Nvidia Shield Tablet Android 6.0 performance update

Conclusion

Updating your OS is something that has been a huge topic of discussion over the past few months, whether it be Microsoft aggressively pushing Windows 10 on consumers with their “free upgrade” or it being anger at Mobile manufacturers for not updating your device to the latest version of Android or for their lack of security updates for older devices.

When it comes to Android devices Platform updates like Android 6.0 are usually good things, offering more performance out of your devices and typically adds some new and useful features to the platform. Sadly it is also common for even devices to ever receive these platform updates, as the testing and validation required for such a large update is often too costly to be viable, even for giants like Samsung and HTC.  

When it comes to Android devices there are relatively few companies that offer frequent updates for devices that are over 1 year old, with devices like Google’s own Nexus Brand being some of the only devices to get access to more than one platform update. Nvidia is one of the better device manufacturers on Android as they keep their implementation of Android very close to stock, making the update process a lot simpler when compared to other manufacturers.

One the performance side Android 6.0 is a mixed bag, yes it does offer us better performance on almost all occasions, but these performance gains are mostly on the GPU side and can vary from a staggering 17% gain in 3DMARK Ice Storm to a mere 1%. Some apps will react better to this update than others, but there was no case where we had seen any major performance decreases. 

With the Shield Tablet Android 6.0 is an update that users should be jumping on immediately, as the gains in gaming performance is something that aligns perfectly with what the Shield has to offer gamers. 

Even today, almost 2 years after the release of the Shield tablet it is still one of the best 8″ devices on the market and with this update Nvidia has renewed it’s commitment to their users that they will continue to update and improve their devices long after launch.

With improved performance and an updated feature set Android 6.0 is no doubt worth updating to if you can, especially if you game on the Android platform.  

 

You can join the discussion on the performance changes to the Nvidia Shield with Android 6.0 update on the OC3D Forums.