Software upgrades can be a beautiful thing.
The original Nvidia Shield streaming and gaming box made its debut in May 2015, and at the time we gave it a middling rating of 6.9 with 2.5 stars. It was too expensive and buggy, and didn’t come close to the app selection of competitors like Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
What a difference 20 months and numerous software upgrades makes. We’ve revisited that review and increased the rating numerous times with the release of various software updates, which stabilized the system, added apps and introduced novel features like Plex server and storage expansion.
The latest, Shield Experience 5.0.2, adds the following capabilities to every Nvidia Shield Android TV box:
With these upgrades the “old” Shield achieves what Nvidia describes as “software parity” with the brand-new 2017 version, which launched a couple of weeks ago.
The new controller (left) is slimmer and easier to grip, available for $60, and works with the original Shield box.
