With the launch of CES just some hours away, Nvidia has announced a new handheld gaming system that plays both Android and PC games. Project Shield runs on a stock version of Jelly Bean, which allows gamers access to all games on the Google Play Store. It also has the capability to stream gameplay from a PC running a GeForce GTX 650 (or higher) video card. This means that you can play any of your favourite PC video games (including those in your Steam library) from anywhere in the house where there is Wi-Fi access. It also even includes Google Apps, which comprises of apps like Gmail, Google Talk, and a few others.
The Nvidia Tegra 4 processor has a powerful custom 72-core GeForce GPU and is the first quad-core application of the ARM Cortex-A15 CPU. To compensate for such a powerful processor, they’ve also included PRISM 2 energy-saving technology which is excepted to allow for hours of gameplay, but we will see how that pans out in real world scenarios.
Project Shield has a 5 inch, 294 dpi (retinal) multi-touch display with a 1280×720 (720p) screen resolution. There is advanced sound processing which they claim will stand up to Beats Audio-enabled laptops. They also stated that the unit can play 4K resolution (3840×2160 and higher) videos via HDMI cable to an external monitor. Finally, there is a micro-SD card slot for additional memory needs.
It’s expected to hit shelves some time in the 2nd quarter this year, but they have not announced the cost of the device just yet.
We hope there is a playable version at CES. If so, we’ll definitely publish a hands-on preview.
