Is This Nvidia's Shield Gaming Tablet?
Thanks to @evleaks, we now have an idea of what Nvidia's Shield Tablet may look like when it's released, presumably sometime this month. As shown in the image, the Shield launcher is fully intact, listing the Shield-only versions of Half-Life 2 and Portal, among a few other titles.
As previously reported, the Shield Tablet is expected to have a 7.9-inch screen with a 2048 x 1536 resolution, a Tegra K1 processor with a 192-core GPU, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. The tablet may also include a 7MP camera on the back and a 4.8MP camera on the front, along with wireless (N or AC) and Bluetooth connectivity.
Whether or not the specs are the real deal is unknown at this point. A different set of specs emerged back in April, listing the Tegra K1 chip powering a 1440 x 810 screen, 4 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, and a 0.3MP camera. However, both will be compatible with Nvidia's game streaming technology that allows Kepler-based machines to stream PC games directly to the Android tablet.
The BBC reported last week that Nvidia plans to offer a separate "budget priced" controller, seemingly backing up the possibility that the follow-up to the original Shield will be in tablet form. As it stands right now, Nvidia customers can already pair a third-party Bluetooth controller to their Shield device, emulating a console experience.
Last July, Nvidia launched the Shield handheld console for $250. Since then, the company has knocked $50 off the price. The cost for the Shield Tablet may be in the same ballpark considering the size of the screen and the zippy Tegra K1 packed inside.
As always, Nvidia is keeping quiet save for acknowledging that a follow-up device to the Shield is definitely in the works.
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They already have both units made, so swapping a K1 into them both makes sense and is easy. Probably less than 5mil each to develop so why not put them both out? I'm fairly certain they sold at least 100K shields in the last year and that is all that was needed to recoup 10mil dev costs if they made $100 on each (probably fairly reasonable with the BOM on Vita/3ds being $170/101ea and that was before some shrinks of everthing in them now). I'd put both units out since it's so cheap and gets tablet users and handheld gamers to bite. The tablet has 2GB and the shield 2 probably has the 4GB since it's directly aimed at gaming which also makes sense. As long as neither is over $250 they'll sell well vs. 3ds/vita which are about the same after checking amazon/newegg for the latest models of each and both suck in comparison power wise to K1's perf and usability with K1 having everything android can run etc.
how about you put a source next time you talk about it being widely published.
SHIELD (the original and this new Tablet version) facilitates a ton of functionality.
PC Streaming - If you have a PC with Steam and/or Origin, the SHIELD device through the Nvidia Experience software allows your PC to render the game, control the game from the device and streams the video to the device's screen. You can stream over your home network or you can stream it over the internet to your device as long as you have access to a wifi connection. So you can stream Skyrim to the SHIELD while you're laying in your bed, or Stream Borderlands 2 while you're on break at work.
-GRID aka Nvidia's version of On-Live. They render the game of your choice at a server farm and stream the PC game to your SHIELD. This gives you PC-streaming capabilities even if you don't own a gaming PC. It's in Beta atm however (but it works pretty good).
-Console Mode. You can set up the device to connect to your TV or computer monitor and play android games on a big screen and either control it with the device itself, or use a bluetooth wireless controller to control the game.
Emulation - you can play classic games from systems like NES, SNES, Genesis, PS, etc. A Link to the Past + SHIELD = good times.
Full Android - can install and run any android app you want on it, of course.
This thing is well worth the price imho. $299 is chump change in comparison for what you get for it.
I'm in for one but waiting on LTE info.