If you own a Shield Tablet, you could have a fire hazard in your home. Nvidia is voluntarily recalling its Shield Tablets over concerns that the battery in the tablet might overheat and start fires.
Nvidia is offering replacements for tablets at no cost, and asks that customers visit a special support site for further instructions.
The Shield Tablet was launched in July of last year, and the recall affects any tablets that were purchased between then and now. The tablet is specifically geared toward gamers, and shipped with eight games included. Matt Wuebbling, General Manager for Tegra and Nvidia’s Mobile Business Unit, described the tablet as “A device that’s absolutely taken off, and now there are segments that are cropping up. We think this gives Nvidia a great opportunity to bring a different product to market and focused on gamers, a group of end users we know very well.” Wuebbling likened the process of designing the Shield Tablet to Ford–at first, cars were exciting because they were cars, but then people started to want something really good. And the Shield Tablet is good, according to reviews. Endgadget gives a summary: “NVIDIA’s second-generation Shield is more powerful, more versatile and more accessible than its predecessor. It’s not only the best Android gaming device on the market, but also a fine tablet, too.”
The tablet’s specs are specifically built for gaming, with Android KitKat, 1080p streaming from PC, and a Tegra K1 mobile processor with 192 dedicated graphics cores. It also offers 2GB of RAM, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi with 2.4GHz and 5GHz support, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and a GPS radio. You can also hook up a special controller, though it’ll cost you a bit more. Both the 16GB and 32GB Shield Tablets are out of stock for the time being.
No other Nvidia products are affected.
