Tag Archives: Shield Tablet

NVIDIA Breathes New Life Into the Shield Tablet K1

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The graphics card maker has not only refreshed its gaming tablet, but it has also changed the name of the product. The new NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1 goes against some rather popular tablets, and since it focuses on gaming, it might actually attract quite the following.

Whether or not NVIDIA’s Shield Tablet needed to be refreshed is debatable. The original version, which only saw the light of the day last year, can still handle some of the most demanding apps out there, and since the manufacturer was well aware of that, it made very small changes in the hardware department. Probably the most significant change is the major price drop of 33%, as the new NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1 costs only $200.

Bear in mind that the tablet doesn’t come with many accessories, and that was one of NVIDIA’s strategies for keeping the cost down. The stylus found in the previous version is gone, and so are the power adapter and USB cable from the packaging. Frankly, I believe that all manufacturers should exclude chargers and USB cables from their packaging, as everyone using mobile devices already owns one of these.

Following the “if something works, don’t change it” route, NVIDIA has decided not to change any of the specs of the original Shield Tablet, so the new one only differs in design and materials, but it’s nothing extremely significant.

Hence, the NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1 sports an 8-inch 1920×1200 display, and continues to be powered by the same Tegra K1 SoC that includes a quad-core processor clocked at 2.2Ghz, and a Kepler GPU. To make sure that the tablet is capable of multitasking and that it has plenty of room for apps, NVIDIA equiped the Shield Tablet K1 with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, and a microSD slot for expanding this memory. That’s quite a lot of power that the video card maker stuck into a 9.2mm thin body that only weighs 390g.

The stereo front-facing speakers and the two 5MP cameras in the front and on the back are proof that NVIDIA is also serious about the multimedia experience, especially since both cameras can do HDR photos.

In terms of connectivity, the Shield Tablet K1 sports Bluetooth 4.0 LE and Wi-Fi with 2×2 MIMO and dual-band (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) support.

With the Shield Tablet K1, NVIDIA goes against Apple’s iPad Mini 4 and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2, and it suffices to say that the graphics card maker’s product blows both of them out of the water, not only in terms of price, but also as far as the technical specs are concerned.

The Shield Tablet K1 is available on Amazon for $199.99. Two bundles are available, one featuring the Shield Controller, costing $259.98, and another one that includes a 128GB microSD card, which sells for $249.98. Given the specs and the price, it’s almost guaranteed that this gaming tablet will be found under many Christmas trees this year.

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[via 9to5Google]

Tegra K1-Powered Shield Tablet Expands Nvidia’s Gaming Console Line

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Nvidia’s new Android gaming console has finally been confirmed. The Shield Tablet, as it is called, is meant to exhibit never-seen-before performance in gaming, mostly due to the Tegra K1 SoC that powers it.

Even though the original Shield was impressive on its own, it was rather niched, both because of its form factor and price. The Shield Tablet, on the other hand, should appeal to more people, as its screen size makes it ideal for gaming. Most people assumed that Nvidia’s tablet would come with a detachable controller, but the graphics card manufacturer surprised us with another accessory. Those who would rather press physical buttons instead of tapping the display of the tablet have the Shield Wireless Controller at their disposal.

The 8-inch display of the Shield Tablet is flanked by (what I assume to be) stereo speakers. A screen of that size, paired with the Tegra K1 chip that Nvidia claims to be a lot faster than the Tegra 4 that powered the Nvidia Shield, turns gaming into a very enjoyable experience. It’s a bit weird, though, that Nvidia decided to go for a 1920×1200 resolution instead of 1920×1080.

Nvidia’s TegraZone has been renamed in order to accommodate what is now a family of products. Now known as the Shield Hub, it provides the interface necessary for gaming. As for the games that people can play on the Shield Tablet, there are plenty of options, both among Android titles and games that are streamed from PCs running particular models of Nvidia graphics cards. The technology that enables this is intuitively called GameStream, but Nvidia’s Grid cloud will also be tested out.

The Shield Wireless Controller will enable gamers to control the Shield Tablet over Wi-Fi. It sports headphone and microphone jacks that facilitate communication while gaming. On top of that the Shield Controller can be used for media playback and Google voice commands.

The Nvidia Shield Tablet and Shield Wireless Controller will be launched on July 29, but anyone interested in these can already place a pre-order at select retailers. Depending on the storage capacity and on whether the tablet has LTE support or not, the price will range between $299 and $399. The Shield Wireless controller, on the other hand, will cost $59.

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Nvidia Spills the Beans, Confirms Game-Changing Shield Tablet

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Nvidia Shield Tablet

After launching the Shield handheld gaming console that had quite a few unique selling points, Nvidia now confirms the existence of an Android tablet with the same name.

The only problem about this is that Nvidia did so by mistake. It’s not like this graphics card maker is the first company to officially leak info about its yet-to-be-launched products, but in Nvidia’s case, this is pretty big news.

Unfortunately for the avid gamers that are looking forward to buying the next product launched by Nvidia, there’s not much to say about this device’s specs. As far as I’m concerned, this might as well be a PR stunt, or in proper terms, a trial balloon. Nvidia may or may not have a Shield tablet in the works (while writing this phrase, my mind flew to CIA’s first tweet), and it all depends on the public’s reaction to this piece of news. Knowing gamers, however, it’s anyone’s guess that most people are excited about the prospect of owning such a product.

Nvidia listed this mysterious device on the TegraZone website, where games optimized for the company’s Tegra-based devices are displayed. A few weeks ago, leaked images of a device called Mocha popped up, and this Shield tablet may be one and the same with that powerhouse. Besides the quad-core Tegra K1 (which Nvidia also plans to use in butonless dashboards), Mocha was also equipped with 2GB of RAM (plenty even for today’s most power-hungry games and apps), as well as a 7.9 inch display with a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution.

In the handheld gaming console’s case, the name Shield makes a lot of sense, given the form factor and the folding display, so the number one question regarding the Shield tablet is: How is this device going to look? One great idea would be to add detachable gaming controls, even though there have been attempts to do that from other companies in the past.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the Shield tablet is a real device, or if all of this was a hoax. The company has yet to officially comment this leak or to make an announcement, so until such a moment in time, gamers need to wait patiently. Maybe their hopes will materialize in the form of the Shield Android slate.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Nvidia’s plans to make dashboards buttonless using Tegra K1, and the first unveiling of Nvidia’s Project Shield.