Hands-on (again) with the Nvidia Shield—the first good Android TV device

NEW YORK—As you read this, Google I/O will currently be raging on—and hopefully just wrapping up the keynote. A few days before the show, however, Nvidia invited us to check out the Nvidia Shield—the company's first entry into the Android TV market.

As promised in the lead up to the launch of Android TV, Nvidia is positioning the Shield as a set-top box and game console. Gaming is such a big focus for the company that it showed the device off at the 2015 Game Developer Conference, where our gaming editor, Kyle Orland, looked at the Shield from the point of view of a game console. The Shield isn't just a game console, though—the device also feels like the next generation of Android TV.

Android TV's first device—the Nexus Player—had a multitude of show-stopping problems, even with the latest 5.1.1 Android TV update. For starters, the 1.8GHz Intel Atom chip isn't up to the task of smoothly playing 1080p video. Not everyone is sensitive to framerate slowdowns, but if you are, the Nexus Player's occasional hiccups during complex scenes was infuriating—and really, it's inexcusable for a device whose primary job is to play video.

The Shield, with its Nvidia Tegra X1 SoC, has more than enough power for 1080p playback. Nvidia even showed it playing silky-smooth 4K, 60fps content. On the Shield, both the Netflix and YouTube apps can pump out 4K content. 802.11ac is a connectivity option, but for serious speed the Shield can be hardwired to your network via the full-sized ethernet port on the back.

The Nexus Player's most crippling problem was the storage—the device shipped with a laughable 8GB of internal storage (5GB free), which made it DOA for anyone that wanted to do serious gaming on it. Many good games today are bigger than 8GB—and AAA games like Grand Theft Auto 5 clock in at 65GB. The biggest Android games cap out at only a few gigabytes, but that still means the Nexus player can only hold about two or three of these "console quality" games, which will only get bigger in the future.

Nvidia has done just about everything possible to solve this storage problem. While the 16GB base model is $199, Nvidia also offers a 500GB model for $299. The Shield also has a MicroSD slot and you can hook external storage up to the two USB 3.0 ports on the back; the Shield has all of your storage needs covered. And in the future, you're apparently going to need all this storage. Besides the games and 4K content, Nvidia demoed live TV on the Shield and mentioned that Google would be launching DVR capabilities for Android TV soon. (Remember, we looked at the Shield a few days before I/O, so Google could be announcing DVR support this very moment.)

In December Google launched a "Live Channels" app that overlays a TV guide and other UI bits on top of a (user-provided) live video stream, much like a cable box. Getting a live TV feed is up to the user, but thanks to the expandability on the back of the Shield (two USB 3.0 ports), Nvidia demoed an external over-the-air HD tuner and antenna that plugged into the back. Subscriptions to IP-based live TV services are an option, too. You can also plug in a webcam and fire up a video chat app from your living room (though Skype and Google Hangouts are not available as of this writing).

The game controller and remote take things a step further than the Nexus Player, too. Both have volume controls, which either control your TV volume directly over CEC (as we understand it, volume over CEC is currently very rare) or expose the Android TV's system volume, a feature the Nexus Player lacked. Both devices also have headphone jacks for audio, built-in microphones for VOIP and voice commands, and rechargeable batteries. The Shield supports four controllers, and, being Android, it should work with either USB, Bluetooth, or the official Wi-Fi-direct controllers.

The Shield will be available in the US and Canada today, with Europe getting the device in Q4 of this year. The box comes with one included controller, and extra controllers are $59. The remote, which is not included, is another $49, and the stand is $29.

While the Nexus Player was obsolete the moment it was released, with speed and storage that wasn't up to the task of being a set-top box, the Nvidia Shield—especially the 500GB version—seems ready for today and whatever the future brings. There's tons of power, plenty of built-in storage, and lots of expansion options. The Nexus Player was only $99, though. At $199 and $299, the Shield is a tougher sell, especially when current-gen consoles are around $350 to $400, and last-gen consoles can be had for around $199. Android TV finally has some viable hardware, but will the platform make the price of entry worth it?