Michael Crider
The redesigned NVIDIA SHIELD looks like a big plastic hot dog. But it’s still the best stand-alone streaming box around, infused with Android TV and semi-magical 4K upscaling technology. If you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on one, today’s the day: Best Buy is offering $20 off the retail price.
That brings the sticker price for the standard SHIELD down to $130. Still pricey for a streaming gadget—thirty bucks more than the top-of-the-line Roku Ultra, for example—but it’s worth it for the SHIELD’s ability to run silky-smooth 4K video and effortlessly upscale 1080p streams to look better on your 4K TV.
The biggest upside of the new design is the remote, which is far more comfy and usable than the old one. The biggest downside its storage, just 8GB, which isn’t enough to run some of the more impressive Android TV games or load up a bunch of HD local videos. For those you’ll want the SHIELD Pro (no discount at the moment), or add a beefy MicroSD card to the hot dog SHIELD.
