When comparing Nvidia Shield Portable vs Shield Tablet K1, the Slant community recommends Nvidia Shield Portable for most people. In the question“What are the best portable game consoles?” Nvidia Shield Portable is ranked 16th while Shield Tablet K1 is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Nvidia Shield Portable is:
Console mode allows the user to use a USB cable in order to output 1080p video to a TV or monitor, making for an easy way to play ones games on a larger screen just as they would with a console.
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Pros
Pro Can be turned into a stationary console with 1080p
Console mode allows the user to use a USB cable in order to output 1080p video to a TV or monitor, making for an easy way to play ones games on a larger screen just as they would with a console.
Pro Has a 5-hour battery life
With the size of the device a large capacity battery is able to be used internally which will give up to 5 hours of playtime with even the most demanding of games.
Pro Very good speakers for a portable device
Louder than a 3DS or Vita handheld the speakers in the Nvidia Shield makes for a pleasant listening experience that does not require any strain the hear what is going on.
Pro Can wirelessly stream to a Chromecast
Since the OS 5.1 update the device can stream to any Chromecast compliant device making for an easy way to stream ones games or other content to a bigger screen.
Pro Huge selection of games to choose from
Since this is an Android device the selection of games is quite large.
Pro Good deal
$200 for one of the best Android gaming tablets out there makes for a cheap option for a device with a high end GPU.
Pro Powerful portable graphics
Graphics close to last-gen consoles using the Tegra K1 GPU. There are ports of current AA games such as Borderlands 2 as well as Portal. These are high quality games that run well on the device due to the powerful GPU.
Pro HDMI output
Has a mini-HDMI port so you can connect it to your TV or monitor. This allows one to play games on a larger screen while powering them with the tablet, much like a console.
Cons
Con A relatively small subset of Android games available are optimized for controller use
Out of the majority of games available for Android most only have touch controls. There are a few that utilize HID controls and even fewer that utilize the nVidia controller. This makes for a very limited selection of native games to play on the device.
Con Navigating is cumbersome
Users can use the dual analog sticks to maneuver around the OS but sadly t is time consuming and not as accurate as touch controls. Users can of course use touch controls but now holding the device is difficult due to how it was designed to be held, with two hands.
Con Somewhat large and heavy for a portable device
At 1.5 pounds the device is quite heavy, which cuts down on the portability. What is worse is the size though as it is quite bulky and will not be fitting inside of anyone's pockets. Taking both of these into consideration reveals that this is not that portable of a device.
Con No physical controls built in
Need to get a controller or use touchscreen controls. While the old model used to come with a stylus that has been removed on the new device. There is also a game controller made by Nvidia that works specifically with this tablet but it is an extra cost since it does not come with it.
Con Game selection
A few Shield exclusives, but mostly mobile games, which mainly work with touch controls rather than a gamepad.
Con Not great battery life
Maybe 3 hours of gaming battery life, or about 10 hours of web browsing. For what is a gaming centric device the screen time while gaming is quite low.