The NVIDIA Shield tablet is an 8 inch Android tablet with an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and an emphasis on gaming. It has afull HD display, stereo front-facing speakers, and a starting price of $299.

NVIDIA also wants the Shield tablet to be one of the first to run Android 5.0 Lollipop: a software update will begin rolling out on November 18th. But the update brings more than just the latest version of Android.

shield 5

NVIDIA is also including Half-Life 2: Episode one in the update, as part of a free “Green Box” which also includes Half-Life 2 and Portal. The update also includes support for the new GRID streaming game service.

The company describes GRID as a Netflix-for-games type system which lets you stream games over the internet for a monthly fee… although Shield Tablet and Shield handheld game console users will be able to use GRID on-demand streaming for free through June 30th, 2015.

Since games are rendered on remote servers rather than on the tablet itself, you can play full-fledged PC games including Batman: Arkham City and Borderlands 2. NVIDIA says there are 20 games available at launch, with new titles coming every week.

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8 replies on “NVIDIA brings Android 5.0 (and more) to the Shield tablet”

  1. Ooh I can’t wait for this as android 5.0 brings somewhat better access to the SD card meaning folders can be created where ‘anything goes’ so we can once again dump music and movies wherever we like using one app and read them with another app.

  2. SHIELD Portable

    SHIELD Tablet

    Next…

    SHIELD TV?
    Featuring a Tegra K1 (64bit) , 2GB ram, 16GB storage, ability to save/run apps/games directly onto/from external storage, a host of ports, a Remote with mini keyboard on the back and mic and a Game controller. All for $159

    We can dream

  3. Good show for NVIDIA on updating that fast, now what about INTEL based Android tablets like the various ASUS memo pads? If INTEL wishes to be taken seriously on Android we need them to put the pressure on to make sure 5.0 happens!

    1. Intel has nothing to do with it. Its up to Asus to update the Memo pad

      1. Wrong, INTEL has put out tools to help code for Android to make it as easy as possible to support there SOC’s…also behind the scene there is the whole business of “contra revenue” so I would think that they would be anxious to see the tablets with INTEL INSIDE” properly supported. For me that is a minimum given that there are still many apps that do not work because of “INTEL INSIDE” say vs ARM!

        1. Intel has done tons of work to include x64 support for their chips within the Android code itself.

          They are even slightly responsible for releasing OS updates for any tablets.

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