NVIDIA has announced that its Tegra 4-powered handheld gaming console will be available June 27th. The company’s also shaving $50 off the price. It’ll sell for $299 instead of the previously announced price of $349.

Update: The launch has been pushed back to July.

NVIDIA SHIELD

The Shield is basically a 5 inch Android table tacked onto a high-quality, Xbox-style video game controller. It has a 5 inch, 720p display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and NVIDIA’s quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor.

It runs version of Android Jelly Bean that’s pretty close to stock, which means you can pretty much use the Shield device like an awkwardly-shaped touchscreen tablet. It’ll run most games and apps available in the Google Play Store.

But what makes it special is the built-in controller and NVIDIA software which lets you use the device as a portable game console. It also has an HDMI port so you can even connect it to a TV and use the NVIDIA Shield as a game controller to play games on a big screen.

The system also works with NVIDIA’s streaming technology which lets you stream a PC game from a desktop or laptop computer with a supported NVIDIA graphics card to your mobile device. In other words, you can play high-end PC games on a mobile device (as long as your PC is running and connected to the same WiFi network as the mobile device.

When NVIDIA introduced the handheld gaming system in January, it was one of the most exciting devices at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. But when the company started taking pre-orders for $349 in May, many folks said the price was too high.

I guess we’ll see soon whether $299 is more of a sweet spot.

At that price, the NVIDIA Shield is cheaper than an iPad mini, but more expensive than a Google Nexus 7. But neither of those devices has a built-in controller or NVIDIA’s new Tegra 4 processor.

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3 replies on “NVIDIA Shield gaming handheld coming June 27th for $299”

  1. This is the true future of gaming! Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, are in
    trouble. And to all my friends this is not just a PC streaming device
    as it also supports Cloud gaming from Onlive, Nvidia Grid, Steam, and
    others later on. I’m buying a Shield! Sony has let me down with my 3G
    PS Vita that I have had for over a year now. I bought the PS Vita
    expecting great games
    just like the PS3 and full PS3 remote play only to be let down. And
    worse I bought a ps3 after I bought my Vita only to be pissed off
    because of Sony’s lies. And now they Sony say’s I have to buy a PS4 in
    order to have full remote play. Forget that crap! With up to 4000k TV
    output and Android and Cloud gaming and PC streaming and the build
    quality of the Shield having fans and cooling vents unlike my 300+$ 3GPS Vita the Shield is future proof!
    I
    can’t wait to buy a Nvidia Shield! It is the best gaming console for
    next gen hands down! 4000k TV output and Cloud gaming and PC streaming
    along with 100% pure open Android make this both future proof and
    confirm it has better graphics than PS4 or Xbox 1! Believe in The
    Shield!

  2. add $100 and you can get PS4.

    Compare to XB1 and PS4, Nvidia Shield is like a t***.

    I cant wait to see an idiot showing off, using this device in public.

  3. I think this is still a pretty tough sell. The price is ok in the tablet space (though not for a 5 inch screen), but the price is still too high for the handheld game console space. A nintendo 3ds is 170ish USD and a sony vita can be found under 250 USD. The additional functionality the nvidia shield might provide that these other systems don’t is significantly impaired by the small screen size. I doubt many people would use this for email or web surfing, for example. I also don’t think many people would want to turn on their computer with a high-end graphics card, then walk away and use the smaller screen of the shield to play pc games.

    There are some exciting possibilities for the future, but I don’t see the shield selling well.

Comments are closed.