Software wise the Nvidia Shield tablet comes with Android 4.4.2
out of the box but waiting for us when we unpacked it was Android Lollipop ready to
be installed. We've done this review based on Android Lollipop and it's very good to
see that Nvidia have produced a good software suite and got their Lollipop update out very
rapidly including necessary updates to their own internal software. Let's go hands-on now
and take a look at the Nvidia Shield tablet software including the features of Android
Lollipop as well as those that are specific to the Nvidia Shield tablet. So, the
Nvidia Shield tablet is running Android 5 Lollipop. It came with Android 4.4.2 out of the box
but the update was also waiting for us to run so we may as well review this using the latest
software that you will be using this Christmas. So the first thing really to mention is this
is Android Lollipop, the new improved updated version of Android. It does provide some
new functionality and a new look and feel that's called Material Designs.
You'll find this running not only through the operating system itself but also through Google's
apps and potentially third party apps as well. Now one of the things that Nvidia have done
is updated some areas of the Android Lollipop operating system to include features of the
Nvidia Shield so for instance under the notification shade you also have the option of the Shield
controller and the Share functionality as well. You can also cast the
screen if you have a Chromecast so you can send this display directly to your television
set. It is a little bit more laggy doing it like that. Certainly it's much better to use
the HDMI output and use the cable to plug into the TV. But the Shield controller option
here will bring up the Shield controller but it will also show you the current battery
level for the controller as well.The share options
will bring up the share menu which can also be accessed directly from the
Nvidia Shield controller. From here you can stream to Twitch, record the last five minutes
or just set a manual record to keep recording. You can also turn your microphone on, your
webcam on and the Chat option and there's also some settings here as well which are
useful for tweaking how you're going to be streaming to Twitch. Within the notification
shade is also the option for the auto rotate and full-screen.
Full screen keeps the on-screen controls in place. When you go on to full screen mode
it will remove them and instead you can swipe up to get them back. For my mind it is better
to have that kind of full immersion going on especially when
you happen to be playing games. You also have the option to create additional users as well,
either guests or fully fledged accounts. All of this is handled within the Android operating
system itself. Now if we come into the actual settings area this is an area that has taken
quite a new look and feel from previous versions of
Android. Gone is the kind of black and grey, now it's white and well, a kind of turquoisey
colour for the icons. Now things are pretty much the muchness in here other than the items
that Nvidia have added themselves. But let's first have a look at the top row which is
our networking options. So we have WiFi, Bluetooth, data
usage and under more we have access to airplane mode, setting
our default SMS app. If you happen to be using an LTE version of the tablet you've also got
the options for tethering hotspot Nvidia Shield Tablet VPN mobile networks and mobile plan.
Now what's missing from here interestingly is NFC support. The tablet doesn't have NFC
support and so we have no option for it . When we come into the device area this is where
Nvidia have added a few of their own bits and pieces. We've got some controller options
in here, so connecting the controller enabling auto download and enabling the gamepad mapper.
You can also set how a virtual mouse is going to be treated as well. Display is fairly standard
stuff. This is where you'll find your brightness levels, your colour correction and what will
happen when the screen rotates as well as how long the screen will stay on for. Direct
stylus is for our stylus option which we'll go through from a software point of view in
a moment. But in here you can set how that stylus is going to interact with the
device, how long a finger will stay on the screen before registering
a tap for instance Nvidia Shield Tablet and whether it's a leftie or not. You can also
set handwriting recognition on as well when it's removed and also set an action when you
pull out the stylus for what it should actually do. In this case opens the direct stylus launcher
which is the default. We also have options for HDMI as well so if you plug in the HDMI
cable and connect it to a TV what would the tablet do? Well in this case it will prompt
to switch to the HDMI mode when it's connected and this is basically mirror mode or TV mode
and you can also set it for 4k as well. And there's some colour correction options there
also. Sound and notifications, storage battery and apps and users are very similar to what
we've had before so we'll just quickly go through those. This is where you're going
to be able to whoops, set your media volume as well as ringtones and notifications and
set what those sounds are going to be as well. Nvidia Shield Tablet. In storage you can see
what is using space currently, so from apps through to pictures downloads and cached data.
If you come onto these options you can usually get more information. Whoops it's still calculating,
there we go. And from here, if you want to, you can uninstall apps as well. Battery usage is actually pretty
good with this tablet we found. On average you get around eight hours of standard usage
so bit of wifi, bit of browsing, bit of gaming, a little bit of everything really, bit of
media playback. For heavy gaming you're looking at a battery that will last you around
two to three hours. Now that's on par when you think about it for most portable gaming
systems. You're running the system at maximum power levels and you are going to find that
the battery will drain quite quickly as with any games. Now obviously the higher brightness
of the screen the faster that battery is going to drain as well. Just things to be aware
of. If we go into apps we can see the individual apps running list, you'll have seen this access
just now from the storage area. From there we can uninstall apps and so on. Within users,
we have the ability to set up new users guests and so on. When we come back to personal things
have stayed pretty similar here. We've got our location controls which show us what device,
sorry what apps are trying to access Nvidia Shield Tablet location information and we
can set how the battery saving should operate there as to whether it should use GPS, assisted
wifi location or simply nothing at all. Security as you might expect this is where we can
set up security for our device, everything from pin unlocks to passcodes and so on. Be
aware encrypting your tablet is now an option as it always has been in fact but under Lollipop
it has supposedly been improved. However when we've looked at encryption on this device
we found that it really slows down the internal storage. It is not worth using in my opinion
in its current state. Accounts is where you can set up the accounts for all of your various
apps and tie them to a user. Language and input is where we have, well, funnily enough
language and input so everything to do with the language the device is going to be using,
your spell checker and the keyboards as well. You can also set your voice input in there
also and game controller is another option in there. Back-up and reset is where you can
set how you will back-up your device to Google's cloud for later restoring if you need to do
a reset. The option also is in there to completely wipe the device and start again, take it back
to factory settings basically although that will if you've upgraded to Lollipop only take
you back to Lollipop when it was first installed. It won't take you back to previous versions
of Android. Nvidia Shield Tablet. Everything here is very very obvious so these are just
setting up as you might expect the date and time, your accessibility settings, printing
and if you're a developer being able to turn on and
tweak some of the background stuff that Android Lollipop can do. Now, when we actually come
into the software itself within the Nvidia Shield what we find is that Nvidia have kind
of left the majority of the operating system alone other than adding functionality for
their controller and the stylus. When it comes to bunging apps into the operating system
they've kind of kept it to just what was necessary. So we have the Nvidia Shield hub and this
is where all of our games are available both on PCs, on the Grid, Nvidia's game streaming
service and within the actual Android operating system itself, so your Android games. Everything
being brought together in one single place is fantastic and again when you're using the
controller it makes it feel like a very nicely integrated package, kind of like having your
very own Xbox Live or PlayStation Network store kind of integrated fully because
you also have the shop option as well there. When we
come into the dabbler which is Nvidia's dibber, this allows us to draw on the screen as we've
already seen in some footage. It works very, very well. The clever thing with this is it
uses the GPU performance power to do some clever effects here where it's actually mathematically
interpreting how much absorbency there should be from the paper relative to the ink and
the amount of pressure that's being applied and as you can see it generates a bleed effect
just like you would have from well real paper, real paint. It's really
really clever Nvidia Shield Tablet and as far as I'm aware it's something fairly unique
to the Nvidia Shield tablet. As I say, the Nvidia Shield tablet hasn't been bloated out
with large amounts of unnecessary software. Everything that's here feels necessary and
actually feels very well done. The integrations directly into the operating system have been
well-handled. They aren't fudged in any way shape or form. It all just works and I think
that's quite a remarkable thing to be able to say for any device these days, especially
for a tablet coming from a manufacturer who is not known for tablets. This is their first
one. It shows they've put the work in and the effort to creating a software suite that
is complimentary to Android without getting in the way. It adds functionality and makes
sure that all of Nvidia's features work as advertised but without dragging the system
performance down. Thanks for watching. Don't forget
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