Departing from the standard tablet marketing moves, Nvidia tickles every gamer's fancy with its latest 8-inch, Android-based Shield.

The original Nvidia Shield was a 5-inch device designed to stream games from a home PC to a handheld one with integrated gaming controls. The new Shield Tablet is both far more conventional and specialized than its previous effort. This time, Nvidia bills its new device as “the ultimate tablet for gamers”.

The 8-inch 1080p tablet runs on the Android OS, albeit a heavily modified one. Included features are:
• Tegra K1 processor
• Front-facing stereo speakers
• 5MP front- and rear-facing cameras
• Stylus
• 16/32GB internal storage, microSD expandability
• WiFi and optional LTE
• Base model 16GB, WiFi only runs US$299
• Optional controller is US$40

In some ways, while it acts as a standard tablet and can do everything a standard Android tablet does, it is clearly focused on the gaming community and represents a significant departure from the standard tablet marketing effort. The company is trying to establish itself in a clearly commoditized Android tablet field using unique features beyond screen size and AP speed.

Will other tablet manufacturers and OEMs follow suit with their own specialized tablet capabilities?