How Nvidia's Shield Just Became The Best Handheld Gaming Console Available

Nvidia's latest SHIELD update adds a wealth of functionality worthy of being called an entirely new system

Nvidia's Shield doesn't receive a fraction of the hype and fanfare normally associated with established handhelds from Sony and Nintendo . It may not even have the mindshare that niche devices like the Wikipad or Razer Edge have. That needs to change immediately, because Shield just became the indispensable swiss army knife of portable gaming devices with a newly announced OTA (over the air) update from Nvidia.

When Nvidia launched Shield in July 2013, it was a promising device both strengthened and hamstrung by a split personality. Here you had a $299 proof-of-concept toy (albeit an excellent one) that streamed games from your Nvidia-powered desktop PC and doubled as an Android tablet with an Xbox 360-influenced game controller. Nvidia's goal was to push their version of an open device: a portable console-style experience for PC games and an unhindered Android experience. For the most part it succeeded, but the price wasn't comfortable enough for mainstream adoption, nor were the features as refined as they needed to be.

The April 2nd OTA is the 4th issued since launch, and unquestionably the strongest. Beyond reaffirming the same post-launch support Nvidia shows for their GPUs and software like GeForce Experience, it adds a ridiculous amount of functionality and should become infinitely more appealing to power users who've been on the fence.

Previous updates have added features like console mode, GameMapper (mapping Android game touch controls to Shield's controller) and full 1080p resolution for game streaming. The newest update - announced today and going live to the public next week - adds stuff which Nvidia tells me is predominantly inspired by a crucial subset of the Shield community: hackers and modders.

First and foremost is Remote GameStream. Previously Shield was tethered to your home network for PC game streaming, a fact at very much in conflict with the device's portable form factor. Now users will be able to log into their home desktop or laptop (provided it meets Nvidia's GPU requirements) from anywhere in the world and stream any game in their library to Shield. You can even wake up your PC from sleep if it supports Wake On LAN. Nvidia is recommending a 5Mbps down/1Mbps up connection which seems reasonable, but I'll be testing its usefulness later this week when the company provides press with an early version of the OTA update.

Oh, you can also stream apps to your Shield now. Nvidia tells me that although no piece of software is officially supported, any program on your PC should feasibly work. This may be a very niche need, but the range of its usefulness is undeniable. Nvidia is also adding support for pairing bluetooth keyboards and mice to Shield. This means one could effectively log into their home computer from a hotel across the country, play a few rounds of Titanfall, then finish some edits in Photoshop and stream that Blu-Ray you just ripped to your hard drive.

GeForce Experience, Nvidia's PC-side software which ties their ecosystem together (it also talks to Shield and optimizes streaming quality of individual games), will aid this feature by allowing users to drag and drop any app or game into the app.

Nvidia is also taking a page from their 800M series battery boost technology by implementing framerate targeting and bitrate adjustment for streaming PC games to Shield. This should improve compatibility, performance, and battery life.

They've also polished up the TegraZone app and will be pushing Android KitKat to Shield when the OTA goes live.

Finally, Nvidia is instituting a price drop to $199 through April. In my mind this price tag makes it an affordable impulse buy for power users, Nvidia enthusiasts, and people who may enjoy Skyrim in bed - or having access to their entire PC and Android game libraries in the palm of their hand.

Update: Nvidia just announced that Valve's critically-acclaimed puzzle game/FPS Portal has been ported to Shield and is running natively on the device. It joins the 300+ Shield-supported Android games currently available. No word yet on pricing or if the game could be bundled with Shield in the future.