Although it had a rough time with a recall due to issues with overheating battery, it appears that there is still some life left in the old Shield Tablet as now Nvidia has managed to get things fixed and re-launched the Shield Tablet as the Shield Tablet K1.
The new name, which clearly points that it is powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC with Kepler-based GPU, also suggest that we might see a new tablet soon, based on Nvidia Tegra X1 SoC.
The Shield Tablet K1 still features the same 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS LCD touchscreen and is powered by Nvidia's Tegra K1 SoC with four Cortex-A15 CPU cores clocked at 2.2GHz and Kepler-based GPU. The Tegra K1 is paired up with 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD card slot. The rest of the specifications include a 802.11n 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, 5-megapixel rear camera, mini-HDMI output and a 5197mAh battery. It runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
Unlike the original Shield Tablet, which came in both 16GB and 32GB versions as well as bundled with the DirectStylus 2, the re-launched Shield Tablet K1 will only be available as a 16GB version and the DirectStylus 2 is now an optional accessory, priced at US $19.99.
While it might be the same Shield Tablet that Nvidia recalled earlier, it comes with a US $100 lower price tag, which makes it quite interesting. While the original Nvidia Shield Tablet 16GB/WiFi launched at US $299, the new Shield Tablet K1 16GB will have a US US $199 price tag.
The previously available accessories will still be available including the aforementioned Shield DirectStylus 2, priced at US $19.99, the Shield Controller, priced at US $59.99 and the Shield Tablet K1 Cover, priced at US $39.99.
It also does not come with a charger so you will have use the one that you already have or add a few bucks and buy one.