Nvidia has decided to relaunch their Shield Tablet for the holiday season as the Shield Tablet K1, dropping its price down to $199; $100 less than when the device originally launched.
The Shield Tablet K1 hasn't changed much since the original launch, with the tablet boasting a Tegra K1 SoC (hence the name), an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 display, 16 GB of storage, 2 GB of RAM, and a microSD card slot.
What has changed slightly is the exterior: Nvidia has removed the stylus and its holder from the body, while the speaker grilles are now made from soft-touch polycarbonate rather than hard plastic. The Shield Tablet K1's box no longer includes a USB cable or a charger either, so you'll have to use an existing phone charger to power up the tablet.
The Shield Tablet K1 will be re-released with Android 5.1 on-board, though Nvidia expects to release an Android 6.0 'Marshmallow' update in the coming months. Nvidia's track record of updating their products to the latest version of Android is pretty good, so its no surprise they are continuing to support the device well past its launch.
All of the Shield Tablet K1's accessories will be sold separately. The Shield controller will set you back $60 if you want to play games using a proper controller, while the stylus is $20, the charger is $40, and the cover is also $40. However the tablet itself will only cost $199, which makes it a very attractive purchase for those looking for an 8-inch Android device.
Nvidia says the K1 should be available today in the United States, Canada, and a handful of European countries.