Nvidia's about to take another hefty swing at portable gaming, announcing its new Shield Tablet, an 8-inch powerhouse that runs on the Nvidia Tegra K1 processor.
You may have already noticed that this is a different beast to the original Shield; Nvidia has separated the screen (now a standalone tablet) from the controller, the latter of which can be paired with the tablet but will be sold as a standalone piece of kit.
The reason for this is that Nvidia wanted to offer a tablet that 's not just a gaming device, but also functions as a day-to-day device as well. The slate packs an 8-inch full HD display with front-facing speakers and some seriously powerful guts.
While we've seen entries in the gaming tablet market from names like Archos and Wikipad, Nvidia's goes well beyond Android gaming, being the first tablet to offer game streaming from a PC using Nvidia's Gamestream tech - you'll just need an Nvidia GTX 650 or higher in order to run it.
This is hardcore
It's also the first tablet capable of streaming PC games from the cloud, Twitch, and running Nvidia's game-capture tool Shadowplay. And then you've fot the option of Console Mode, which lets you beam Android and PC games to your TV in 1080p.
And don't forget you'll be able to stream your Steam games too, which adds an extra gajillion titles available at your fingertips.
You'll be able to pair up four Shield controllers for when you're playing with friends on the big screen (or on the tablet, though we wouldn't recommend it given the size).
The tablet itself costs £239/$299 for the 16GB, WiFi-only model, while the 32GB LTE version will set you back £299/$399, and the wireless controllers are available for £49/$59 a pop. There's also a kickstand cover available for $39/£25 (around AU$40). All in all, those certainly aren't bad prices considering what you'll be getting.
The Shield tablet will be available in the US from July 29, the UK from August 14, and other regions later in the year. We've already had a play with the device - you can go read our thoughts in our Shield Tablet hands on review.
