Nvidia Tegra Note tablet reference design revealed
Nvidia's Tegra note reference tablet design has been revealed, with Zotac and EVGA signed up to bring it to the UK
Nvidia has revealed the Tegra Note, a reference Android tablet powered by the Tegra 4 chipset that will be coming to the UK in the next few months as a rival to Google’s newly-refreshed Nexus 7.
Nvidia has prior experience building Android hardware, having launched the Shield gaming handheld earlier in the year, but the company has chosen to pass manufacturing duties for the Tegra Note onto Zotac and EVGA. Because they will have final say when it comes to design, we only have a few brief glimpses at the new hardware, but the base specifications help build a picture of what to expect from the Nvidia tablet.
The tablet itself will be powered by a quad-core Tegra 4 system-on-chip (SoC) which is paired with a 72-core GeForce GPU and fifth battery saver core, which should manage up to ten hours of HD video playback on a single charge.
A 7in, 1,280×800 IPS display, rear 5-megapixel camera, front VGA webcam, 16GB internal storage and microSD card slot are all part of the specification, along with a Micro HDMI connector to connect the tablet to a TV or monitor.
The announcement, which was made on the official Nvidia Blog, also revealed several Tegra-specific technologies that would be included as part of the Tegra Note reference design.
Chief among them is DirectStylus, which adds pressure sensitivity to a regular touchscreen sensor, without the need to add an expensive pressure layer to the tablet. Each Tegra Note will be paired with a chisel and brush-tipped stylus for natural writing and broader strokes compared to regular pen-point styli.
Nvidia’s TegraZone gaming will naturally be supported, meaning games that support it can include enhanced visual effects you won’t see on competing devices. It also supports a variety of game controllers for easier gaming than using the touchscreen alone.
Although Nvidia won’t be setting prices directly, we’ve been told to expect the first Tegra Note devices to cost around £180 when they go on sale in the UK, from November onwards.
