Nvidia finally came clean with the Tegra Note tablet despite saying earlier this year that the company wouldn't produce a product already on the market. We first spotted the device during Computex in June as the CEO demonstrated Tegra 4's DirectStylus technology. Since then the device has appeared on benchmarks, reports of leaked specs and most recently, the FCC.
The company officially revealed the tablet on Wednesday, reporting that the Tegra Note is a complete tablet platform that will be brought to market by its hardware partners, not Nvidia itself. Here in the States, the tablet will be provided by EVGA and PYN Technologies and will have features that "speak to local consumers." On a global scale, Oysters and ZOTAC will sell the tablet in Europe; Colorful, Shenzhen Homecare Technology and ZOTAC in Asia-Pacific; and XOLO in India.
Instead of distributing its own device much like it did with the Shield handheld, Nvidia is allowing hardware partners to distribute the tablet so that they can pack the Tegra Note with "innovation and features" at prices they may not have been able to deliver on their own. However, in return, Nvidia gains "deep" access to partner sales and distribution expertise on a global scale.
"This isn’t a first for us. About a year ago, we announced Project KAI — a Tegra 3 reference design intended as a recipe to build low-cost, high-quality Tegra 3 tablets. Google’s Nexus 7 was one," said Nvidia's Matt Wuebbling. "Tegra Note takes this to the next level by delivering a complete platform, not just the hardware."
So what are the official specs? The Tegra 4 SoC of course, powering a 7 inch IPS LCD display with a 1280 x 800 resolution. The tablet also features a 5MP camera on the back, a VGA camera on the front, 16 GB of internal storage expandable up to 32 GB (microSD), microHDMI output, and a battery promising up to 10 hours of HD video playback. There are also front-facing "HD Audio" stereo speakers with a unique bass-reflex port, powered by Nvidia's PureAudio technology.
As we've seen since Computex, the tablet also sports Nvidia's DirectStylus technology. The stylus will come with chisel and brush tips for natural writing and broad strokes, and Nvidia has even provided bundled apps for convenient, stroke-based note taking. Backing all of this is a pure install of the Android OS, just like Shield – no bloatware or custom launchers here, and OTA updates provided by Nvidia.
"The camera uses Tegra 4's processing power and Chimera computational photography architecture to deliver stunning new features," Wuebbling said. "Tegra Note also brings SmugMug's Camera Awesome app — one of the top camera apps on iOS — to Android. Camera Awesome delivers exclusive Tegra 4 features like tap-to-track and 100 fps video with slow-motion playback."
The Nvidia Tegra Note will have a starting price of $199. The first wave is expected to hit store shelves in October along with a number of accessories like an "intelligent" slide cover that flips and bends to support and cover the tablet, and a DirectStylus Pro Pack.
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