Nvidia Shield Available For Pre-Order To American And Canadian Residents

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Here’s the contents of the email I just received.

Today, this year’s hottest portable gaming device sheds the “project” moniker and officially becomes NVIDIA® SHIELD™! Since you signed up for SHIELD updates, you’re the first to know, and can be the first to own one. SHIELD is only available to U.S. and Canadian residents.

Since its announcement at CES 2013 earlier this year, SHIELD has gone through finishing touches like tweaking the buttons and joysticks, optimizing the thermal design, and enhancing software for a more intuitive, comfortable, and lag-free gaming experience. It’s not just the most powerful portable gaming device, it’s the most powerful Android device ever created.

SHIELD runs the latest Android Jelly Bean OS. It’s also powered by the NVIDIA Tegra® 4 mobile processor, clocked up to 1.9Ghz, and paired with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of onboard storage (expandable with a microSD card slot). The 5-inch 720p HD retinal touchscreen serves up high-resolution eye candy, while the integrated stereo bass reflex speakers pump out loud audio. And a sizable battery rated at 28.8 Watt Hours means you’ll enjoy a whole lot more gaming, videos, music, and web browsing.

We’re preloading SHIELD with two awesome Android games—Sonic 4 Episode II THD and Expendables: Rearmed. Of course, you can download loads of Tegra-enhanced games through NVIDIA TegraZone™ or directly from Google Play. And, for all you PC gamers out there, SHIELD will connect to your GeForce® GTX-powered desktop to stream your PC games through our lag-free WiFi technology. PC streaming will initially launch as a BETA feature with support for a number of top Steam games, and gamers will receive a free software update once the official release is available.

As a thank you for being a loyal SHIELD enthusiast, we’re giving you a chance to pre-order your SHIELD before the general public—for $349!

Quantities are limited, so you’ll want to move fast. SHIELD is only available to U.S. and Canadian residents.

And here’s the pre-order page.

It seems that Nvidia set the price point right at the top end of “reasonable” to me. Whilst it’s way out of the China handheld league, it also promises to deliver a lot more than those Chinese machines can. As I excitedly read the email on my way out of work and began reasoning with myself that pre-ordering was a good idea, it wasn’t until the end that I noticed everyone but America and Canada are thus far excluded. Well forget it then! Didn’t want one anyway!

Anyone got their pre-order in yet?

7 thoughts on “Nvidia Shield Available For Pre-Order To American And Canadian Residents”

  1. I mourn, I MOURN!
    The left side hardware controls on my JXD S7300 have failed.

    Everything else works, however leaving it still functional if crippled for it’s intended use.

    How to re-purpose? Suggestions?

    Also…I might have had it with these cheap tabs and their dodgy quality…but Shield is PRICEY, like new video card for my gaming PC pricey…like new tattoo pricey, so I’m stuck waiting to see what’s next from whomever.
    I just don’t know about Shield…I just don’t know.

    Reply
  2. For this price ? No way. Think that will be fail product. Wii U have a same price and people don`t buy it. O.K. Wii U is not handheld, but have something like tablet game pad. People buy old Wii 5 X more than new. Because price is about 100 $ or Euros. With this price this will be market fail.

    Reply
  3. Is there an official UK price or release date yet? I’m guessing it’ll be more like £299 when it reaches here.

    Reply
  4. I’m done with preordering stuff and I’m not first-adopting this.

    My existing gear covers the bases.
    If this thing is that good then I’ll get one at the end of the summer or something.
    I LOVE stuff like this, but I’m in no rush at the moment.

    Reply
  5. It’s not what I thought either and it makes my decision difficult. I thought they’d either go the route that Google went with their Nexus 7 and make it super cheap or it’d be ridiculously expensive, Apple style. My decision would have been made for me then. As it happens, they went slap bang in the middle.

    Reply
  6. PRe-order promotes bad practices regarding expectations… not something I’d jump in, no matter how much I wanted something. Cheers

    Reply
    • Ahhh I just read the price! Nice info, thanks for that, I have been wondering how much it would cost for a while.. more than I thought ^^

      Reply

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