Nvidia's New Gaming Product Is a New Shield Tablet
A series of slides resembling a typical Nvidia press deck has leaked, revealing two new members of the Shield family: A tablet and a wireless controller. The original Shield is a multipurpose handheld console which boasted a built-in controller and a penchant for latency-free PC game streaming.
The new tablet, which is set for official annnouncement next Tuesday, will be able to stream PC games from an Nvidia GeForce-powered home PC over your network or via the internet, taking davantage of Nvidia's stream app.
The new Nvidia Shield tablet will use Nvidia’s Tegra K1 flagship, packing a 192-core Tegra GPU and 2.2GHz quad core A15 CPU. An unlocked LTE version will exist on AT&T T and T-Mobile. Wireless connectivity is handled by 802.11a/b/g/n 2×2 MIMO (2.4GHz and 5GHz). It’ll have an 8″ IPS LCD display at 1920 x 1200 resolution, and grant about 10 hours of HD video playback.
The Shield tablet will also ship with 2 cameras: A front-facing 5MP HDR, and a a rear 5MP auto focus HDR.
Gaming features is the inclusion of Nvidia’s Shadowplay software, previously available only for laptops and desktop PCs. Shadowplay is a bit like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Game DVRs but more flexible. Shadowplay also includes Twitch streaming functionality, and Nvidia’s slides clearly indicate that front-facing camera will be utilized by Twitch. Furthermore, Gamestream will allow PC games to be streamed to the tablet, Console Mode will allow the tablet to hook up to a TV, and Gamepad Mapper will let gamers map the controls of Android games to the Wireless Shield Controller.
The Shield Tablet should retail for $299 MSRP for the 16GB Wifi version, and $399 for the 32GB LTE+Wifi version. An optional Shield cover will augment the tablet with stand functionality, and the Shield Controller will run $59. iIt’s expected to launch in the US and Canada on July 29th, and Nvidia will announce it next Tuesday.