NVIDIA Updates SHIELD Tablet To Lollipop 5.0.1, Brings Back Power Control Menu

Considering the fact that NVIDIA produces just a couple of its own mobile devices, it was pretty surprising last month when the company said that it'd be one of the first to roll-out the Android 'Lollipop' update to a tablet - the SHIELD Tablet, to be exact. And so it did, right on schedule. Marco gave us a run-down on the update right before its official release, and considered that while some performance degradation could be seen, the update overall was well worth it, and made the market's best 8-inch Android tablet even better.

That's a statement I wholeheartedly agree with, although I'd extend the praise to say it's one of the best tablets, period. NVIDIA is making it even better today with the release of Lollipop 5.0.1, a release that focuses entirely on bugs, not features. NVIDIA's not one to simply update the OS when needed, though; it likes to pack in a couple of other features to make it feel like that update actually has some substance. This time is no different.

As the update screen below alludes to, NVIDIA's updated the Camera Awesome app to include a couple new FX features that takes advantage of the Tegra K1 processor to accelerate both the live preview and recording. The company also brings back a feature that left me confused when it was removed: SHIELD Power Control. With this menu, you can choose your processor mode (Custom, Battery Saver, Optimized, and Max Performance) and enable an auto-shutdown feature.

From a performance standpoint, NVIDIA says that the general UI and app performance has been improved, as well as enhanced memory optimizations added. It's not entirely clear if these enhancements are NVIDIA's doing, or part of the 5.0.1 update, however.

But regardless of all that, if you have a SHIELD Tablet, go and update!