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shield

The Nvidia Shield Android TV box tries to emulate mainstream game consoles with game-streaming capabilities and an included controller. At CES, Nvidia announced information technology was pulling another common game console trick — the Shield is shrinking. The new Nvidia Shield is considerably smaller than the last one, and it has a new, more than refined controller.

The Shield is where Nvidia is putting all its Android focus lately. It hasn't released a new variant of the Shield Tablet in more than a year now, and the long-rumored update was quietly cancelled a few months ago. The original Shield handheld gaming device was also a one-off that has never been updated. That leaves the Android Idiot box box version of Shield. It was already the all-time Android Television set device around, and that'll probably be true of the new ane as well; it's extremely similar.

Like last year'south Shield, the new version has a Tegra X1 ARM chip and 3GB of RAM. It'south far and abroad the most powerful Android TV device, and it's blazing fast. The Tegra X1 is an octa-core ARM chip with four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores. This is the same chip used in Google's Pixel C, simply the throttling is less aggressive on the Shield. Information technology's tethered to power all the time, so it doesn't demand to conserve bombardment similar a tablet does.

The large hardware change this time effectually is that the Shield is tiny. It'southward xl% smaller than the first gen panel, which measured 25x210x120mm. The new i is only a lilliputian taller than the remote, making it closer in size to competitors like the Roku and Apple tree TV.

The Shield runs Android TV (the Android 7.0 version), so yous become access to all of Google's apps via the Play Store, plus it has a special Netflix implementation for 4K and HDR video (on supported TVs). Nvidia also works with developers to port impressive console-quality games to the Shield that are optimized for the Tegra X1. For example, Doom 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Information technology also supports GeForce Now game streaming.

The package yous get when ordering the Shield is also more attractive this year. In addition to the smaller panel, you likewise become a revamped game controller and a remote. The remote was a $50 add together-on terminal time. As for the controller, Nvidia has removed the trackpad, which was never very useful. That allows for a more streamlined overall shape that looks more hand-friendly. That was really my simply complaint about the last Shield controller; information technology was bulky. Otherwise, it's every bit as practiced as Xbox and PlayStation controllers. Every bit an added do good, the Shield accessories are WiFi Straight, so they have extremely reliable, fast connections.

The new Shield Android Television goes on sale in a few weeks, but you tin pre-club information technology now. The base model has 16GB of storage with a microSD card slot for $200. The 500GB version costs $300, but it doesn't accept the smaller chassis because the bulldoze is physically larger. And so, the only thing new about that i is the software, controller, and included remote.