Nvidia Announces The Shield Tablet

Last year, Nvidia released the Shield, a gaming handheld focused squarely at hardcore PC gamers that offered players the functionality of Android married with inter-connectivity with Steam. The handheld wasn’t necessarily a runaway hit, but it rapidly garnered a cult following, enough for Nvidia to release a follow up, at least.

That follow up is a seriously impressive new tablet, the Nvidia Shield tablet. It’s a powerhouse of a tablet (it has a Tegra K1), with top of the line specs, and some incredible gaming specific features, such as front facing speakers, an 8 inch HD display, a Console Mode that outputs the image to a TV screen, support for a brand new Shield Low Latency controller (because screw touch screen gaming), and PC streaming. Oh, and it comes with a free copy of Trine 2, as well.

The amazing thing is, all of this is available for just $299. The controller retails separately for $59.

So you can have a top of the line Android tablet with some incredible gaming functionality for just $299, that is a seriously sweet deal. I hope the tablet meets a much better reception in the market than its predecessor did.