- Hey guys, this is Austin.
What's the best tablet for gaming?
Nvidia have been known for their graphics for years,
but only recently have they gotten into actual hardware.
The Tablet K1 originally came out in 2015,
but after some issues with the battery,
it's been updated with a new name, price, and Android 4.0 Marshmallow.
At $3000, you're getting a tablet that still holds up today with a
nice bright 920x460 8-inch display, and several accessories like the Shield Controller and cover.
Moving up the price ladder a bit,
we've got the ASUS Transformer T100HA.
This is a $500 Windows tablet, with one big addition:
A keyboard dock.
With the help of a couple magnets, the T100 turns into a
touchscreen laptop with a small but unusable trackpad and keyboard.
It's also got a solid variety of ports like microUSB for charging,
HDMI for using external display or TV,
along with USB Type-C. pair this with the MacBook USB-C adapter and
Pair this with the MacBook USB-C adapter,
and you've got a full USB 3.0 port for using something like an external hard drive.
The iPad is the most popular tablet out there for good reason,
and the iPad Mini 4 has a lot going for it.
At $400, it's the most expensive option here,
but it absolutely feels its price.
With an all-aluminum build, it's thin, while still supporting feaatures like TouchID.
It has a fantastic 7.9 inch Retina display.
Not only is it the best here on paper,
but it also has killer color on viewing angles.
It shoves up even more expensive options like the iPad Air.
With Android, iOS, and Windows covered,
what kinds of games can you play on these tablets?
Nvidia has done a lot of work on Android the last couple of years,
and it shows on the Shield.
Vainglory is the mobile equivalent of League of Legends.
The K9 has more than enough power to keep things running smoothly.
Leo's Fortune is a more casual game that performs well, which shouldn't be a huge surprise,
but a nice addition is the Shield Controller support.
This is the same gamepad from the Shield console and I like it.
It has built-in Android controls, like back and home,
but more importantly, it opens up games that aren't well-suited to just a touchscreen.
With GeForce Now,
you can stream full PC games.
This is relying on you having a good connection,
but if you do, it's a solid experience.
Pair that with an Android version of ShadowPlay to let you record your gameplay,
and you have a very cool way of playing,
and even streaming your games to Twitch.
The ASUS T100 has the advantage of running full Windows 10,
giving you access to the massive Steam library.
This is a tablet,
so don't expect it to destroy a gaming PC,
but hook up an Xbox One controller,
and you've got yourself a decent little Rocket League machine.
With a mouse and keyboard,
you'll have no problem playing lighter titles like Minecraft,
and even bumping settings up a bit.
Games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive aren't quite as smooth,
even with the graphics on low,
but it is playable for a quick game or two.
The full PC version of Minecraft also works here.
It might not be able to keep up with a ton of mods,
but it's not bad.
iPad on the other hand has tons of titles that are well suited to a
touchscreen. Agar.io started out as a browser game but you can sink(?) just as
many hours into the iPad version by tapping and swiping Lara Croft Go is
another great example of a fun tablet game the art style is on point and while
it wouldn't look out of place on a console it works well here speaking of
telltale has most of their games like Game of Thrones available on iOS and
while graphically they aren't too impressive if you've never played titles
like The Walking Dead you're missing out. while all three
tablets can handle gaming inside they could be much more different the shield
is rocking an NVIDIA Tegra k1 with a quad-core processor 2 gigabytes of RAM
and a cut-down version of a Kepler graphics card the t100 is no slouch
either with a quad-core Intel Atom x5 processor 4 gigabytes of memory along
with Intel HD graphics the iPad Mini uses an apple a dual-core CPU 2 gigs of
ram and potent power VR graphics in Geekbench 3 the single trader
performance helps the a8 overcome its lack of quarters where an GFX bench the
killer NVIDIA GPU helps pull out the win over both the iPad and a soos while it
might be down in raw power it is worth noting that the t100 not only has twice
as much RAM but also 64 gigs of storage versus 16 on the others which is
especially important for running full Windows 10 of course things aren't
perfect while the addition of the keyboard dock
is a huge advantage the tablet itself has large bezels and the plastic build
looks fine but the 2/100 feels by far the cheapest here the screen also isn't
anything special it's a 10-inch 1280 by 800 panel which is totally usable but
it's not as sharp nor is nice to look at as the others the iPad Mini has the
design battery life and performance to easily keep up with gaming but at $400
not only is it significantly more expensive than the others it's also only
a bit cheaper than the more useful iPad here as by far the cheapest option here
there are some cut corners with the shield like no microUSB charger included
in the box throw in the cover and controller and it
quickly approaches $300 but even factoring in its age there's not a lot
to complain about the software is essentially pure Android with
legitimately useful additions by Nvidia and even little things like the
front-facing speakers go a long way and making it a nice experience to game on
it might not be perfect but for the price it's hard to argue with the
Shield K9