iQiyi Game Console: An Android console possessed by the soul of Shield TV?

With the lifting of the ban on game consoles, next-generation consoles have also begun to develop in China. However, the development of PS4 and Xbox One in China has not been very smooth. The lack of blockbuster games and high prices have led domestic players to have more expectations for emerging domestic Android consoles.

When Nvidia's Tegra series chips came out, domestic Android consoles no longer had to worry about performance. Many powerful and resource-rich Android game consoles began to appear in front of people, including the Big Chief game console invested by 360, the FunBox game console jointly launched by ZTE and The9, and the upcoming Axe game console, all of which use the NV Tegra K1 processor. Today, the iQiyi game console that came to the evaluation room also uses the K1 chip.

The tech version looks like Shield TV

When it comes to Android consoles, besides domestic TV boxes, Huang's Nvidia Shield TV is definitely the one that comes to mind the most. Its high-tech design will definitely leave a deep impression on many people. However, when it comes to appearance, the iQiyi console is not inferior to the Nvidia Shield TV. In fact, according to iQiyi, the reason why this console is extremely similar to the Shield is because Nvidia has authorized iQiyi, and the next machine equipped with the X1 chip will be launched by iQiyi first.

The iQiyi game console first gives people a stunning feeling. The plastic material of the body makes this Android console a bit low-key, but it has multiple irregular partitions and prominent edges and corners. The combination of glossy and matte surfaces is also eye-catching. If you don’t look closely and watch from a distance, you might really think it is a brother of Shield TV.

The heat dissipation vents on the back also reflect a strong sense of technology, and the irregular distribution makes the overall look more trendy. The size of 203X130X35mm, combined with the base, makes it more exquisite and compact.

In terms of interfaces, the iQiyi game console provides users with 2 USB 3.0 interfaces and one HDMI 1.4b interface, supporting 4K video output, fully meeting users' needs for large-screen TVs.

However, iQiyi's game console's Nvidia Tegra K1 CPU, coupled with a 192-core Kepler Mobile GPU and 4G RAM, is still far behind Shiled TV's eight-core 64-bit Tegra X1 chip and 256-core Maxwell GPU architecture, and has only reached the mainstream level of domestic Android game consoles.

A good game console must be equipped with a good controller, but as an engineering machine, the controller and remote control that come with it are both from Xiaomi. I believe that when the official version of the iQiyi game console arrives, the controller and remote control will bring more surprises to players.

The interface is similar to that of PS4, and the whole process is 60 frames without pressure

During the experience, the iQiyi game console gave us a little surprise. Compared with the Android interface of Shield TV and even most domestic Android consoles, its operation interface similar to PS4 is obviously more suitable for the operation habits of Chinese players. At the same time, the button operation and icon switching are also very smooth.

As a video website with rich resources, iQiyi's efforts in gaming cannot be underestimated. There are nearly 400 games in the game store. Although many of them are works ported from mobile games, after the addition of Valve's "Half-Life 2" and the Japanese classic "Final Fantasy", the overall level of games in the mall is not very low.

Since I got the engineering version, an error message appeared during the download of "Half-Life 2". However, it only took 1 minute to download other games of about 100M, so the download speed was still relatively ideal.

This time, we selected an Android FPS game "Neon Shadows" as the test object. Many players are already familiar with the difficulty requirements of FPS games for handle operation. However, with the help of assisted aiming, the operation difficulty is further reduced, which also shows that the game console is perfectly adapted to the game. The smoothness and picture also show excellent strength. At the same time, with the accompaniment of passionate music, the sense of impact is significantly increased.

Under the monitoring of the system, the FPS is clearly visible, whether it is fighting or scene changes, the game screen is basically maintained at around 60Fps. Even in the mobile version of "NBA 2K15", whether it is fast break or shooting, the FPS and picture are also maintained at a good level.

It is worth mentioning that when you press the HOME button to exit the game, the game will automatically be pinned to the homepage setting. The design similar to Xbox One is very thoughtful, allowing players to return to the game at any time.

4K video becomes a powerful tool for domestic Android consoles to turn around

As we all know, the Nvidia Tegra K1 chip supports 2160p30 4K encoding and decoding in terms of video processing. In the hands of iQiyi, which has a large number of video resources, what kind of video capabilities can the game console equipped with the K1 chip demonstrate?

After integrating GITV and iQiyi's massive amount of genuine video content, through the hardware decoding of 4K videos by Nvidia Tegra K1 chip, most movies can reach 4K or 1080P high-definition quality. It is not impossible to replace the original TV box in the user's living room and use it as the core device of home video entertainment.

However, massive resources are not given for free. You will have more choices only after becoming an iQiyi member.

Android is widely used on mobile devices, and its open source nature also allows users to add their favorite video files to the Android game console through external storage devices via the USB interface.

Players who have operated traditional consoles know that the PS4 does not support the USB interface to play external videos. Even the Xbox One, which is positioned for home entertainment, is not as friendly as Android consoles when it comes to external videos.

Different development paths for Android hosts

Android consoles are not like traditional consoles that use games as their main feature. Instead, they take a lightweight and casual approach based on a large number of native Android games. Although the gaming experience is not as good as that of next-generation consoles, the addition of video applications can make up for the shortcomings in gaming.

At present, video, as an important part of living room entertainment, is valued by many manufacturers. With the gradual formation of the 4K standard, users' requirements for video are also constantly increasing. At the same time, the rich video resource content has also provided a development direction for many high-configuration Android hosts.

For domestic users, the comprehensive experience of casual games combined with video applications fully meets the needs of domestic family entertainment. In terms of games, the previous Unreal Engine 4 demonstration of Nvidia Shield TV showed that the game performance can also match that of traditional consoles. With such a high-performance configuration, it is not impossible for one or more games to be comparable to traditional console masterpieces.

Although the game console authorized by Nvidia for iQiyi is the Tegra K1 version, with the launch of the Tegra X1 chip, Android game consoles equipped with the Tegra X1 chip may not be far away. Players will no longer have the psychological shadow of insufficient performance when choosing domestic Android consoles. After all, the GPU part of the X1 has been upgraded to the same tenth-generation Maxwell architecture as the GTX 980, the number of stream processors has also increased to 256, and the running score has exceeded 75,000, so it will not be afraid of dealing with existing large-scale games on the market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.