Nvidia's Shield Tablet is a tablet designed for gamers, to, well... game. Nvidia has confirmed details surrounding the Shield tablet including wireless controller release date, price and specs. The Nvidia Shield Tablet is available for pre-order now. 

"If you're a gamer and you use a tablet, the Nvidia Shield tablet was created specifically for you," said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's CEO. "It delivers exceptional tablet performance and unique gaming capabilities to keep even the most avid gamers deeply immersed, anywhere they play."

The main feature of the Sheild tablet is the Tegra K1 processor which has 192 GPU cores. The company says that the device will receive over-the-air updates to bring new capabilities and improved performance.

It features an 8in 1920 x 1200 resolution display, front facing stereo speakers, mini-HDMI output and Android 4.4 KitKat. It weighs 390g and is 9.2mm thick.

There is a 16GB model which is Wi-Fi-only but if you go for the 32GB version you also get 4G LTE support for mobile data. The Shield tablet uses a micro-SIM for this.

Nvidia wasn't able to get its graphics chips into either the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4, so it's doing the next best thing by trying to circumvent home consoles altogether.

The Shield Tablet already has a number of major game titles optimized to make use of its extra power. It's also compatible with a new Shield wireless controller and the same game-streaming capability as its predecessor Shield, allowing you to remotely play a game running on your PC at home. With a mini-HDMI connection outputting 1080p content to the nearest HDTV, the Shield Tablet can be a jack of all trades by either playing Android games or streaming PC titles into the living room.

The US and Canada still get the Shield Tablet first, with a 16GB Wi-Fi-only variant costing $299 in the States and a 32GB LTE model priced at $399. To get the maxed-out Shield Tablet suite, you'd need an extra $59 for the Wi-Fi controller, $39 for the cover, and a few extra bucks to buy the mini-HDMI cable that's sadly absent from the retail box. Europe follows from the middle of August and availability in other regions will be announced in the fall.

The focus on gaming has led to a number of firsts: this is the first tablet to stream games from PCs inside the home (equipped with a GeForce GTX 600 series GPU or above), the first to be able to stream games from the cloud via Nvidia's Grid beta program in North California, and the first to feature Twitch streaming.

While the first two may be useful to only a limited audience, the Twitch integration carries universal appeal and is growing into an increasingly desired addition to any gaming device. In practice, it works very quickly and simply. Activating your Twitch channel is one of the primary menu items on the Shield Tablet and you can also record and later upload snippets from inside a game.

Nvidia has also put together a Console Mode for when the device is plugged in to a television set, though it's a basic variation on the interface the company has on the tablet itself, and fills 40-inch screens with comically oversized app icons. The simplicity of this UI is actually helpful, but it just needs a more refined appearance.

Hulu Plus, Evernote, and Netflix apps will come preloaded on the Shield Tablet, which Nvidia notes is one of only three to support Netflix HD streaming. Moreover, the Shield Tablet is 4K-ready, though with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 on its 8-inch display and a standard TV output of 1080p, the capability to decode such content is mostly of academic importance.

So far, there are 12 games that are optimized for the Tegra K1, including the recently released Shield-exclusive ports of Portal and Half-Life 2. Both of those games look much prettier and move at a higher frame rate than on the original Shield, and Nvidia promises to keep aggressively adding to the list of games that look best on its hardware.

Here is a list of all the specs:

Processor: Nvidia Tegra K1 192 core Kepler GPU, 2.2 GHz ARM Cortex A15 CPU with 2GB RAM
Display: 8-inch 1920x1200 multi-touch Full HD display
Audio: Front facing stereo speakers, dual bass reflex port with built-in microphone
Storage: 32 GB (WiFi+4G LTE) / 16 GB (WiFi-only)
Wireless: 802.11n 2x2 Mimo 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS / GLONASS
Connectivity: WiFi+4G LTE or WiFi-only, Mini-HDMI output, Micro-USB 2.0, MicroSD storage slot, 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack with microphone support
SIM Card: Micro-SIM
Motion Sensors: 3-axis gyro, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis compass
Gaming Features: Shield wireless controller compatible, Nvidia GameStream, Nvidia ShadowPlay, GRID Cloud Gaming Beta, Console Mode, Gamepad Mapper
Cameras: Front - 5Mp HDR; Back - 5Mp auto focus HDR
Video Features:    4K Ultra-HD Ready
Stylus: DirectStylus 2 with 3D Paint (Included)
Software Updates: Shield software upgrades directly from Nvidia
Battery: 19.75 Wh
Weight: 390g
Height: 221mm
Width: 126mm
Depth: 9.2mm
Operating System: Android KitKat OS
Software: Google Play, Nvidia Shield app, Trine 2: Complete Story, Multi language Handwriting Recognition, NVIDIA Dabbler, JusWrite, Evernote, Adobe Reader, Camera Awesome