Last December, we took a look at the Nvidia Shield Tablet and ultimately came away quite impressed. It seems like Nvidia wasn’t quite done with its 8-inch Android tablet, however, as the company has now announced a refreshed version, the Shield Tablet K1.
As the name implies, the Shield Tablet K1’s beating heart is Nvidia’s 32-bit 2.2GHz quad-core Tegra K1 processor. Benchmark numbers provided by Nvidia imply the upgraded Shield Tablet is now faster than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and the Apple iPad Mini 4, and our time with the original Shield Tablet has already shown us that real-world usage won’t be an issue.
Elsewhere, the Shield Tablet K1 maintains its resemblance to its predecessor, with an 8-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution IPS display, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. As was the story with the original Shield Tablet, however, you can add up to an additional 128GB through the Micro SD card slot.
The Shield Tablet K1 even retains the same dimensions and battery size as its predecessor, which means you shouldn’t expect the former to be the slimmest tablet around. Even so, the girth means the tablet has room to retain the Mini HDMI and Micro USB ports, as well as the front-facing stereo speakers, which see a slight redesign on the Shield Tablet K1 and are also found in the original Shield Tablet.
As for the Shield Tablet K1 itself, it’s currently available for purchase in the U.S., Canada, and “select European countries.” Here in the U.S., you can pick one up for $200 directly from Nvidia, as well as at Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg. By comparison, the original 16GB Shield Tablet sold for $300.
All in all, apart from price points, it seems that the Shield Tablet K1 doesn’t greatly differentiate itself from the original Shield Tablet. Nvidia brought back the Shield Tablet due to “popular demand,” and at $200, the Shield Tablet K1 looks to be more accessible to those who missed it the first time around due to price.
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