Not to be deterred by the failure of its first portable handheld gaming device — the Shield — Nvidia has gone ahead and announced its successor but with a slight twist. This time the Shield has grown into a full blown 8-inch tablet and is accompanied with a game controller. The 8-inch display has a resolution of 1920*1200 and is accompanied by a stylus using the company’s DirectStylus 2 technology. Inside the tablet is Nvidia’s latest and fastest chip ever — the Tegra K1 — which packs four Cortex-A15 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and a 192-core Kepler GPU, using the architecture of its desktop counterpart. Other specs include 16GB of internal storage (32GB on the LTE variant), 5MP camera in the front and back of the tablet, front-facing stereo speakers, a microSD card slot, a mini-HDMI port and the usual bunch of connectivity options and sensors inside a body that is only 9.2m thin and weighs 390gms. The device runs on a near stock build of Android 4.4 KitKat.
The Shield is also the first tablet to support Twitch streaming allowing users to virtually broadcast any game to the service. It also supports Nvidia’s GameStream technology allowing users to play over 100 gaming titles on their PC via the tablet. The pre-loaded Shield Hub app on the tablet will also provide users with access to over 400 Tegra optimized games. Nvidia pegs the battery life at around 10 hours while playing back videos and anywhere between three to five hours while playing games. The Shield first lands in the United States and Canada by the end of this month with the 16GB Wi-Fi variant coming in at only $299, while the 32GB LTE variant will set users back by $399. The controller is sold separately and will cost users another $59. The European launch is slated to happen sometime in August with Nvidia promising a worldwide launch for the Shield.
