Preview: NVIDIA Project Shield

NVIDIA treated members of the media to a sneak peek of Project Shield, their first portable gaming console.

On first impression of the console looks much like a hybrid of an Xbox and PlayStation controller, but with a display reminiscent of the Nintendo 3DS, without the 3D display of course. It has a combination of black matte (rubberized) and glossy surfaces.

You would find the NVIDIA, audio and Android buttons at the center, the D-pad on the left, 4 buttons on the right, two analog joysticks at the bottom, and an L-R trigger buttons at the top back. Stereo speakers (tuned port, base reflex) can be found on the upper left and right sides.

The 5″ capacitive touch-screen displays a 720p resolution and seems adequately bright, but we’ve not had the opportunity to take these outdoors so we’ll hold off on that verdict until we can get some longer playing time with the device. There’s also a microSD slot; HDMI (that they say is capable of pushing out 4k resolution video) and game-speed WiFi rounds up the connectivity features.

Shadowgun is best played with analog joysticks and physical buttons

Project Shield runs on Android Jelly Bean and is powered by NVIDIA’s own Tegra 4 processor. There are several ways for player to play games on the device; via Google Play of course, NVIDIA’s own Tegra Zone or they could just stream video and control their game from their PCs using the GeForce Experience application.

You can control your SkyRim PC game with Project Shield, and continue playing it even when you’re taking a dump

We’ve had the opportunity to play around with the device, and I must say that gameplay is pretty smooth. And since this runs on Android, you can still download non-gaming apps. Sadly, there is no camera, not even a front-facing one.

NVIDIA has not yet released any details regarding pricing, availability and other detailed specs such as internal storage or memory, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated on any developments.

So what do you think?