NVIDIA Announces Tegra Note: NV Designed Android Tablet, Sold by NVIDIA Partners
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 18, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Mobile
- Tegra 4
- NVIDIA
- Tegra Note
The Tegra Note is a 7-inch Tegra 4 based tablet, built by a contract manufacturer for NVIDIA. The tablet will be offered by NVIDIA but not directly. Instead, you'll be able to buy co-branded versions of the Tegra Note through some of NVIDIA's traditional partners like EVGA, Zotac and PNY. If this sounds like how you presently buy NVIDIA graphics cards, you'd be right. The difference, at least initially, is that there's effectively no partner level customization offered on the Tegra Note. I get the impression that if successful, future versions may allow some flexibility on behalf of NVIDIA's partners, but not today.
The Tegra Note features a 1280 x 800 display, 1GB of memory and of course a 1.8GHz quad-core Tegra 4 SoC. There's 16GB of NAND on-board, with a microSD card slot for expansion. NVIDIA promises to ship Tegra Note with the latest version of Android, and promises to provide OTA updates directly to customers.
The tablet falls somewhere in between the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7s in terms of size and weight. The Note comes from the inclusion of NVIDIA's DirectStylus - a passive stylus technology that NV demonstrated a while ago as a way of bringing stylus support to lower cost platforms. NVIDIA is promising up to 10 hours of video playback. No word on what the WiFi hardware inside the Tegra Note looks like. Update: It seems to be 2.4GHz 802.11n.
| NVIDIA Tegra Note | |
| SoC | 1.8GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 |
| Display | 7-inch IPS LCD 1280 x 800 |
| RAM | 1GB |
| WiFi | 2.4GHz 802.11n |
| Storage | 16GB + microSD (up to 32GB) |
| I/O | Micro HDMI connector |
| OS | "Latest" Android OS with OTA updates from NVIDIA directly |
| Battery | 4100 mAh (15 Wh?) |
| Size / Mass | 199 x 119 x 9.6 mm, 320g |
| Camera |
5MP Rear Facing Camera VGA Front Facing Camera |
| Price | $199 |
The tablet will retail for around $199 and will begin shipping in the next few months. If the rest of the package is well executed, this could be a very affordable way to get a very high performing 7-inch Android tablet.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
62 Comments
View All Comments
eanazag - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
It is not bad for $200. Maybe not enough to compete with the Nexus 7, but it can't be sold at cost or a loss. It is a good way to take care of Nvidia's GPU partners. It has the promise of updates. I don't see why there has to be complaints.jjj - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Would be nice if they would guarantee fast software updates for 2 years , it's something we don't really get from anything but Nexus devices.Specs wise, that 1GB of RAM seems like the wrong place to cut costs for a Tegra 4 device.
They should also sell a "Shield game controller" accessory for it and enable PC games streaming.
Stuka87 - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
The real question is how long will they support it. If it flops (Like I personally feel it will), will they continue to provide support to those that do buy it?The other question is does it run vanilla Android, or is it mucked with like some other OEM's do. If its vanilla, that at least will kind of solve the support issue.
1Angelreloaded - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
See that is why you don't buy stuff on initial release, and wait for reviews and a couple revisions of the hardware, otherwise you might end up with a paperweight.jasonelmore - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
they are already going to have to provide OTA updates to shield, which is selling well with rave reviews, i'd imagine those updates would be compatible with this tablet..Dribble - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Better display and more memory and this might have had a chance - would probably have made it cost just slightly more then the nexus 7, but for that you get a better soc, microsd slot and pen.However as it is pretty hard to recommend...
BMNify - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Nexus devices are not subsidised by Google outside of the few 5-6 countries, so its better to think globally when comparing with such devices.sherlockwing - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Double check you numbers, Nexus 7 2013 is avliable in 10 countries, not 5-6:Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
BMNify - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
10 out of 249 countries is still leaving the majority of world, devices such as Tegra Note can provide good option to those remaining 239 countries.jasonelmore - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
you guys got spoiled by the nexus 7. remember the nexus 7 is being sold at a loss in google's pocket, and this tablet's gpu obliterates the nexus 7's. This tablet could easily do offscreen 1080p, it's another nice way for nvidia to show off tegra 4 and prove that it can be done right in a tablet.