Nvidia has announced that its delayed handheld system Shield will ship to customers at the end of July. The Android-powered portable console was initially set to launch on June 27 for $349. However, a price drop of $50 was announced last month shortly before the system suffered a last-minute delay, with Nvidia placing the blame on an unspecified "mechanical issue" related to a "third-party component" in a statement provided to Android Central.
Announcing the new ship date on its website, Nvidia said: “We want to thank you for your patience and for sticking with us through the shipment delay of your Shield. We have great news to share with you - your Shield will ship on July 31st. Our goal has always been to ship the perfect product, so we made sure we submitted Shield to the most rigorous mechanical testing and quality assurance standards in the industry. We built Shield because we love playing games, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.”
Announced in January, Shield is powered by a Tegra 4 processor and sports an Xbox 360-like controller with a 5" 720p touch screen attached. Nvidia claims that the internal battery supports 5-10 hours of gameplay and up to 24 hours of video. The device also allows for streaming of games from a PC through a local network and has support for Steam’s Big Picture mode. Games confirmed for release on the platform include Double Fine’s Costume Quest and Broken Age, and Adhesive Games’ mech shooter Hawken.
