Owners of the NVIDIA Shield gaming tablet are in for some bad news. The company will not update the device’s software. The tablet is currently running on Android Nougat. Both variants of The Shield tablet i.e. Shield Tablet K1 and the SHIELD Tablet will not be upgraded to the latest Android 8.0 Oreo.

The news comes straight from the horse’s mouth as Manuel Guzman, NVIDIA’s software quality assurance worker, shared the titbit while responding to a user query on Twitter whether the K1 will get updated to the OS. However, he later added that though the company will not be upgrading the firmware anymore, it will continue supporting the tablets by rolling out security patches for as long as possible.

No Android Oreo for Shield and K1 tablet users

The Nvidia Shield and the SHIELD Tablet K1 were launched in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Although the tablets are reasonably old, they are among the top-ranked gaming tablets in the market. However, despite retaining their performance and form, the devices will not be upgraded to Android Oreo. Guzman revealed on Twitter that the update will not be making its way to the device.

While the SHIELD Tablet K1 will be receiving an Android Nougat update in the coming days, that will be the last time the software gets updated for good.

Although it is a norm that Android devices receive updates for two years, the same won’t be applicable for the SHIELD tablets.

What about the Shield TV?

There is no word whether the SHIELD TV will benefit from the Android 8.0 Oreo update or if it will be excluded from the update list. The possibility of the SHIELD TV missing the update seems unlikely.

This assumption is based on the company’s general manager Ali Kani's assertions. In August, Kanis shared that they were waiting eagerly to see what new features the smartTV gets when it is updated to Oreo. Given that the Google Assistant was rolled out for the SHIELD TV, it appears that the device will also be upgraded to the latest Android OS.

A new SHIELD tablet in the pipeline?

While the older models of SHIELD tablets will be stuck in the Nougat platform forever, there have been no reports whatsoever on the development or launch of a new SHIELD tablet. While speculations are rife that NVIDIA is experimenting with other SHIELD products, nothing concrete is known. Apart from the Shield Portable 2 prototype being spotted in the wild, there has been little news about new products from the company.