NVIDIA Project Shield hands-on

Mobile gamers were probably delighted when NVIDIA peeled the curtains of its gaming centric portable console in Project Shield, but unfortunately, the extent of seeing it in action was mainly reserved during NVIDIA’s CES press conference. On the busy floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center, it was kept under glass – far away from any hands-on time. Luckily, we stopped by NVIDIA’s booth at PAX East 2013 in Boston, where we finally got our jittery hands on the upcoming mobile console.

Knowing what’s stuffed inside, plus the fact it’s packing a touchscreen and a console style gaming pad, there’s no arguing about the NVIDIA Project Shield’s immense size. Compared to other mobile gaming pads that are out on the market now, it’s without question rather bulky – though to its credit, it’s sporting a quality finish and construction to give us peace of mind about its durability in the long run. Fashioned similar to the XBOX 360’s controller, it provides for a very natural feel in the hand as we’re grasping it. For the console gamer, there’s barely any adjustment needed to jump right in with its feel and controls scheme.

Showing off its versatility, we’ll hand it to NVIDIA for blessing this with a very reasonable looking screen. Indeed, we’re spoiled by 1080p touchscreen displays nowadays, but nevertheless, the 5-inch 720p touchscreen is effective enough for gaming – as well as navigating around Android. Thanks to its wide viewing angles and high contrast, there’s a minimal amount of distortion seen when tilting around the Project Shield, so our eyes are constantly fixed to it. And finally, there’s the performance, which is unquestionably lightning fast thanks to its brand spanking new Tegra 4 chip with its 72 GeForce GPU cores.

Instead of trying to talk to you folks about its performance in detail, go ahead and check out the video below yourself to visually see how Project Shield is shaping out as a fine gaming choice for the mobile folks.