NVIDIA Announces Tegra Note: NV Designed Android Tablet, Sold by NVIDIA Partners
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 18, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Mobile
- Tegra 4
- NVIDIA
- Tegra Note
The Tegra Note is a 7-inch Tegra 4 based tablet, built by a contract manufacturer for NVIDIA. The tablet will be offered by NVIDIA but not directly. Instead, you'll be able to buy co-branded versions of the Tegra Note through some of NVIDIA's traditional partners like EVGA, Zotac and PNY. If this sounds like how you presently buy NVIDIA graphics cards, you'd be right. The difference, at least initially, is that there's effectively no partner level customization offered on the Tegra Note. I get the impression that if successful, future versions may allow some flexibility on behalf of NVIDIA's partners, but not today.
The Tegra Note features a 1280 x 800 display, 1GB of memory and of course a 1.8GHz quad-core Tegra 4 SoC. There's 16GB of NAND on-board, with a microSD card slot for expansion. NVIDIA promises to ship Tegra Note with the latest version of Android, and promises to provide OTA updates directly to customers.
The tablet falls somewhere in between the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7s in terms of size and weight. The Note comes from the inclusion of NVIDIA's DirectStylus - a passive stylus technology that NV demonstrated a while ago as a way of bringing stylus support to lower cost platforms. NVIDIA is promising up to 10 hours of video playback. No word on what the WiFi hardware inside the Tegra Note looks like. Update: It seems to be 2.4GHz 802.11n.
NVIDIA Tegra Note | |
SoC | 1.8GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 |
Display | 7-inch IPS LCD 1280 x 800 |
RAM | 1GB |
WiFi | 2.4GHz 802.11n |
Storage | 16GB + microSD (up to 32GB) |
I/O | Micro HDMI connector |
OS | "Latest" Android OS with OTA updates from NVIDIA directly |
Battery | 4100 mAh (15 Wh?) |
Size / Mass | 199 x 119 x 9.6 mm, 320g |
Camera |
5MP Rear Facing Camera VGA Front Facing Camera |
Price | $199 |
The tablet will retail for around $199 and will begin shipping in the next few months. If the rest of the package is well executed, this could be a very affordable way to get a very high performing 7-inch Android tablet.
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chizow - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Not a bad effort, pretty nice looking device like a larger HTC One. At $200 it has a chance but it may still be too close to the Nexus 7. I'm not really interested in an Android tablet but Nvidia is building up a pretty nice track record of designing 1st party devices with Tegra. Will be interesting to see where this goes, and if they try to associate this with Shield as part of their TegraZone Android gaming platform.Mondozai - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Had they launched this 6 months ago, it'd been a hit. Now? It gets out before Christmas and Nexus 7 (2013) should get a royal price cut or two at that time.You get lower resolution and unlike the Nexus 7 the amount of consistent updating is shaky at best.
Impulses - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
I doubt you'll see any significant Nexus 7 discounts... You might see the occasional $30 off Black Friday sale like last year (or like at launch for the new one) but that's it.1Angelreloaded - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
1GB of RAM and that screen resolution will simply hold this tablet back in an already saturated market now if they would have released it 1-2 years ago it would be spot on.iceman-sven - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
GPS?I am IT in a company. We currently use a dozen of TomTom for car navigation. But there are totally unreliable, poor display and so on. I want to shift it, to Nexus 7 2013 + Navigon. This might be an alternative if it has GPS. But spec wise, I would still prefer the Nexus 7.
Does anybody know a good Nexus 7 holder for in car use?
HighTech4US - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
I too need Nexus 7 holder for in car use.Anyone have links?
HighTech4US - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Car Tablet Mount Holder+USB Post+Cigarette Port Outlet For Asus Google Nexus 7http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&...
I like that it plugs into the Cigarette Port Outlet and allows both USB powering of the Nexus 7 and still provides a Cigarette Port Outlet for whatever was originally in the Cigarette Port Outlet
iceman-sven - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Not what I search. I need something for the windshield. Or I use Garmin HUD + Nexus 7.speedwheels - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
The screen is shockingly sub-par for 2013 especially when the Tegra-4 GPU is beastly. It can easily handle decent framerates at 1080p even for the most visually complex games..Performance wise,this will edge out the Nexus-7 and be the equal of most snapdragon 800 based tablets.
Add a small discount to this tablet and it might be the best value going.. A Tegra-4 7 inch tablet for $160-$170 by christmas?Sign me up...
Death666Angel - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Hm, not so bad. But in light of the Nexus 7 2013 (I hate those computer products where we now have to add the year to their name), a bit lacking. I am looking forward to the Tegra 4 performance and battery life numbers as well as screen performance. While 800p is low end today, if the price and everything else are right I could live with that. That stylus looks okay, better than the usual capacitive ones, but I'm waiting for someone independent to actually test it. Though I don't think I'd pay more than 170 for it.