NVIDIA Officially Unveils The Tegra-K1 Equipped Shield Tablet for $299

[dgstorm]

It looks like all of our NVIDIA intel was true in one way or another. The company just officially took the wraps off their brand new Tegra-K1 equipped Shield tablet. The new gaming tablet/portable console device will ship in North America July 29th. It will hit Europe August 4, and other regions of the globe later this fall.

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Before we jump into the nitty gritty of its specs and features, we also have pricing details. The Shield Tablet 16GB/Wi-Fi version will cost $299, and the 32GB/LTE model will sell for $399. Additionally, the optional Shield controller will cost $59.

Now for the juicy parts... here's the primary spec-list:

• 8-inch Full HD IPS LCD display
• Built-in stylus that works with Nvidia’s new DirectStylus 2 tech
• Tegra K1 SoC - 192 Kepler-based GPU cores (with support for some desktop class graphics)
• Quad-core Cortex A15 processor spinning at 2.2GHz
• 2GB of RAM
• Wi-Fi only version with 16GB of built-in storage, and an LTE-equipped version with 32GB of storage
• Both feature an expansion card slot for up to 128GB of additional storage space

That's not all though. This new tablet is more than just internals. NVIDIA have gone all-out by including what they claim are some "world's first" features for this super-gaming tablet. Here's a quote from their presser with the details,

String of World Firsts

The SHIELD tablet provides a range of firsts for a tablet:

• PC Streaming: First to stream games from a PC desktop or notebook, from anywhere in the home – using NVIDIA GameStreamTM technology to stream from systems powered by an NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 6xx series or greater GPU.
• Cloud Streaming: First to stream PC games from the cloud. Gamers can access the NVIDIA GRIDTM cloud gaming beta, available exclusively to SHIELD owners in Northern California, to instantly stream a library of high-quality PC games, and then save them in the cloud.
• Twitch and NVIDIA ShadowPlayTM: First to feature Twitch – the leading video platform and community for gamers – which is also integrated with ShadowPlay, an advanced game-capture tool that lets users save and stream their greatest gaming moments. Gamers can stream titles from the SHIELD tablet to friends and foes worldwide. SHIELD Tablet also includes a 5MP front camera to enhance the image of the gamer overlaid on the Twitch gamecast.
• Console Mode: First to feature NVIDIA Console Mode, which takes your tablet gameplay to your big screen TV. Console Mode transforms the device into a full living-room gaming and entertainment experience. Gamers can set up their SHIELD wireless controller, sit back on their couch and play Android games, browse the web and watch their favorite movies — all in native 1080p HD.

It looks like this puppy is crammed full of awesome gaming features. For some folks, this might just be the an amazing step forward in portable gaming technology. Share your thoughts!