Living with the Shield Tablet

[ljbad4life]

This will be mix of review, tips and tricks and experiences. If you have anything thing to add please feel free to!

The basics:

The shield tablet is well constructed bordering on excellent, but there are some draw backs. The tablet feels solid, no creaking or flexing, but the edges where the screen meets the body of the tablet could have been designed at little nicer.

The screen: The screen is very good. I prefer it's more natural color palette over the over saturated look of amoled screens. If the colors aren't to your liking you can change the screens color correction via the display settings. TIP: There is another setting that was a little harder to find. it's in the battery settings then press the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner and select shield power control. Select Tegra Prism dyamic backlight. The effect is not really noticeable from the static screen, but watch a movie there is a world of difference. Blacks are blacker and colors are slightly richer (without being over the top). I tested it by watching the same scene in Gravity (the one where the debris hits the space shuttle).

The Battery: the screen is the biggest hog of power. Nvidia has done a good job through the shield power control settings of giving you the power to throttle the cpu when you need to. I leave it on optimized unless I'm playing a heavy duty game (grid games, Half life 2 or using and emulator). I get about 10-12 hours out of the battery with heavy use (movies, music and a bit of gaming). I get about 3.5 hours out of Grid Gaming.

Gaming:
I've spent a while gaming and I have zero complaints. I've played android games, emulators (from nes to dreamcast), tegra optimized games (half life 2) and Grid games. Grid games require a hefty internet connection, which luckily I have. I've tested Grid games over LTE (I tethered it to my N5 on att, my connection usually is between 15-25mbps with really low pings). I was curious to see what would happen. It works well. I played Borderlands 2 for about 10 minutes and it used ~200mbs of data. I can extrapolate that to ~11gb an hour of gaming. I highly discourage it, I feel like that would get me kicked off att. The tablet gets warm, not hot, but warm enough that I fear that it might over heat if I put a thick case on it. TIP: If the game is stuttering even slightly try turning the processor mode to max performance in the shield power control menu

My general Tips:
Get a micro sd card and put everything on it (I have a 64gb micro sd card). I have the 16gb shield and I have pretty much all the space the tablet came out of the box with except for maybe 1gb less.

Google apps are the biggest offender when it comes to massive file sizes. Google movies in hd are about 2 gb, tv shows are 1-2 gb. The real surprise was google magazines. One national geographic magazine was .5gb. Go into settings and set downloads to SD Card.

 

[cygnus11]

Thanks for the tips. My wife got me a shield for Christmas, so I am looking forward to playing with it in a few weeks.

I am wondering about the screen brightness. I currently use a Nexus 7 2013 and that screen is incredibly bright. If anyone has a Nexus 7 to compare it with, I was curious at what setting on the brightness of the Nexus 7 is equal to the Shield at max brightness? I generally don't worry too much about battery life, but I do love a really bright screen. I hope I am not disappointed with the Shield.

I am getting the 32 GB LTE model, but I also plan to pick up a SD card for movies and music. The expandable memory is one missing feature from the Nexus 9 that really pushed me to the Shield.

 

[AustinTech]

Thanks for the tips. My wife got me a shield for Christmas, so I am looking forward to playing with it in a few weeks.

I am wondering about the screen brightness. I currently use a Nexus 7 2013 and that screen is incredibly bright. If anyone has a Nexus 7 to compare it with, I was curious at what setting on the brightness of the Nexus 7 is equal to the Shield at max brightness? I generally don't worry too much about battery life, but I do love a really bright screen. I hope I am not disappointed with the Shield.

I am getting the 32 GB LTE model, but I also plan to pick up a SD card for movies and music. The expandable memory is one missing feature from the Nexus 9 that really pushed me to the Shield.

I have both tablets and can tell you that the Shield gets plenty bright at the higher settings.

I'd say that the Shield at 100% is equal to the Nexus 7 at 91-93%.

The Nexus 7 was the first device I've owned that I never used on 100% brightness. It gets crazy bright.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ljbad4life]

I have a Nexus 7 (2012) and I can tell you by comparing those two the screen brightness is pretty close. Turn off the auto adjust brightness, Nvidia likes to keep the screen dimmer for the sake of battery life. Override it and put it where you desire.

 

[toonzizhere]

I'm in the same boat, getting it from my wife on xmas. I opened it to check it out (paranoid about some stories of cracks, etc), and to put lollipop on it. It looks perfect, and the updates went smooth. I read you should do a factory data reset after flashing 5.0 so I did that as well. Now hopefully it will be ready to roll on xmas instead of waiting 2 hrs to use it. At least that's the justification I used to get my hands on it a bit early. Now it goes back under the tree, dangit!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Paul627g]

Im I opened it to check it out (paranoid about some stories of cracks, etc), and to put lollipop on it.

Posted via the Android Central App

The cracks issue you speak of was fixed shortly after initial release. As long as it wasn't purchased within the first few weeks you should be okay. If it does develop any bezel cracking, contact Nvidia and they may simply replace the device.

 

[toonzizhere]

Yea I'm not too worried about it, the device felt really solid and was zippy when I had it out of the box. Just can't wait to put it thru it's paces in a few weeks!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[MrSlippery519]

The cracks issue you speak of was fixed shortly after initial release. As long as it wasn't purchased within the first few weeks you should be okay. If it does develop any bezel cracking, contact Nvidia and they may simply replace the device.

And to add to this, the "new" models have a very faint line on the corners which is supposed to resolve the cracking issue. So if you get a new one and see that dont freak out...of course if they get bigger suddenly contact Nvidia.

 

[Paul627g]

And to add to this, the "new" models have a very faint line on the corners which is supposed to resolve the cracking issue. So if you get a new one and see that dont freak out...of course if they get bigger suddenly contact Nvidia.

Just to reassure you from my contacts at Nvidia that the bezel cracking was corrected very quickly after its discovery early in the release of the tablet. I'm not positive but I believe that was part of the reason things were slow to ship/back order because they made corrections on the assembly line.

Nvidia is quickly building a great reputation for their continued support of their products. That is a huge selling point IMO

 

[ljbad4life]

I can report that I don't have any cracking on my tablet.

I have a nice little TIP: Turn on "handwriting recognition input method when Direct stylus is removed" in the Direct Stylus setting. I've been using it for a week and it works very well. It replaces the google keyboard when they stylus is removed a little square for you to write in the exact same size as the google keyboard. Any where you have to input text, you write the letter/word out and the tablet interprets it into typed text. It's really accurate even with my chicken scratch (that even doctors have made fun of). It makes writing long emails and note taking easy.

 

[Paul627g]

I can report that I don't have any cracking on my tablet.

I have a nice little TIP: Turn on "handwriting recognition input method when Direct stylus is removed" in the Direct Stylus setting. I've been using it for a week and it works very well. It replaces the google keyboard when they stylus is removed a little square for you to write in the exact same size as the google keyboard. Any where you have to input text, you write the letter/word out and the tablet interprets it into typed text. It's really accurate even with my chicken scratch (that even doctors have made fun of). It makes writing long emails and note taking easy.

Yes the DirectSylus 2 is a huge improvement over the original DirectStylus found in the NVIDIA TEGRA Note. I find myself using the stylus quite often.

 

[warpdrive]

Just to reassure you from my contacts at Nvidia that the bezel cracking was corrected very quickly after its discovery early in the release of the tablet. I'm not positive but I believe that was part of the reason things were slow to ship/back order because they made corrections on the assembly line.

Nvidia is quickly building a great reputation for their continued support of their products. That is a huge selling point IMO

You clearly have not been on the NVidia forums. Many of the new tablets including the LTE replacements have cracked corners. I'll look up links later when I get a chance.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

 

[AaronTV]

There are barely perceptible seams on mine at every corner on the side. This is not what people are calling "cracks" I hope. If so, I'd certainly not complain about it.

Posted via the Android Central App (Shield Tablet)

 

[Paul627g]

You clearly have not been on the NVidia forums. Many of the new tablets including the LTE replacements have cracked corners. I'll look up links later when I get a chance.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

I do frequent the NVIDIA forums actually quite often. From my understanding NVIDIA has been very good about replacing any SHIELD Tablets that have bezel cracking. I can't speak directly on behalf of NVIDIA but after checking with my contact at NVIDIA this issue was indeed addressed a while back and those experiencing these issues could still be old batches or something else but they should contact NVIDIA about having it RMA'd.

And if you wouldn't mind passing along which threads your referring to at NVIDIA forums I'll take a look.

 

[warpdrive]

I do frequent the NVIDIA forums actually quite often. From my understanding NVIDIA has been very good about replacing any SHIELD Tablets that have bezel cracking. I can't speak directly on behalf of NVIDIA but after checking with my contact at NVIDIA this issue was indeed addressed a while back and those experiencing these issues could still be old batches or something else but they should contact NVIDIA about having it RMA'd.

And if you wouldn't mind passing along which threads your referring to at NVIDIA forums I'll take a look.

Sorry for the late response,

If you have been to the forums often, then you are well aware that Nvidia stated that starting with the 32 gig LTE model the cracking in the corners won't happen as it will have the updated process.

Once released, 200 lucky people got upgrades on the rma (purchased wifi model, got LTE as a replacement). Many report cracked cases with in a day or two. One melted with a hole in the back , another popped and died in a similar fashion.

Yes, there seems to be a new updated version with "loose" seams from both models at this time. But not in anyway close to the original time frame like Nvidia posted.

Now it seems that Nvidia is having major issues with the screens being distorted with normal pressure. One guy is on his 6th rma, with 5 of the latest tablets having this problem.

So is the issue of cracked cases over? I can't say. Nvidia refuses to speak about it for over a month now... This is why I would love to know the name of your contact as none of the mods are willing to respond on this issue.

Some links...

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/766370/shield-tablet/cracked-edges/58/

I think this quote dated Dec 12th said it best...

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...lease-help-me-understand-why-cracks-are-ok/1/

"Cracks are not okay. It shows corners were cut when making the device. So where else were corners cut(Or cracked. Lol.) Also the fact that Nvidia is just sending broken units in return for rmas which not only is wasting peoples time(A resource that you cannot get back) but they might as well be calling us stupid. Cracks are not okay. If you say that I honestly feel bad for you. No the cracks have not ruined my life or anything and the tablet on the software side is awesome even if the device is cracked but that doesn't make it okay."


My point is that Nvidia has not responded about cracked cases since October (or maybe early November), and the issue has happened even in LTE models that they said was fixed and updated to the new case with the non bonded seems. So if you legitimately have a contact at Nvidia that is willing to go on record that this issue is fixed for all new purchases, please let him know that we are waiting for such a response on the forums for 2 months now.

(of course, don't take my word for it, just look up threads starting in late September, early October to read the truth.)

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

 

[Paul627g]

Sorry for the late response,

If you have been to the forums often, then you are well aware that Nvidia stated that starting with the 32 gig LTE model the cracking in the corners won't happen as it will have the updated process.

Once released, 200 lucky people got upgrades on the rma (purchased wifi model, got LTE as a replacement). Many report cracked cases with in a day or two. One melted with a hole in the back , another popped and died in a similar fashion.

Yes, there seems to be a new updated version with "loose" seams from both models at this time. But not in anyway close to the original time frame like Nvidia posted.

Now it seems that Nvidia is having major issues with the screens being distorted with normal pressure. One guy is on his 6th rma, with 5 of the latest tablets having this problem.

So is the issue of cracked cases over? I can't say. Nvidia refuses to speak about it for over a month now... This is why I would love to know the name of your contact as none of the mods are willing to respond on this issue.

Some links...

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/766370/shield-tablet/cracked-edges/58/

I think this quote dated Dec 12th said it best...

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...lease-help-me-understand-why-cracks-are-ok/1/

"Cracks are not okay. It shows corners were cut when making the device. So where else were corners cut(Or cracked. Lol.) Also the fact that Nvidia is just sending broken units in return for rmas which not only is wasting peoples time(A resource that you cannot get back) but they might as well be calling us stupid. Cracks are not okay. If you say that I honestly feel bad for you. No the cracks have not ruined my life or anything and the tablet on the software side is awesome even if the device is cracked but that doesn't make it okay."


My point is that Nvidia has not responded about cracked cases since October (or maybe early November), and the issue has happened even in LTE models that they said was fixed and updated to the new case with the non bonded seems. So if you legitimately have a contact at Nvidia that is willing to go on record that this issue is fixed for all new purchases, please let him know that we are waiting for such a response on the forums for 2 months now.

(of course, don't take my word for it, just look up threads starting in late September, early October to read the truth.)

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

Responding briefly to your comments.

First I can't speak on behalf of NVIDIA. Yes I am recognized as a Tegra Champ for NVIDIA which means as my signature says on occasion I am provided with devices to test, provide feedback and help answer questions to the best of my knowledge within the forums.

I do know that NVIDIA has been very open about handling SHIELD Tablets that have had issues. Those customers have been instructed to contact NVIDIA regarding it.

As for the issues like distorted screens, etc. that again I can only speculate on like you and can't provide any official responses.

As for those coming out and claiming multiple replacements this is nothing new and its not just isolated to NVIDIA and their products. This goes on with just about any device these days. The OEM's are in a tough spot here having to keep customers happy by standing behind their products and giving replacements. Same time you do get those who may abuse this and keep requesting replacements in hopes that they will get the " perfect " product but are never satisfied. We've seen this in the past with the Nexus 7 (2012) and other devices where you have people completely satisfied and those who aren't.

If I do hear anything regarding this situation I will be happy to pass it along. But I think these questions will find their best answer by reaching out to NVIDIA either via their forums or customer service departments via phone/email.


Again these are just my observations and opinions and not on behalf of NVIDIA, Android Central or Mobile Nations.

 

[warpdrive]

.....If I do hear anything regarding this situation I will be happy to pass it along. But I think these questions will find their best answer by reaching out to NVIDIA either via their forums or customer service departments via phone/email.


Again these are just my observations and opinions and not on behalf of NVIDIA, Android Central or Mobile Nations.

So in other words, you and your so call contact have no evidence that this matter of cracked corners/cases is solved as of this time and since counless people including myself have reached out to Nvidia and received no reply as to why it is still happening... I'm to do what again? Reach out to Nvidia on the forums? Really?

I'll say it again...
The last time Nvidia publicly announced that this issue was fixed, it turned out that it was not fixed. As a result, not even you can say that it was fixed like you did in this thread. Because, that would be deceitful on your part, based on the evidence I've provided.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

 

[MrSlippery519]

I'll say it again...
The last time Nvidia publicly announced that this issue was fixed, it turned out that it was not fixed. As a result, not even you can say that it was fixed like you did in this thread. Because, that would be deceitful on your part, based on the evidence I've provided.

I will not address the rest, but on the cracking issue Nvidia did come out and admit there was a problem with a certain number of batches, from what I have seen on here, XDA, geforce those issues are being handled when contacting Nvidia. I have also not seen new cases of cracked edges, and the few select ones that may have popped up seem to be from older units. My only proof of that statement is you do not see a bunch of new threads about cracked edges, so the logical conclusion is they problem with production has been corrected...that said you will most certainly see older units develop the problem.

 

[Paul627g]

So in other words, you and your so call contact have no evidence that this matter of cracked corners/cases is solved as of this time and since counless people including myself have reached out to Nvidia and received no reply as to why it is still happening... I'm to do what again? Reach out to Nvidia on the forums? Really?

I'll say it again...
The last time Nvidia publicly announced that this issue was fixed, it turned out that it was not fixed. As a result, not even you can say that it was fixed like you did in this thread. Because, that would be deceitful on your part, based on the evidence I've provided.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

Sorry this isn't the answers you were looking for but as I stated I can't speak on behalf of NVIDIA. I am merely a volunteer/selected Tegra Champ by NVIDIA that provides feedback and helps answer questions in the forums based on my own experience and knowledge.

If you aren't getting a reply on the forums at NVIDIA then I recommend making a phone call to their tech support line and talk with them.

I can only comment on the bezel cracks that I have not experienced them personally. My unit is one of the early run models and have been lucky it wasn't affected. As for the distortion, I haven't had this issue because I don't apply abnormal pressure to my devices to reproduce this. I'm sure if you press on the display and back of the unit you can easily reproduce this and most likely cause damage if you aren't careful, but same could be said for just about any device if you do this.

Again, your complaint/questions aren't with me its with NVIDIA and should be taken up with them.

 

[Existence_Inc]

So in other words, you and your so call contact have no evidence that this matter of cracked corners/cases is solved as of this time and since counless people including myself have reached out to Nvidia and received no reply as to why it is still happening... I'm to do what again? Reach out to Nvidia on the forums? Really?

I'll say it again...
The last time Nvidia publicly announced that this issue was fixed, it turned out that it was not fixed. As a result, not even you can say that it was fixed like you did in this thread. Because, that would be deceitful on your part, based on the evidence I've provided.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

I was one of the early adopters and my initial Shield Tab developed a hairline crack in one corner (not to be confused with the small seams on each corner that are a result of the manufacturing process). nVidia scheduled my tablet to be replaced with a new tablet once the process was updated (took about 2 weeks), and they replaced my 16GB version with the 32GB+LTE version at no cost. Talk about great customer service.

My Second tablet developed a stuck/dead pixel and the tablet was again replaced within days. Again, excellent customer service. Many companies have a minimum number of pixels that have to go bad before replacement (See PSP). Neither my 2nd or 3rd device have any signs of cracks and have been excellent. If you spend any time on the forum there, you'll see the same few people complaining constantly about things that don't even impact them. One person in particular has been complaining about the cracked frame issue for months and refuses to RMA their tablet.

All-in-all, I am VERY pleased with my Shield Tab and nVidia's Customer Service. They handle the issue straight away and are plenty fast and easy to work with. Heck, both times I had to replace my tab, they sent a new one FIRST along with packing materials and a new shipping label for returning the defective tab with NO CC number or security deposit on the new device.

~Ex