It definitely looks like Nvidia’s Shield was only the first step the company took in the portable devices market. Now that the blueprints for a $199 Android tablet known as Tegra Note showed up, it seems that Nvidia has a lot more in store for us.
What made last year’s Asus Google Nexus 7 that great and inexpensive was the Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset and the Kai platform that Nvidia put together for building $199 tablets. As the company put it in a blog post, “They can provide tablets packed with innovation and features at prices they may not have been able to deliver on their own. In turn, Nvidia gains access to their deep sales and distribution expertise in regions worldwide.” Now there are quite a few Android tablets out there that run on the Tegra system-on-a-chip, but Nvidia has finally decided to take this matter in its own hands. At the moment it has a 7″ budget tablet in the works, and when this will be launched, it will definitely cause some waves.
The same as the Shield, Nvidia Tegra Note will be based on a Tegra 4 chipset. The computational photography capabilities of this chipset will enable users to capture HDR images and slow motion footage with great ease.
Unlike Nexus 7, Tegra Note has expandable storage via a microSD slot, so if you’re not satisfied with the initial 16GB, you can always go beyond that. A micro HDMI slot is also available, in case you want to watch content on a larger display. Speaking of displays, this seems to be the major drawback of the Tegra Note. Its 1280 x 800 resolution IPS display is far less denser than the display of the Nexus 7 (2013), since that one features a 1920 x 1200 resolution on the same 7″ diagonal. Considering that the latter is only $30 more expensive than the Tegra Note, it represents a great alternative.
As Samsung accustomed us, every mobile device bearing the Note name comes with a stylus, and Tegra Note is no exception from that rule. So how exactly is going to be Nvidia’s stylus any different from Samsung’s? First of all, it will be extremely precise and, secondly, it will come with multiple tips.
Audio-wise, the Tegra Note packs special speakers with a bass-reflex sport. No wonder that Nvidia claims that these speakers have “the widest frequency range in a tablet.” Everything looks good on paper, but we have to wait till launch day to see how the Tegra Note performs against its similarly-priced competitors.
If you liked this post, please check the Nvidia Shield Tegra 4 portable Android console and the pre-order price of Nvidia Shield.
