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Nexus 9 or Nvidia shield tab?

S

skelms

Member
So I was waiting to hear about the next nexus tablet before deciding on the shield or not.
After today I am planning to get the shield tablet if it becomes available in my country.
My biggest complaint with the Nexus 9 is the 4:3 screen orientation!!!!
If I wanted to spend $400 on a tablet that doesn't have a microSD slot, and letterboxes any movies or TV shows that I watch then I'd buy an Ipad mini.

Do most people prefer 16:9 or 4:3?
Just curious since apple stuff is soo popular
 
nvidia Shield 4tw

Just a shame it's not going to be more popular, nvidia need to spend some money on advertising and push them onto retail outlets. :D

Nexus 9 has some great specs though, but not interested in a 4:3 display.
 
I guess it's what you use you tablet for.

If you mostly browse the web, then 4:3 is the way to got.

16:9(or10) is best for games and movies.

I don't see the value in the N9 for me. I rarely browse the web on my tablet. I mostly use it for movies, games and books.

Movies and games require a massive amount of storage, which the N9 is capped at 32gb.

the NST has a micro sd card slot. I could keep movies on the sd card slot. all for $100 cheaper.

I am not the least bit concerned about 64bit vs 32bit when android has few tablet apps. How many of those developers are going to optimize apps for 64 bit when the n6 is still 32 bit (along with every other phone at this point). 64 bit is going to the bees knees in 2 years but right now, I'm not slightly convinced it will have a material effect on my experience now or in the next year.
 
Shield.

Widescreen. sdcard and supports nvidias controller, unsure if Nexus 9 will be compatibile.

Also the resolution difference will hurt the Nexus 9 a little when it comes to 3d performance.

CPU performance is definintely an advatnage for the Nexus 9 for single CPU performance, multicore performance is about the same.

64Bit support? too early to care with regards to Android support, maybe next year.
 
Can I also add that it's $200 cheaper for the shield with LTE vs the Nexus 9 with LTE.

going from 16gb to 32gb on the shield includes LTE, that is not the case with the nexus 9. LTE is another $120 on top of the $80 for the 32gb upgrade.
 
I chose the shield tablet because I'm more concerned with Media oriented (mainly videos) use above all else. The expandable memory and 16:9 aspect ratio was what tipped me over. I needed at least 32gb plus expandable memory since my N7 32gb is pretty much full.

What you gain from choosing the N9 outweighs what you lose from not choosing the N9.

For the same price as the 16gb N9, you get....

  • double the on-device memory
  • expandable memory
  • hdmi out
  • native controller support
  • lte
  • stylus
From what i gather the biggest loss for not getting the N9 are:

  • Higher res display
  • Wireless AC
  • Newer processor
  • Faster updates from google
  • Newer OS
The latter two bullet points isn't really a big issue since Nvidia has been really good about updating their devices as the OG Shield is still getting support. You just have to wait a little longer than usual. Which brings me to a comment made in this thread about the popularity of this device may be a downer. While I agree that this tablet will probably be overlooked by many consumers, I believe Nvidia will still continue to support their products no matter the sales figures as they have shown with their love for the OG Shield. :) The biggest issue with low sales would be finding options for third party accessories like cases. Other than that, I would gladly recommend this tablet to anyone as an alternative to the N9 or any other Android tablet out there.

Enjoy your tablet guys...I know I am! :D
 
Unless you REALLY need a 9" screen, i don't see why you wouldn't go for the shield. You get the same Tegra k1, front facing speakers, and an sd card slot for $100 cheaper. Oh yeah, and a free game also. Even if you buy the controller, it's STILL cheaper than the nexus 9.
 
I agree with all of the points made, but I have a problem where I live, I think it's the import fees.
The shield tablet is available at japanese retail stores, and the pricing is so f'd up. It's about $415 for the shield tablet wi-fi 16 gb. The nexus 9 is $430, there is a new 8inch sony tablet for $470 that is snapdragon 4.5 ghz, 3 gigs of ram, sd card slot, waterproof...
Those prices are with tax, and I did the conversion of ￥ to $ in my head 100 to 1.
I don't want to pay more than $400 for a tablet. Maybe I will wait until spring when I plan to visit my family in the USA to get a new tablet.
 
Between the Nvidia and nexus ,I would go with the Nvidia shied has more to offer plus it faster then the nexus in almost all benchmarks plus you can get the controller and hook it up to your large HDMI TV and use the shield as a console to play games. Plus you can add a 128 gig micro SD card. To me it has more value for the price.
 
En4cer2k11 said:
Unless you REALLY need a 9" screen, i don't see why you wouldn't go for the shield. You get the same Tegra k1, front facing speakers, and an sd card slot for $100 cheaper. Oh yeah, and a free game also. Even if you buy the controller, it's STILL cheaper than the nexus 9.
Click to expand...

The K1 in the Nexus 9 is different from the version that's available in the Nvidia Shield. First, The K1 in the Shield is basically an off the the shelf 4 core ARM Cortex-A15 and is only 32bit, project codename Logan. The K1 in the Nexus 9 however is a custom 2 core ARM v8-A 64 bit that was designed in house at Nvidia, project codename Denver. What the two SOC's do have in common is the GPU, both use the same 192 Core Kepler but that's it. The Denver K1 is actually an amazing CPU as it's similiar to the discontinued Transmeta, it uses a sort of code morphing technology. The ARM instruction set isn't hardcoded into the hardware but is software located in a very large cache. This also means the Denver K1 could also potentially emulate the x86 instruction set in the future. In fact, originally Nvidia was going to go down this road by including the ARM and x86 instruction set together but pulled out in the last minute do to legal issues with Intel. The update or next iteration of the Denver with Maxwel is going to be amazing. Just look at the benchmarks, the Denver K1 is only a dual core chip but it's still faster than the quadcore Logan K1, Apple also gets it to, ARM v8-A is the way to go and the only reason why Apples A8x is faster than the Denver K1 in multi-core benchmarks is because they used 3 cores instead of 2.
 
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