For years, the NVIDIA SHIELD has been the king of streaming set-top boxes, justifying its price with top-shelf hardware and fantastic support. Today NVIDIA announced its biggest hardware upgrade to the SHIELD yet, along with a new, cheaper form factor.
The new cylindrical SHIELD TV inherits the name, with the SHIELD Pro moniker going to the upgraded version of the rectangular design. Since that model gets the upgraded processor and redesigned remote, but otherwise remains more or less the same as it ever was (including the price), we’re going to keep our enthusiastic recommendation of that machine.
But what of the new SHIELD, which looks kind of like a can of spray deodorant or a hot dog? It’s an interesting proposition, stripping out a few of the features of the more conventional SHIELD for a small price cut (down 25% to $150) but getting the fast new processor, too. While it’s still a fantastic streaming machine, that $50 price cut brings it to within striking distance of other excellent streaming devices like the Roku Ultra and Fire TV Cube, suddenly making it seem like an awkward middle child, stuck between both price points and platforms.
The new SHIELD TV is a great streaming machine; I’m just not sure who it’s for. Those looking to save money have plenty of cheaper options, and those looking for the most powerful and versatile streaming device won’t have a problem upgrading to the SHIELD TV Pro (or just sticking with the SHIELD they already own).
What’s Different
What’s new in the new SHIELD? Here’s a brief look at the upgrades that are exclusive to this design generation, both on the smaller SHIELD and the larger SHIELD Pro.
- New Tegra X1+ processor, with 25% better performance
- Support for 4K “AI” upscaling
- Support for Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio
- A new (and much, MUCH better) remote, included in both hardware packages
Note that the new SHIELD Pro does not include a spinning hard drive, like the older, bigger $299 model. It’s a small upgrade of the flash-based SHIELD, with the same 16GB of storage.
Here’s what’s different about the $150 SHIELD TV (sans Pro):
- New cylindrical form factor
- Lowered RAM (2GB vs 3GB). This means it’s not compatible with some NVIDIA-published Android game ports, like Metal Gear Rising or Tomb Raider.
- Lowered storage (just 8GB)
- No USB ports
And there are other software enhancements, which will be coming to older SHIELD units via over-the-air update:
- Upgraded Android TV interface
- Compatibility with default Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers
- Updated TV interface, Play Store and SHIELD phone app
- Compatibility with all Google Assistant features
Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s check out the new design.
New Form Factor
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