Ok so this review should help a lot of people that's on the fence or that's planning to buy a higher end box first off let me say that I am very into technology have built computers done programming etc and I have also owned probably around 10 (most likely more) streaming products
First I want to say this was bought with my own money I'm not being paid by anyone this is a true review. So recently I have purchased the t95z octacore android box 3/32gb model also just purchased the H96 max android box which is one of the top of the line products with the hexacore processor from rockchip 4/32gb model I'll start with t95z all I can say is don't bother I won't say no more since they gave me a full refund onto the H96 max now keep in mind both of these boxes have more memory H96 max has more RAM again with the H96 max don't bother so this goes from around $100 for t95z to $150 for H96 max both have bigger processor at least more cores.
Now I have just bought the nvidia sheild tv (base model) not pro so 16gb version going from the H96 max to this would be like going from dial up to high speed internet thru Ethernet ya 16gb is a little low for memory but that's an easy fix with a $20 3.0 USB flash drive (64gb) or as big as you want the nvidia shield is by far the best media box on the market it's at least 10x faster than ANY android box I have used (10+) plays 4k movies brilliantly I put large heavy kodi builds on my streaming boxes when I've tried with others it bogs them down horribly at the end on most boxes I just switched to lighter (firestick) builds not to slow it down. When I received my nvidia shield I started with set-up which was a breeze updated everything and made a few personal tweaks under devolver menu which if you don't know what your doing I don't recommend or go one YouTube I have a video on there of a walkthru how to beat setup the box and so does others I also downloaded all my apps along with my own custom build which is well over 1gb which is a very large build I had high expectations since I own lots of nvidia products and also had just bought a gaming/editing laptop with nvidia GeForce 1080 gpu 8gb the speed ease of use setup configuration and everything about the shield has completely blew me away it's way faster even with the high expectations I had.
The boxes I have used in the past was all top end boxes and most had more RAM and more memory the shield leaves them in the dust I hadn't bought one cause I figured I didn't need it I mostly just stream on it and have so many other devices for gaming but that was a huge mistake that kept me from buying this and was stupid I was of course expecting this to be much better for gaming than the android boxes I had used but I wasn't concerned about gaming so I figured the H96 max with more Ram hexacore processor and 32gb of memory would suit me better and it had rave reviews about fluidity and speed from friends in the tech world when I tested it I hated it honestly I thought it was sluggish slow and wasn't quite polished enough maybe after a year or two and a better firmware update but even with that it could never stand toe to toe with the shield. Now as far as gaming if your buying the shield for gaming first streaming second great I have played games streaming from my computer and it works wonderfully fast responsive and the games you can download onto the system work flawless and play perfect I have never had one bit of lag zero loading time and great gpu performance which is expected coming from the gpu king the GeForce now gaming platform is amazing and I highly recommend shelling out the $7.00-$8.00 a month for it great value with all the free games you get not only games that would cost $60+ for a console but they have games specifically made for this system only the shield is perfect they have no need to improve nothing imo ya it sucks that they took out the micro sd on base model and no IR now but those are both easy fixes and for the money $199.99 it's an amazing value the new control is amazing feels great in your hand and works perfectly the media controller is so so but hey it's free used to be a $50-60 upgrade in short if you don't play games and want by far the best streaming media player on the market buy this.
If you do play games want awesome content and want to stream your pc onto big screen AND have a great streaming engine BUY THIS!!!!!
I have never tested a machine that I have liked BETTER than this or that does the job it's made for so well DO NOT EVEN BOTHER WITH ANDROID BOXES give the extra money get yourself a shield then once you do you can thank me for saving you a lot of frustrating loading freezing and you'll get a great gaming machine as well imo this box is better than PS4 Xbox1 etc and better than any kodi box you could buy so as far as value goes this is amazing
I truly do not know how anyone on here has not given this machine 5* for $199.99 what more could they expect
LOVE LOVE LOVE my shield and could never go back to another box
| Brand Name | NVIDIA |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 8.8 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 6 x 1 x 4 inches |
| Item model number | 945-12897-2500-100 |
| Batteries | 2 Lithium Metal batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Black |
