New Nvidia Shield TV 2017 now available for purchase

Nvidia’s recently announced refresh of the Shield TV, which aims to bring 4K HDR and Nvidia’s new GeForce NOW streaming service, is now available for purchase.

The Shield TV brings some minor aesthetic updates to the older Shield TV, including a smaller size and a more angular design. The internals remain the same, however; powering everything is the same Tegra X1 processor found in the predecessor. The Shield TV is still a very capable streaming device and is 3 times faster than its competitors, according to Nvidia.

The biggest change lies in software. Based on Android 7.0 Nougat, the new Shield TV brings support for 4K HDR streaming. Currently, only a few streaming services (including Netflix and Amazon) offer this capability, though 4K HDR content is expected to become much more prevalent with increasing adoption of HDR display technology.

Gamers can also stream gameplay from their PC to the Sheild via Nvidia Gamestream, allowing them to play games in the comfort of their living room rather than in front of the computer. Users that don’t have a gaming PC or want more options for gameplay can tap into Nvidia’s GeForce NOW service. GeForce NOW lets gamers stream games directly from Nvidia’s servers and play games as if they were rendered on a GTX 1080, Nvidia’s current top-of-the-line consumer GPU. Those that enjoy Android games can also play the latest titles for the OS on the Shield TV.

The Shield TV can also pair with Nvidia’s SPOT devices, which are essentially small microphones that can be scattered throughout the house and used to control the Shield and other compatible smart devices via voice commands.

The Shield TV base model is available today from Nvidia for $199.99 USD. The Shield TV Pro, which is equipped with a few more ports and 500 GB of internal storage, is up for preorder for $299.99 USD and should be shipping soon.

For owners of the older model Nvidia Shield TV, Nvidia will soon be releasing an update that brings the software features found in the newer shield to the previous model.

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