Imagine an Android device that was released in 2015 but has received over 25 full-fledged updates, still works great during daily use, and didn't cost $1,000. You don't have to imagine because it's real — the Nvidia Shield TV is a legend of longevity.
It's been refreshed over the years with minor hardware updates, and the one you can buy today was introduced in 2019, but even the original models are still seeing active software support. If you want to use Android TV, it's also the device you should buy.
I have a veritable landfill of Android-related junk here, but my two Shield TV boxes are ones I use regularly. There are more than a few Android set-top boxes among the e-waste but none are as good. It's amazing that a company releases a product and supports it, but it's more amazing that this is surprising. All tech products should be like this and work well until they disintegrate in my opinion. But they don't — except for this one.
I'm not trying to shill for Nvidia here. The company has no idea who I am nor does it care about me. I'm just a life-support system for a credit card as far as any company that makes tech products is concerned. Having said that, I really like the Shield TV. On both of my televisions, it's hooked up to the HDMI input one.
The Shield TV isn't the only Android-powered streaming device you can buy and it's certainly not the cheapest. It's also not without issues — there are ads on the home screen (thanks, Google), the audio will stutter if you're using aptX-HD on your Bluetooth headphones, and you might see a set of black bars on some content if your TV is 16:10 instead of 16:9. There are probably more bugs too because all tech products are riddled with bugs.
What makes it great though is that it's super easy to install and set up, and then it just works — and keeps on working. The current models have cool features like AI upscaling so 1080p content looks really good on my 4K television, and the HDR Dolby Vision magic sauce looks great on my living room TV.
The Black Friday Buying Olympics are here and you might be looking for a new streaming device. The Shield TV is one you should definitely look at since the "Pro" model with two USB ports is on sale for $170.
It's a little more expensive than a Fire TV Cube and a lot more than a Chromecast with Google TV, but it works a lot better and will last a lot longer than either. If I had a TV without one plugged in, it's what I would buy.
