14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not the first time we tell you about the upcoming NVIDIA Shield Tablet, as the slate has been spotted in a listing on the official NVIDIA TegraZone website not so long ago.
Albeit not knowing much about the specifications of the upcoming device, we speculated the hardware components will be akin to the ones of the leaked Mocha tablet, which according to benchmark listings comes equipped with a Tegra K1 processor and full HD screen or even more.
But there were still waves of doubt regarding the existence of the tablet. For starters, it was a bit puzzling why the Shield Tablet popped in the “Games” section of the Tegrazone website.
However, the product's appearance on NVIDIA’s own website seemed to suggest the product is a real deal.
This week we get another confirmation that the NVIDIA Shield Tablet is a real deal, as the product has showed up at the Global Certification Forum website, as noted by Notebook Italia.
The new listing brings us a new bit of information that we didn't have before. It appears some of the models of the device will support 3G and 4G networks.
Rumor on the street seems to suggest that the new NVIDIA tablet will support GameStream technology, a system allowing users to stream games from a PC to the tablet, by taking advantage of an Internet connection. The tablet will probably make use of the Tegra K1 processor with 192-core graphics.
As for the actual Shield device, this is a game console with a 5-inch touchscreen fitted with an Xbox-style video game controller.
But what form factor will the NVIDIA Shield Tablet adopt? This part is a little bit trickier to answer. The Shield moniker suggests the company is looking to bring a gaming device to the table, but tables are far from being considered worthy of the title.
Some rumors seem to indicate that the Shield Tablet will be some sort of combination between a gamepad and a tablet, a 2-in-1 device if you like, with the gaming pad part being detachable from the tablet.
NVIDIA already has a tablet on the market called the Tegra Note 7, so the Shield Tablet might be the next-gen Note. There’s certainly a lot of room for improvement with the Note 7, especially in the display and RAM department.
Anyway, NVIDIA is also looking to provide the Android L update for its first-gen tablet, so that means we should expect the same operating system on the Shield slate?
Apparently, all these questions will be answered soon because the tablet is reportedly headed for unveiling on July 22.