The Shield Tablet, later relaunched as the Shield Tablet K1, is a gaming tablet, developed by

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

and released on July 29, 2014. It was Nvidia's second portable gaming device that uses Android. Compared to the

Shield Portable The Nvidia Shield Portable (Nvidia Shield or NSP) is a handheld game console developed by Nvidia, released on July 31, 2013. The console runs on Android Lollipop 5.1, featuring a flip 130mm (5-inch) touchscreen display with 1280×720 resolutio ...

, the controller is not permanently connected to the screen, rather it can be purchased separately. Up to four controllers can be wirelessly connected at the same time. While the Shield tablet features an 8-inch 1920×1200 pixel display, it can output 4K resolution signal to a television via HDMI. In November 2015, the tablet was refreshed and renamed as the ''Shield Tablet K1'' and the price was reduced to $200. In August 2016, Nvidia announced it had cancelled plans to release a hardware upgrade to its Shield Tablet products - a speculated reason for the cancellation was product conflict with the Nintendo Switch, which uses similar technology. In mid-2017 the tablet was no longer for retail on Nvidia's website or any of the other websites in which the tablet was being sold. Nvidia officially announced in mid-2018 that the tablet has been discontinued on the Shield website.

Features

The Shield Tablet is powered by an

Tegra K1 Tegra is a system on a chip (SoC) series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics p ...

SoC and has stereo front facing speakers. There's a 16 GB WiFi-only model and a 32 GB LTE model. It has front and back facing 5 megapixel HDR cameras. It weighs 390 grams and is 221 x 126 x 9.2 mm in size. The 2015 Shield K1 refresh weighs 356 grams while preserving the other dimensions of the tablet.

Software updates

Shield Tablet

Nvidia released Shield Tablet OTA 2.0 update with Android 5.0 Lollipop on November 18, 2014. The Shield Tablet OTA 2.1 update with Android 5.0.1 Lollipop & OpenGL 4.5 support was released on December 23, 2014. Shield Tablet OTA 3.1 update with Android 5.1.1 was released on July 30, 2015. Shield Tablet OTA update with

Android 6.0 Marshmallow Android Marshmallow ( codenamed Android M during development) is the sixth major version of the Android operating system developed by Google, being the successor to Android Lollipop. It was announced at Google I/O on May 28, 2015, and release ...

was released on February 1, 2016. Shield Tablet OTA 4.1 update with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow was released on May 12, 2016., OTA 4.2 update on July 12, 2016, OTA 4.3 update on October 10, 2016 & OTA update on November 3, 2016. Nvidia released Shield Tablet OTA 5.0 update with Android 7.0 Nougat on February 9, 2017.

Shield Tablet K1

Nvidia released Shield Tablet K1 OTA 1.0 update with Android 6.0 Marshmallow on December 21, 2015 and the Shield Tablet K1 OTA 1.1 on February 1, 2016. Nvidia released Shield Tablet K1 OTA 1.2 update with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow & Vulkan support on April 13, 2016., OTA 1.3 update on June 15, 2016, OTA 1.4 update on September 13, 2016 & OTA 1.5 update on November 3, 2016. Nvidia released Shield Tablet K1 OTA 5.0 update with Android 7.0 Nougat on February 9, 2017.

Connectivity

Headphone Jack A phone connector, also known as phone jack, audio jack, headphone jack or jack plug, is a family of electrical connectors typically used for analog audio signals. A plug, the male connector, is inserted into the jack, the female connect ...

Micro USB The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of t ...

* Mini HDMI 1.4a * Slot for the stylus that makes use of Nvidia's GPU DirectStylus 2 (on original model) *

Micro-SD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

card slot

Wireless

* 802.11n 2x2

MIMO In radio, multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO (), is a method for multiplying the capacity of a radio link using multiple transmission and receiving antennas to exploit multipath propagation. MIMO has become an essential element of wi ...

2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi *

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

4.0 LE * GPS / GLONASS * SIM card slot in the 32GB LTE model with LTE, HSPA+, 3G, 2G,

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

and

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

connection.

Issues

On July 31, 2015, Nvidia issued a recall to replace Shield Tablet devices, sold between July 2014 and July 2015, since the battery had overheating issues that posed a fire hazard. The Shield Tablet K1 supports DirectStylus 2 (sold separately). However, this requires the user to upgrade to system update 1.2. This update provides integration of its unique software features (e.g. palm-rejection, NVIDIA-lasso) into Android.

Reception

Android Central's Andrew Martonik likes the Shield Tablet, praising its speakers and the

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

streaming ability. The downsides are that the tablet is heavier than its competitor (390g to the

Nexus 7 Nexus 7 is a series of Android-based mini tablet computers co-developed by Google, and may refer to: * Nexus 7 (2012), the first generation * Nexus 7 (2013) The second-generation Nexus 7, also commonly referred to as the Nexus 7 (2013), ...

's 290g) and it may be too expensive for some (the tablet is $299 to $399, the controller is $59, and the cover is $39).NVIDIA Shield Tablet Review Roundup
.

Tom's Hardware ''Tom's Hardware'' is an online publication owned by Future plc and focused on technology. It was founded in 1996 by Thomas Pabst. It provides articles, news, price comparisons, videos and reviews on computer hardware and high technology. The si ...

. Retrieved 11 August 2014. The Shield Tablet K1 released in late 2015 comes without a charger or stylus.

References

External links

*
Shield Tablet, The Ultimate Tablet For Gamers

NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1: The Ultimate Tablet for Gamers Returns, Now $199

Magch Tablet Review
{{Android tablets Nvidia products Tablet computers Tablet computers introduced in 2014 Android (operating system) devices ARM-based video game consoles Portable media players