There are a lot of negative reviews about this tablet and in my opinion, they are exaggerations or just a really bad shipment. There's no doubt this tablet has some issues and I'll address them, but first and foremost this tablet is definitely worth buying and if for a slight chance something is terribly wrong with it, just RMA it. Nvidia has great customer service.
Screen: there are two flaws I've noticed with this screen. There is a little light bleed on the very edge of the screen, but most of the time it is only noticeable if you are watching a movie with black bars and even then it doesn't affect your movie watching experience unless little things bother you. The second is that the screen seems to be sensitive to pressure. Be careful of how much force you use on it because it tends to bleed out a little light distortion from the surrounding area of pressure. However, it is important to mention that beyond that, the screen is really great. If you can overlook some tiny issues that may not even plague all units, then you can be sure to be satisfied with what is in my opinion an amazing display for the price of this tablet.
Speakers: Best mobile device speakers at the time of this review! Front facing speakers on top and bottom with subwoofer on the side of each of them. Brilliant concept. Could be perfected even more, but this tablet does what should have been expected from big brands marketing tablets for media consumption.
Stylus: With all of the amazing features this tablet can do, I'm taking the stylus and Nvidia stylus apps as a bonus. I believe that this is a test platform for it and it does quite well. I don't think it's perfect and the dabbler app is kind of confusing, but I didn't buy this tablet for the stylus and it's a lovely feature to play with. I am sort of a doodle artist, so it fits me perfectly.
WiFi: firstly, I have the WiFi edition of Nvidia Shield. I am currently using 2.4GHz configuration because my router doesn't support 5 Ghz, and 12Mbps up and down speeds. I have yet to dabble in the 5Ghz range and I need to understand router configurations better and have better equipment before I can really use the best optimizations. Most people however will be using a similar ratio to mine. Somewhere between 12Mbps and 18Mbps unless you are in a different state in which case I've heard rumors that other states have higher speed standards. Supposedly my state is getting there. My WiFi experience has been average. I've noticed my tablet is better farther away from the router than my phone and is equally matched or a tiny bit better than my laptop. There have been several complaints that the WiFi on this tablet is horrible. That was either just their unit or was they had really bad Internet issues, because I have the lowest end recommended for YouTube and Netflix streaming and I have had zero issues with my tablets WiFi.
Build Quality: There have been complaints about the build being faulty. I've only had my unit for a week, so I can't say something won't occur in the future. This particular unit seems to be in good shape though and the build seems solid to me. I am picky and tend to notice the smallest of defects, but I can honestly say I haven't noticed anything beyond what I mentioned about the screen.
This tablet has been a pleasurable experience and handles everything I have thrown at it like a boss! I recommend this tablet to anyone that doesn't care about big names like Samsung and Sony. That's not to say that those brands dont offer great tablets, but the prices of those brands are usually absurde and are only marked up because of the name. This tablet offers the best hardware you'll get for the price. If you are like me and hate bloatware, you're thinking about buying the right tablet. This has the bare essentials. Google stock with a few of nvidia's apps that are well worth it and should cost money, but you get them for free! This tablet is beyond faster than my laptop that has 8gb of ram and 2.4 Ghz processing speed. Mostly because Windows 8 is slower than crap with Web browsers and the other reason for that is that mobile devices are simply optimized better. Don't let some of the new octa (8) core processors in tablets fool you. They are worse than quad core for some reason. They lag! This tablet runs more efficiently than any device I've used and I've never experienced a lag, even while I've played some of the most graphically intense games available to play on it Android.
| Standing screen display size | 8 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1200 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920x1200 Pixels |
| Processor | 2.2 GHz tegra_k1 |
| RAM | 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM |
| Hard Drive | 16 GB |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA Tegra K1 192-core Kepler GPU |
| Wireless Type | 802.11a/b/g/n |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 7 Hours |
