NVIDIA launches the SHIELD and SHIELD Pro Android TV system at Google I/O 2015

NVIDIA’s newest member of their line-up, the SHIELD Android TV. At the time of the announcement they stated it would be launched in May. With the month coming to a close, some wondered if they would meet that deadline. I had a sneaky suspicion that they would make the device officially available at Google I/O, and they did. In an announcement this afternoon NVIDIA has made the Android TV SHIELD box available to purchase.

For those who haven’t been keeping their eye on this magical little device let me clue you in on a few little details. The SHIELD is a set-top box of sorts that runs Android TV. It packs in a 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra X1 processor, 256-core NVIDIA graphics, 3GB of RAM, and can push out 4K video and games to your TV. It brings all the greatness that is Android TV and the Play Store to your living room, but it does a bit more. It brings the ability to connect to your PC, if it is SHIELD streaming ready, to play your current PC games away from the desk. It also has access to NVIDIA’s GRID service where you can subscribe to an ever-growing number of titles and even purchase games specifically that stream from NVIDIA to your home.

We knew that when the device finally made its debut it would set back a user $199.99. Which, by itself, is an amazing price tag. However, there was some rumor, leaks and “oops” that lead us to think that they were going to deliver a secondary option. See, the $199.99 variant of the device carries 16GB of on-board storage. The leaked one carried 500GB of storage. NVIDIA previously denied the device and said it was a partner variant for developers and such. However, that is not the case. NVIDIA did in fact also launch the 500GB device and only tacked on $100, making it $299.99. Almost seems silly to not spend the extra $100 for that much more space.

Hit the link below to put your order in today, and circle back around and let me know what you think..

Via NVIDIA