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General discussion

Nvidia SHIELD tablet or iPad mini 2? (Reading ahead!)

Oct 18, 2014 3:41AM PDT

Hi, guys,


I'm a student, and I have been think about buying a tablet for myself lately. After looking though the prices and specs, my options narrowed down to 32 GB Nvidia SHIELD tablet LTE and 32 GB iPad mini 2 LTE.

Just to be clear, I'm not a gamer at all, I put Nvidia Shield tablet against iPad mini 2 simply because it's budget price, high performance and near stock android experience, I'm just buying a tablet for general uses as a student. Nvidia's hardware(Tegra K1 chip, pretty much) and it's price, plus, it's very likely to receive fast Android updates since it uses a near stock android. Some of the hardware features are great, too: front facing speakers, 5MP front and rear cameras, and a SD SLOT! Although I think android has been improving rapidly, which is amazing and I love that, but my old Android experiences kept haunting me about the later lags, which I am very afraid of: I will most likely keep use this tablet for about at least 4 years. Since Nvidia is very proactive about software updates, I'm really hoping for the update speed like a Nexus, but to my other concern, this ISN'T a Nexus, the future of this new product line is uncertain, what if, just what if Nvidia stops caring about it 1 or 2 years later? It's a gaming tablet, and Nvidia isn't a mobile device manufacturer after all.

Now to the iPad mini 2. Honestly, it wasn't even on the list before the price cut right after the Apple's new releases, mainly because I'm not a Apple fan at all, I prefer Android, a lot better! Yet I can not deny that Apple has advantages of it's own, the high build quality, the efficiency of it's hardware, promising software updates, they all just seem as great, especially the battery, comparing to the Nvidia SHIELD, it's a big gap. About the display, although it's not that much better, but it's still greater at reading and web browsing. OK, I just wrote down pretty much all the Apple advantages I could ever think of, now the downside. First of all, the price, it's still $100 more expensive than the SHIELD even after the price cut, that's a BIG difference to me. And, iOS, not a fan of it, it runs smooth, sure; it saves battery, sure; it looks so fab, sure. But it's much less fun to play with and open than Android, and it's not as convenient. Although iOS can keep running smooth for a long time, but let's face it, Apple doesn't give much sh*t about the old customers, besides the instability, those fast software updates aren't made for the older models all that much, it just lags... Plus, Apple loves making new devices, mini 2 is probably an old junk to Apple already. The gap between the A7 and A8 concerns me that the later A8 or future A9 oriented iOS might not work so well on the A7 equipped devices. So much for the software, there are problems with the hardware, too. SHIELD is one of those tablets with beloved micro SD slots and iPad obviously isn't one of them. 32 GB is all I can afford, but it still doesn't seem to be enough for a tablet. Even iPad mini 2 uses iOS,Nvidia's 2.2 GHz Tegra K1 with 2GB of RAM is clearly better than the 1.4 GHz A7 with 1GB. Although I don't care that much, but 1.2 MP front camera and the bottom speaker are just not so great...

Whoo, there, I said it all(probably), most of you guys might even know better than be already but I just felt like it's better to put it out anyway. This is a really hard decision for me, so I come to you guys, looking for helps, and I will most likely go by the result of this discussion. I appreciate it a lot!

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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I think you made your point.
Oct 18, 2014 3:51AM PDT

Why not some Android tablet? For me I like the Google Nexus since it's the real thing.
Bob

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Yeah... About Nexus
Oct 18, 2014 4:40AM PDT

Thank you for replying. Well, as a matter of fact, Nexus line was the first thing came to my mind when I decided to buy for a tablet, so I waited, until Nexus 9 turned out to be a rich man's toy, the 32GB LTE is way, way out of my price range. As for Nexus 7, it was a great choice, to be honest. Unfortunately, since I'm going to keep this tablet company for a long while, I need something future-proof, and Nexus 7's specs just seem a little bit outdated, that's all. Then I saw Nvidia SHIELD, I regard it as an upgrade of Nexus 7, and it's possibly going to get constantly updated, so here I am.

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(NT) Sorry, typo
Oct 18, 2014 4:42AM PDT
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I didn't go LTE.
Oct 18, 2014 5:55AM PDT

I'm lucky in my phone can provide the internet in my pocket to the Nexus. If cheap is OK, I see the Gen 2 models on woot from time to time. Cheap!
Bob

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Yeah, I wouldn't neither if I had a choice.
Oct 18, 2014 6:25AM PDT

LTE is quite unnecessary, but I figured it would be better than just wifi, I think a mobile data option need to kept... Thank you for the advice! Yet I think I'm going for the Shield tab, it's sort of like the Nexus 7 Gen 3 to me. What do you think of the Shield? Happy

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My plan is one of those 35 a month plans.
Oct 18, 2014 6:31AM PDT

And the only LTE model I see was 299 with CONTRACT. That sounds like a bad deal.
Bob

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It is tricky to choose when it comes with plans
Oct 18, 2014 6:50AM PDT

I'm not planning on paying for any plan right now since I don't need to use data that often, therefore I'm just getting an unlocked version, in case if I need one in the future.

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The deal was 299, unlocked but with contract.
Oct 18, 2014 7:12AM PDT

It appears that you are navigating a minefield. Don't go boom.

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(NT) where?
Oct 18, 2014 8:14AM PDT
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(NT) Amazon
Oct 18, 2014 8:28AM PDT
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Oh, good thing is I'm not getting it from Amazon
Oct 18, 2014 11:56AM PDT

I'm in Canada, Amazon.ca's a rip off, I'm getting it from another site with unlocked version. Thanks for the warning, though. Happy