 in June.
Rumors of the Shield 2 is now backed by an appearance on the AnTuTu benchmarks. According to the chart, the device packs the quad-core Nvidia Tegra K1 chip with 192 CUDA cores (Kepler). The original has the still-speedy Tegra 4 chip with 72 GPU cores.
AnTuTu also reveals that the new Shield has a screen resolution of 1440 x 810, 4 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, and a 0.3MP camera. The original SHIELD has a 1280 x 720 resolution, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. The first-generation console also does not have a camera.
The Nvidia Shield 2 appears to be running Android 4.4.2 "KitKat," the same version that's running on the current Shield model. Unfortunately, that's it for specs, yet that little bit says a whole lot about the power this unannounced console will provide. There's a good chance the screen size and controller design may remain untouched in the second model.
Nvidia launched its Shield handheld gaming console back in July 2013 (opens in new tab). The device is essentially a console game controller with a 5-inch touch-enabled tablet for a lid. Just open the lid and you're ready to go with some serious Android gaming and PC game streaming. The best titles are those that are enhanced for Tegra chips and those that cater to the Shield's controller.
The Nvidia Shield received a huge update at the beginning of April, including out-of-home GameStream, enhancements to Gamepad Mapper tool, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support in Console Mode, plus Android "KitKat" version 4.4.2. There were also "dozens of additional tweaks and changes."
"If you're concerned about leaving your PC on all day, or leaving it unsecured without a password, new GameStream enhancements enable you to use Wake On LAN to remotely turn on your system, and to enter your Windows password with the on-screen keyboard. If you have a strong LTE connection, you can even connect to your phone's personal hotspot and stream PC games while on the go," states the GeForce site earlier this month.
To see what else is new with Nvidia's SHIELD, head here.