First Look

  The Nvidia Shield TV Pro is an interesting device. While it is primarily meant to function as streaming box for living room TVs, it has a loads of interesting features that allow it to stand out from the crowd. Admittedly, this device is on the pricier end of things, coming in at $299 for the Pro version while the regular version is a bit cheaper.

 

Compared to this, both the Apple TV 4K and the Amazon Fire TV 4K are cheaper. If all you want to do is stream movies from Netflix, it may be worth it to check out those devices. The Nvidia Shield TV, however, provides a more complete package.

The Details

  While Apple, Roku and Amazon have packed their devices with proprietary services and they have their own App Stores, the Nvidia Shield comes with the Google Play Store and can use all Android TV applications. Additionally, it has Google Assistant by default and you can use this control the device with your voice. This also supports all Chromecast-enabled apps.

 

The device comes bundled with a variety of video and audio services such as Netflix, YouTube, Vudu and Kodi. All of these are available in 4K resolution, without any stutter or lag. Another great feature is that this device can act as a smart home hub which is compatible with a large variety of different smart home products, including ones from Nest and LG.

 

One of the other things that is unique to the Shield TV is that it supports three ways to play high quality games. If you have a PC with an Nvidia graphics card, you may be able to stream any game directly on to your TV.

 

The Shield can also run games natively and through GeForce Now, which is a game streaming service from Nvidia. The controller isn’t as great as console controllers, so the gaming experience can be a bit iffy. It can also suffer from issues like freezing while gaming.

Conclusion

  Overall, the Shield TV is clearly a powerful device as it is capable of doing not just one, but three things very well. The device is built and designed well. However, it is quite expensive for a device of its kind.

 

The Pro model has 500GB of storage, but if you already have a large microSD, you could save on storage and get the cheaper Nvidia Shield. That said, if you are someone who thinks they could use multiples features from the Nvidia Shield TV Pro, it could be a great buy!