NVIDIA SHIELD launches this week: the mobile desktop gaming crossover

This week NVIDIA SHIELD launches, bringing the company's vision for a high-powered mobile gaming device to the market with a console-quality physical controller attached to a flip-up display with Android under the hood. This machine will be shipping to customers who preordered this device starting Wednesday, while in-store availability also starts its spread this week at locations like GameStop, Microcenter, and Canada Computer. You'll be seeing SlashGear's full review soon, as well.

This device works with a 5-inch "retinal-quality" multi-touch display which flips up in clamshell fashion from a controller full of buttons. This device works with two custom-tuned bass reflex audio-pumping speakers, and users will have full access to Google Play for media, apps, and games.

NVIDIA SHIELD works with a massive number of Android games, NVIDIA providing a list of 100+ games compatible with the physical controls of this device right out of the box. You'll be working with both wired and wireless connectivity options for projecting the content of SHIELD's display as well, these including a mini-HDMI port on its back, Miracast wireless display mirroring, and PC streaming.

PC streaming remains in Beta at the moment, but will be pulled up to full strength sooner than later. This connectivity allows SHIELD to play full-powered PC games while synced with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU-toting gaming computer over a Wi-fi connection. Below you'll see our most recent demo with PC streaming, while above you're seeing a bit of Android gaming from our first NVIDIA SHIELD hands-on and unboxing.

This device will be rolling out for $299 this week and will be coming out in a Wi-fi-only form. There's just one internal storage size: 16GB, and you get a microSD card slot to expand all the way up to 64GB if you wish. Stay tuned for SlashGear's big run-down, sooner than later!