I'm happy with the Shield Tablet, but it's quite a polarizing device. At $299 ($399 for the 32GB LTE version) it's a pretty good value tablet but it isn't without its quirks. Its battery life is quite low, it doesn't come with the controller at those price points unless you get it bundled from a sale/promo, and there's a number of quality-of-life issues that have as of yet been unresolved by Nvidia though they have promised to address them in software updates.

As far as playing games on it goes, I can say it's the best Android gaming device I've used so far, and as a mobile game developer I like to think that statement carries some weight. The Tegra K1 is an incredibly capable processor. There isn't an app supported by the device which it has not run smoothly at maximum settings. The trick is to find the supported apps. For whatever reason, XCOM isn't playable on the Tablet without hacky workarounds, even though the processor should be able to handle it just fine. The developers, for whatever reason, simply haven't updated their game to accept the Tablet as a supported device.

Google has a diverse Play store which is filled to the brim with playable games, but Nvidia's own app - Shield Hub - helps narrow that down to the games that provide the best experience on their devices. This is their attempt at addressing one of the biggest complaints against Google's Play Store, and generally Nvidia does a good job at curating their list. I've sunk hours of enjoyment in World Of Tanks: Blitz, SAS Zombie Assault 4, and other native Android games. Playing the included Trine 2, Portal and Half-Life 2 games were also novel experiences, but having finished them already on PC, I didn't really delve into them that much.

Speaking of PCs, I have an Nvidia graphics card on mine which enables me to use their Gamestream technology on the Tablet. I can stream games from my PC to the tablet, and play them using either the Nvidia Shield controller, another Bluetooth controller, or a mouse and keyboard connected to the Tablet via USB-OTG or Bluetooth. It's pretty fucking sweet. It runs alright on my home WiFi network as I have a pretty decent wireless AC router, but the smoothest experience I've had with Gamestreaming to the Tablet was when I connected it to my network via Ethernet using a USB-OTG cable and a USB Ethernet adapter. I have plans to 3D-print a nice docking station that incorporates that Ethernet adapter, a USB-OTG Y-splitter for charging while connected, and HDMI, to pretty much make it an Android console connected to my TV.

Why not just buy the new Android Shield TV? Honestly, if I could have waited a bit longer, I probably would have. It's got a better processor, will have more native Android game support, and does the whole console thing right out of the box. Oh well. I didn't already have an Android tablet though, so I don't feel too bad about missing out as I can still use my device as a regular, non-gaming Android tablet.

I think that covers most of my general thoughts on the Nvidia Shield Tablet. I can't comment much on Nvidia GRID, their subscription-based online game streaming service, as I live in a country with crap internet and have no intention to try streaming games over it until Nvidia puts up a GRID server locally. Fat chance.