14 DAY TRIAL // You might remember how we said, last week, that the NVIDIA Shield Tablet would debut today (July 22). Well, it seems that a product launch has happened on schedule for once, instead of being delayed like what happened to most Intel CPUs this year.
We won't bore you with all the technical details again, since we basically described all the hardware composing the tablet previously.
Still, the launch bears mentioning, since it's not every day that NVIDIA releases a tablet of any kind, let alone one powered by the mighty Tegra K1 SoC (192-core Kepler GPU on a quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 die with 2.3 GHz frequency).
The NVIDIA Shield Tablet is available with Wi-Fi and 16 GB of internal storage ($300 / €300), as well as Wi-Fi + LTE (4G broadband) and 32 GB storage ($400 / €400).
In both cases, the display is an 8-inch Full HD IPS LCD, although the resolution is not 1920 x 1080 pixels, but 1920 x 1200.
Below is the first demo video ever shot of the device, courtesy of the folks at MobileGeeks. Sadly, it doesn't show the main unusual ability of the tablet: Console Mode.
Last year, NVIDIA made it clear that the Shield Tablet (though it was not known by this name at the time) would have Console-level graphics, and it has definitely delivered on this promise. The Console Mode is just a way of operating that allows it to stream 4K video and/or gaming to a large monitor, essentially taking the role of a Game Console despite being a tablet.
Needless to say, the new NVIDIA Shield gamepad is meant to be used in that situation (latency 3x lower than Bluetooth). Up to four gamepads can be connected to the tablet at the same time.
Unfortunately, the operating system, while quite up to date by tablet standards (Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat) is not exactly the sort on which console and PC games designed for Windows can really operate. So even with the 2 GB of DDR3 RAM and the microSD card slot filled (128 GB max capacity), you won't have the easiest time finding supported games.
Fortunately, while you wait for NVIDIA and partner game publishers to release some nice titles for the new hardware, you can use that mini-HDMI port to stream UHD films to your TV instead. Sadly, whether or not the new Shield controller works on normal PCs is something that NVIDIA refused to say too much about, even though the answer is probably yes.