The NVIDIA Shield Tablet is an 8 inch tablet designed for gaming… and just about anything else you could do with a tablet. It launched last year with a list price of $299, but NVIDIA issued a recall this summer due to battery problems.
Now the tablet is back, but this time it has a new name and a lower starting price.
The new(ish) NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1 is priced at $200.
NVIDIA also offers optional accessories including a $60 Shield controller wireless gamepad and a $40 cover that works as a kickstand to prop up the tablet while you’re playing games. NVIDIA also offers a $20 DirectStylus 2 for writing on the screen.
While the Tegra K1 isn’t NVIDIA’s newest chip, it’s a reasonably powerful processor with 192-core NVIDIA Kepler graphics. In addition to supporting thousands of Android games, the Shield Tablet K1 works with NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service which lets you stream PC games over the internet.
The subscription-based service costs $8 per month, but there’s a 3-month free trial period.
The tablet also has stereo front-facing speakers, support for dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microS dcard slot, a micro USB 2.0 port, and mini HDMI 1.4a port. There’s a 4MP rear camera with auto-focus and a fixed-focus 5MP front-facing camera and the tablet measures 8.8″ x 5″ x 0.36″ and weighs 13.7 ounces. It has a 19.75 Wh battery.
NVIDIA will ship the Shield Tablet K1 with Android Lollipop software, but the company says an Android 6.0 Marshmallow update is coming in the next few months.
“NVIDIA also offers optional accessories including a $60 Shield controller wireless gamepad and a $40 cover that works as a kickstand to prop up the tablet while you’re playing games. NVIDIA also offers a $20 DirectStylus 2 for writing on the screen.”
So they are re releasing a recalled product, removing features, and charging extra for old tech. I personally love Nvidia products but that is a LOAD OF BULL SHIT
$8 subscription still KILLs this for me. Also, the “Not available in your reaction” syndrome for the (non) content you are still paying for (yeah, not in U.S. = might as well be on Pluto).
Ordered one. I’ve been waiting for something to replace my N7 2013, this will (hopefully) be it. It’s basically a nexus 8, with extra features that are actually useful and not just bloatware. Though I was looking at the Zenpad S, and it looked nice, the custom skin killed it for me.