NVIDIA has a smart TV device called SHIELD TV which, as of this week, has a fourth individual bundle. A bundle includes the SHIELD TV itself and an assortment of controllers. This week the device was officially wrapped up in a bundle called "SHIELD TV SMART HOME EDITION" complete with a SmartThings Link. That SmartThings link otherwise costs approximately $40 on its own.
Today the NVIDIA SHIELD TV was announced to have its price kicked temporarily in the bottom, just in time for Black Friday 2017. This is the device is easily my own top recommendation for smart TV central hub, and has been for the past two years, as well. While this machine is already a decent price without discount, here on Black Friday its cut down to the lowest price it's ever been (in its current form, with 3-free months of YouTube Red to boot.)
This week the folks at NVIDIA have announced their intention to deliver the newest in Android Nougat features to their own NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet. This is another example of NVIDIA providing support for devices well beyond the efforts of their other Android-based competition. This makes the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet, again in my mind, one of the most excellent and - certainly for Android - the best tablets in the world today.
Over the past two years just one device has been in near-constant use at my home - that's the original NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV. This piece of hardware sits quietly to the side of my television and serves content to my family almost every day of the year. Unlike any other device I've used over the past half-decade, the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV has never failed to feel like a natural part of my everyday routine - without the need for an over-abundant amount of software updates, and completely functional in every way I'd needed it to be. That's why I was skeptical when NVIDIA announced they'd be releasing another newer NVIDIA SHIELD device this year.
In our first hands-on experience with the NVIDIA SHIELD TV, I made a strong suggestion that the Game Controller was the major upgrade of this generation in SHIELD hardware. As such, I've separated this review from our primary review of the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. The review here suggests that this new controller is largely worth purchasing on its own if the user already owns the Gen1 NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV device, and will be a positive piece of the puzzle for those that purchase Gen2.
My initial experience with NVIDIA SHIELD 2017 was a positive one. While the device does not - at first - seem to be all that different from its predecessor, several key distinctions make the release of 2017's SHIELD an important one. One of these is the dedication to legacy users NVIDIA is showing with this new product - all software features and connectivity to new devices will be given to the previous model - it'll work just as well as this new one.
NVIDIA will reveal a new piece of Android TV hardware in their NVIDIA SHIELD line of devices at CES 2017. For the past couple of years NVIDIA's yearly CES-based event has housed primarily automotive-related news - this year that won't (entirely) be the case. This information comes from an anonymous source with information on the subject matter.
This week an FCC listing for a new NVIDIA SHIELD TV remote - for the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV - has appeared with a few new features. Alone, this listing only tells us that this remote will have a newer version of Bluetooth than the device already available. With Bluetooth 4.1, it's possible that the remote's battery will last a lot longer than the previous model. A patent listing from Google suggests that there may be more to this NVIDIA FCC listing than meets the eye.
Today NVIDIA has announced a collection of new apps for the SHIELD Android TV like VUDU and updates to apps enabling 4K60 content on YouTube and HDR on Netflix. Exclusive content for NVIDIA SHIELD includes GameStream HDR as well - this being a newly bright and colorful version of GameStream for this device enabled by the newest graphics processors shown by NVIDIA just this past week. A set of new games is coming to the console as well.
What we've experienced today is the DIY-base living room gaming equivalent of Exploding Kittens. While EK is a card game as well as an awesome mobile game, the game Ultimate Chicken Horse is a bit of a race. You choose from 1 of 4 animals, choose a level, and go to work getting from point A to point B. But it's not that simple. Only - at the same time - it really IS that simple.
Today we're going to take a quick look at the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet K1 and discuss why this device is the best tablet that money can buy. When we had a look at the original NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet, it was very apparent that NVIDIA's tablet-making opponents were going to have a tough time competing with the features and overall quality of this top-notch piece of equipment. One year later and not one tablet can hold a flame to the SHIELD for its combination of quality and price. And now it's cheaper than it was before. What's going on here, you might ask?
If Nexus Player was Android TV's trailer, NVIDIA SHIELD is the platform's first big blockbuster. This piece of hardware exemplifies all of the high points of NVIDIA's hardware history, taking the Android TV operating system to a place that not only shows off everything Google's done, but adds on features that make this environment even better. In NVIDIA SHIELD you'll find your new best bet for a top-notch living room TV controller, gaming system, and media center all in one.