NVIDIA’s SHIELD Gets Another Major Update, Plus Promotional $199 Pricing

NVIDIA’s letting loose details about SHIELD’s next update, and for those who own the portable (or will), there are a bunch of reasons to get excited. If you were hoping for Android 4.4 KitKat, that’s a done deal – but there’s a lot more to this update than a meager change like that.

For starters, NVIDIA has listened to those gamers who’ve yearned for the ability to stream a game outside the home. The company hasn’t gotten into good detail about what to expect from performance, but it’s safe to say that you’ll want at least a 10Mbps upload connection, along with at most, 50ms latency.

To complement this feature, NVIDIA’s also added the ability to wake a PC up via ping, and also allow you to log into your Windows account if it’s password-protected.

Next up: Some couch love. For those games that are horrible to play with a gamepad, this update will allow you to use Bluetooth keyboards and mice. Admittedly, the selection of such products at the moment is pretty bad, but NVIDIA has been working with leading vendors to help fix that. Logitech, you listening?

On a similar note, GameStream now supports notebooks, and anyone with a 600M or above can take advantage of it.

TegraZone, NVIDIA’s one-stop shop for Android’s best games, is getting a makeover. You can expect categories, and a slight UI update that will make navigation a little more intuitive.

In addition to all of this, the next SHIELD update will introduce a redesigned GamePad Mapper UI, and, one of my favorite features: The ability to adjust the FPS and bitrate level of content streamed through GameStream.

Upset because you don’t own a SHIELD? NVIDIA can understand that pain, so through April, it’s knocking the price down to $199 – $100 off. An incredible update, and as far as I’m concerned, an incredible deal on the device. If you’re still uncertain of what SHIELD brings to the table, I’d recommend hitting-up my in-depth review from a few months back.

If all goes well, this big update should land on April 2.