Nvidia Shield TV TV console that works off its own stream

An Android in your living room

You can’t carry a desktop PC around with you, but there’s no reason why an Android tablet or phone shouldn’t work equally well just plonked on a shelf or desk. And if that shelf happens to be next to your TV, the device won’t even need its own screen. That’s the basic idea behind the Shield TV console, which first appeared in 2015. It has now shrunk to a handier size and gained access to more online services, including Amazon Prime video streaming at (depending on your TV set) up to 4K resolution.

Little has changed inside the box, but the Shield is made by Nvidia, the graphics card specialists, and so already had a surprising amount of processing power. It’s marketed partly as a games console, and comes with a rather nice Playstation-style controller, which has been completely redesigned. Acknowledging that there’s a lot more to this than games, a TV remote is also included.

Not all Android games will be compatible – most are designed for touchscreens, not joysticks – but there are lots of great titles you can play. Alternatively, pay to stream games from Nvidia’s Geforce Now service ( www.snipca.ca. com/23244) if you have fast broadband. Google’s Android TV, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iplayeryer and Netflix are all available, and you can use Google Cast to streamm from other Android devices. It alsolso works with tools like Plex and Kodi to play content from other sources.s. Voice control is included, and Google Assistant will be available soon, so you can ask your Shield questions or even control Wi-fi home gadgets.

Only 16GB of storage is built in, reflecting the emphasis on streaming from the internet, but you can add more via USB 3.0. When we plugged a hard drive in, though, we found some games were slow to load from it. There’s also a ‘Pro’ version of the Shield TV with a 500GB internal hard drive, which looks similar to the old model, but it doesn’t seem worth the extra £90.