New Shield Owner - Some Impressions and Issues

[cygnus11]

I got a new Shield Tablet 32 GB LTE for Christmas and I have been using it daily for the past few weeks. I must say that I have mixed feelings about the tablet.

On the positive side it has a ton of features and has great hardware performance for the price. It really is a great deal when you consider that you get 32 GB of storage, HDMI output, an sd card slot, and one of the fastest processors available on an Android tablet - all for $400. Plus, I took advantage of the pre-holiday deal and got the controller for free.

On the negative side, I think the hardware design is a bit lacking. The screen is decent but not awesome. The feel of the tablet is a bit rough - specifically the sharp plastic edges around the screen. I find it a bit uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time. It also just doesn't feel as "solid" as I had hoped. This tablet replaced a Nexus 7 2013 for me and I must say that I miss the comfort and rugged feel of the Nexus.

But probably the thing that I am most unsettled with about the Shield tablet is the software instability issues that I am experiencing. Here is a list of some of those issues:

1. I am experiencing constant wifi disconnections. I notice that the 5G performance is great, but the tablet seems to drop connection often. And many times after waking the tablet from sleep, it can take up to a minute to reconnect to my wifi, even though I have the tablet set to stay connected to wifi during sleep. I am going to try using the 2.4 GHz connection for a while to see if this makes things better.
   
   
2. I also have issues with connecting the controller to the tablet. Sometimes it connects instantly, which is the way I think it should work. Other times, it takes a couple minutes to connect. This is not a huge issues, but I thought that using a wifi direct connection for the controller was supposed to make connecting to the tablet much more smooth.
   
   
3. Recently, I experienced a complete battery drain overnight while the tablet was in sleep mode. This is pretty disturbing and I don't know what caused it. I am hoping this is just a one-time thing, so I plan to keep my eye on battery performance over the next few days.
   
   
4. Finally, I am just experiencing overall software/application issues. I've had a few tablet freeze-ups where I had to do a hard reboot to recover. I noticed some graphical glitches in some games. I also have observed some sound glitches.

I am hoping that all of these issues are not indicative of hardware problems, but are the results of immature software that will be fixed over time.

Anyway, that is my overall reaction to my new Shield tablet. If anyone has any tips for addressing the issues that I mentioned here, that would be much appreciated.

 

[Paul627g]

I am experiencing constant wifi disconnections. I notice that the 5G performance is great, but the tablet seems to drop connection often. And many times after waking the tablet from sleep, it can take up to a minute to reconnect to my wifi, even though I have the tablet set to stay connected to wifi during sleep. I am going to try using the 2.4 GHz connection for a while to see if this makes things better.

Have you done all the OTA's up to Lollipop version 5.0.1?

I also have issues with connecting the controller to the tablet. Sometimes it connects instantly, which is the way I think it should work. Other times, it takes a couple minutes to connect. This is not a huge issues, but I thought that using a wifi direct connection for the controller was supposed to make connecting to the tablet much more smooth.

I personally haven't had issues with this but it is something worth keeping an eye on.

Recently, I experienced a complete battery drain overnight while the tablet was in sleep mode. This is pretty disturbing and I don't know what caused it. I am hoping this is just a one-time thing, so I plan to keep my eye on battery performance over the next few days.

Keep an eye on this also, provide some screenshots of your battery stats for us to look at. Also consider installing something like G Sam Battery Monitor from the Google Play store. It will provide much more details on wake locks and other issues.

Finally, I am just experiencing overall software/application issues. I've had a few tablet freeze-ups where I had to do a hard reboot to recover. I noticed some graphical glitches in some games. I also have observed some sound glitches.

Most likely this is still some issues with apps not updated to the latest Lollipop code and/or bugs to work out. As for NVIDIA's own SHIELD apps and Android's base apps those seem to be running very smooth with little or no issues.


On the other side thank you for sharing your thoughts and looking forward to hearing more as time goes by

 

[cygnus11]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions.

I did update the tablet to the latest OTA version.

I will definitely try downloading a battery monitor to help determine what is draining the battery. In the meantime, I have switched to using the 2.4 GHz wifi connection and it already seems more stable. I will use this connection for the next few days and see how this impacts some of these issues. I wonder if the tablet spent the night having trouble keeping the 5 GHz connection, and that caused the power drain. I get the impression that there are still some outstanding issues with 5G on this tablet.

I've always liked nvidia products, and it seems that they are very quick to provide software updates. I hope this continues because I really want to love this tablet and I plan to keep it for a while.

 

[Paul627g]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions.

I did update the tablet to the latest OTA version.

I will definitely try downloading a battery monitor to help determine what is draining the battery. In the meantime, I have switched to using the 2.4 GHz wifi connection and it already seems more stable. I will use this connection for the next few days and see how this impacts some of these issues. I wonder if the tablet spent the night having trouble keeping the 5 GHz connection, and that caused the power drain. I get the impression that there are still some outstanding issues with 5G on this tablet.

I've always liked nvidia products, and it seems that they are very quick to provide software updates. I hope this continues because I really want to love this tablet and I plan to keep it for a while.

Sounds good to me.

Lets keep in mind to be fair to NVIDIA this is the first gen of the SHIELD Tablet. So that said I'm sure if they do plan on following up with a newer gen version it will improve on the hardware.

Just going off current NVIDIA history.. NVIDIA SHIELD Portable, sweet unit.. Tegra Note 7, a starting point but severely lacking in hardware.. SHIELD Tablet comes along and takes what they learned off the Tegra Note & Portable and they capitalize big time. I can only imagine what their next product will end up like

 

[cygnus11]

Quick update: My tablet seems much more stable using 2.4 GHz wifi connection. My controller is connecting immediately and the tablet has not dropped connection at all. My connection speed does get pretty low when I am far away from my router - much lower than compared to my HTC One m8.

I also have not had any battery issues while using 2.4. I really think the spotty signal of my wifi in my house is causing some issues, particularly at 5 GHz. It seems like there could be some bugs in the shield software around handling low wifi signals.

I am going to pick up a wireless access point today to add to my network. I think this will really help.

 

[Paul627g]

Quick update: My tablet seems much more stable using 2.4 GHz wifi connection. My controller is connecting immediately and the tablet has not dropped connection at all. My connection speed does get pretty low when I am far away from my router - much lower than compared to my HTC One m8.

I also have not had any battery issues while using 2.4. I really think the spotty signal of my wifi in my house is causing some issues, particularly at 5 GHz. It seems like there could be some bugs in the shield software around handling low wifi signals.

I am going to pick up a wireless access point today to add to my network. I think this will really help.

Sounds good. Yeah 5g WiFi can be a pita in general. Not just related to the SHIELD Tablet but to any device. It all depends on output signal strength and reception by the device receiving it. Comparing my different devices its completely up and down, all over the place when it comes to 5G. One device great, next one not so great and then some in the middle..

Wireless Access Point should help bridge that gap in your house to improve things for all your devices w/ 5 G.