SHIELD Tablet, Wireless Controller Mark New NVIDIA Releases

There are plenty of tablets out in the field, ranging from the original—and many here would say “and best”—iPad line to the host of competitors, me-too's and also-rans that litter the landscape. A new entry in the field comes from NVIDIA, who recently brought out the Tegra K1 mobile processor, a complete system on a chip (SoC). Now, the Tegra K1 is reportedly being put to work in the SHIELD tablet, a device that will show off just what the Tegra K1 can do when placed in consumer hands.

Reports suggest that the SHIELD tablet offer up an eight-inch total profile, with a display showing at 1920 x 1200 resolution. That impressive display will reportedly be backed up by two gigabytes of RAM, a QuadCore 2.2 GHz A15 CPU, and the Tegra K1 SoC with a full 192 CUDA cores. Here, CUDA is a proprietary parallel computing platform, as well as a programming model, that NVIDIA developed in a bid to make its hardware offer up more power. On less of a technical front, the device also boasts a pair of speakers along with a five megapixel camera. There will be two separate models of the device, each containing what was listed previously at last report but separating by three critical metrics: total storage space, connectivity methods, and price.

One version of the SHIELD will come in a 16 gigabyte storage version, with Wi-Fi connectivity only, and will cost $299 total. A second version, meanwhile, will double the storage to 32 gigabytes and offer an LTE model, but will cost $399. It's worth noting that this isn't the first outing for the Tegra K1, as the SoC was also seen in the Xiaomi MiPad.

Additionally, NVIDIA is now looking to offer the SHIELD wireless controller to go with the device—there's no word as yet, however, on whether the SHIELD wireless controller can be used with other devices—and that's set to sell at $59. Those buying in will get a complete controller system complete with a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, support for voice chatting, and a rechargeable Li-ion battery.

The obvious question at this point, of course, becomes one of how well the NVIDIA SHIELD, and its accompanying wireless controller will fare in the field, which is already crammed full of other such devices. This one does seem to have quite a bit of power going into the fray, and might well prove an exciting development as a portable gaming platform. That could make it very effective in a niche of no small popularity, and give NVIDIA a particular edge in providing gaming platforms for users. The downside here, of course, is that there will be plenty of other viable tablet platforms in the field, and the NVIDIA SHIELD may not be sufficiently powerful to get users out of the trenches which said users currently occupy.
 

Indeed, it's time that will tell the fullest story on this one, and we'll likely find out fairly soon—holiday shopping seasons, after all, are maybe only three months out—just how well NVIDIA's newest offering can fare against a field that's got plenty of competition. It seems to have plenty going for it, but will it be enough in the end?