With the Nvidia’s hotrod Tegra K1 processor at its heart, the company claims the Shield Tablet is the first device of its kind built primarily for gamers. There’s an 8in 1080p screen, up to 128GB of storage, beefy stereo speakers, a companion gamepad and – thanks to the K1’s 192 (yes, you read that right) GPU cores – enough graphical muscle to handle Unreal Engine 4 games.
The tablet runs on Android, giving it access to all the apps and games on Google’s Play Store, but it’s also able to play PC games through Nvidia GameStream technology. Essentially, if your PC is equipped with one of Nvidia’s recent GeForce GTX graphics cards, you can wirelessly stream games to the Shield Tablet. And then there’s Console Mode, which allows you to play these PC games or native Android titles on your TV via the Shield Tablet’s HDMI output.
Nvidia, aware that many gamers don’t much like touchscreen controls, has built a wireless Shield controller. Up to four of these can connect to a single Shield Tablet for multiplayer gaming, and each one has a headset input. Prop the tablet up on its kickstand and you’ve got a portable console.
The Shield Tablet can be pre-ordered now from Nvidia overseas but we’ll have to wait to get it here, if at all.
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