- Nvidia is considering a new Shield “if we find something we’re really excited about”
- Priorities would include VP9 Profile 2, AV1, and advanced HDR decoding
- Shield may be a relatively ad-free Apple TV 4K rival
10 years is a long time in the tech and TV businesses, so it’s an immense credit to Nvidia that its 10-year-old Nvidia Shield remains a beloved streaming device. According to Nvidia’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, Andrew Bell, he would “love” to see a new Shield TV box. And me too.
That doesn’t mean a new Shield is imminent, or even happening. But as Bell says, “We’ve played with new concepts for Shield and we’ll continue to play, and if we find something we’re really excited about, we’ll probably give it a try.”
Although the Shield range is 10, the most recent model is newer – it was launched in 2019. And as we said in our Nvidia Shield (2019) review, it’s a great TV piece of technology that’s part console, part streamer and completely convincing thanks to its excellent upscaling and powerful processor. But there are still some improvements that could be made – this is what I would like to see in a next-gen Shield.
1. 4K 120Hz support
As I wrote last year when the Shield got a 120fps cloud gaming upgrade, the Shield has only HDMI 2.0 plus a now somewhat old processor, and that limits what it can decode and output; “It has similar hardware to the original Nintendo Switch and still runs Android 11, and while it’s great that Nvidia keeps updating it, it feels like it’s time for a new one, especially as it faces more and more rivals.”
Nvidia GeForce Now, its own cloud gaming platform, can run in 4K at 120Hz, and this is supported on some LG TVs, but the Shield can’t offer it. A new version with HDMI 2.1 for 4K 120Hz and enough processing power to handle it seems like a no-brainer.
2. Updated wireless connectivity
Aside from the HDMI and processor upgrades, the most obvious upgrade points are Bluetooth (currently 5.0; newer versions may offer lower latency) and Wi-Fi (currently 802.11ac; I’d like to see Wi-F 7, of course). And the Android version on the Shield is currently Android 11, so that needs to be updated as well.
3. Modern HDR and format support
Bell told Ars Technica that for this heretofore imaginary device, priorities would include VP9 Profile 2 hardware decoding for YouTube HDR; the AV1 codec; the HDR10+ standard; and Dolby Vision profiles; certainly the last two would be high on my list.
5. Maintain the flexibility of the software you have now, so we can beat the ads.
Previous hardware would upgrade the Shield, but as important as the hardware is, the Shield’s software is also very important to its fans, and with the increasing use of advertising and data collection in many platforms’ interfaces, it’s worth highlighting the Shield’s current customization capabilities: while it’s not ad-free by any means (it’s Android, after all), and I doubt that will change, many customers have abandoned the default interface and opted for options like the ad-free Projection launcher.
There’s definitely a committed group that wants TV streamers that don’t fill your home screen and browsing spaces with obnoxious ads, which is why I have an Apple TV 4K instead of a cheaper streaming device, but Apple’s ecosystem isn’t for everyone.
While Shield’s default interface displays ads, having a device where you can turn them off relatively easily is a big plus. So we hope that if there is a new Shield in development, it will still be open to customer customization.
4. A much smaller Netflix button on the remote
Unnecessary!
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