NVIDIA Opens Pre-orders for LTE-equipped 32GB SHIELD Tablet

NVIDIA’s SHIELD Tablet is a great piece of kit, but for those who’ve yearned for more internal storage, as well as LTE support, the lone market option up to this point might have seemed a bit lacking. Well, this is something NVIDIA’s going to be soon correcting, as it’s just launched its pre-orders for the 32GB version of the tablet which also happens to add LTE into the mix. This new model will retail for $399 – $100 more than the 16GB model that lacks LTE. If you’re an AT&T customer, you’ll be able to score a bill credit valued at $100 if you buy it directly through that carrier.

I’ve been using the SHIELD Tablet quite a bit recently (expect a review in the near-future), and I have to say that so far, I’m genuinely impressed. I’ve always been a fan of 7-inch tablets, such as the Nexus 7 and Tegra Note 7, but I’ve suddenly become a big fan of the 8-inch form-factor that the SHIELD Tablet is built around. Past that, the Tegra K1 processor clocked at 2.2GHz sure doesn’t hurt anything either – the tablet as a whole is the speediest I’ve ever used.

As covered in our preview from a few months ago, accessories for the SHIELD Tablet include the $40 magnetic cover (very pricey for what it is, but its usefulness is hard to beat), and the $60 SHIELD controller. That controller in particular is something I am looking very forward to trying out, since the NYKO gamepad I have been using when connecting the SHIELD portable to the TV leaves a bit to be desired.

Nonetheless, at $400, the 32GB/LTE version of the SHIELD Tablet is no doubt going to be attractive to many. That’s furthered by the fact that it has a super-fast components under-the-hood, as well as a beefy resolution (1920×1200).