Nvidia shows off $199 Android-powered Tegra Note tablet

Chip maker Nvidia is throwing another Android-powered tablet into the already crowded market, but is hoping that the combination of a Tegra 4 chipset, stylus, and $199 price tag will differentiate it from the competition.

The tablet, called the Tegra Note, looks good on paper. It features a 7-inch, 1,280 x 800 IPS display, a Tegra 4 SoC that consists of a quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU and a 72-core GeForce GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB or on-board storage, PureAudio speakers 5-megapixel rear camera, a microSD slot (yay for cheap storage expandability!), a micro-HDMI port, and a built-in stylus that offers both chisel and brush tips.

There's also a battery good for 10 hours for HD video playback.

Another differentiator is what Nvidia is calling an "intelligent slide cover whch "flips and bends to support and cover the tablet." The cover allows the tablet be set up in three distinct positions using built-in magnets for added flexibility. 

There's no word yet on which version of Android it will ship with but the company claims it will be the "latest version of the OS," and that it will be 100 per cent Android, so that sounds like an unskinned version of Android 4.3.

Tegra Note tablets will be available from October from Nvidia partners, including EVGA and PNY Technologies in North America, EVGA, Oysters, and ZOTAC in Europe, Colorful, Shenzhen Homecare Technology and ZOTAC in Asia-Pacific, and XOLO in India. Final pricing is also down to the partners, although I wouldn't expect them to venture beyond $199 much.