NVIDIA Shield Tablet breaks cover certified for LTE

Is the chip maker making a play for tablet gaming?

Your next Shield could be a tablet

NVIDIA may want to brush up on how to plug internet leaks following the release of yet another online document providing new confirmation the graphics chip maker has a gaming tablet on the way.
Android Community reported that a certification registered last week with the Global Certification Forum (GCF) provides the most compelling evidence yet that NVIDIA is about to bring its A game to the tablet market.
Dubbed the "Shield Tablet," the 3G and LTE-capable hardware was registered with the GCF on June 27, suggesting NVIDIA could be prepping the device for a summer release, with rumors pointing at a July 22 launch.
Although this isn't NVIDIA's first foray into the tablet world, the forthcoming hardware is noteworthy due to the very specific Shield branding, implying its next device might be a tabletized version of the company's popular handheld gaming console.

Tegra tablet

While there's no official confirmation of hardware specs beyond the cellular connectivity options and "Notebook/Tablet" classification outed by the GCF, earlier rumors have pointed to a 7.9-inch tablet powered by the company's Tegra K1 processor and Android 4.4 KitKat.
The screen resolution apparently won't quite hit the lofty heights of QHD, but the report notes it will come pretty close at 2048 x 1536, with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage rounding out the package.
The mere concept of a gaming-centric tablet is certainly enough to raise a few eyebrows, although the report posits the Shield Tablet could be a "combination of gamepad and tablet" instead.
It remains to be seen if the world is ready to get their game on with a tablet form factor or not, but we may only have three weeks or so to embrace the concept.