NVIDIA Announces SHIELD Android Set Top Box for $199

Jen-Hsun Huang has kicked off Nvidias Made To Game press event in San Francisco with the announcement of the SHIELD Android TV set top box. This slim Android console is powered by the Tegra X1 SoC to deliver a snappy Android TV experience and the best SoC gaming performance for the living room at up to 20 watts power consumption.

The long standing sight of video game consoles in the living room and more recently the adoption of Smart TVs and television media players parallel some of the trends in smartphones. Many the capabilities of multiple electronic devices have become integrated into one handheld as applications. Like other television set top boxes, the SHIELD console brings movies, pictures, and music in addition to Android TV features such as Google Search and the Play Store to the living room. The SHIELD console can be controlled by the SHIELD controller and the newly announced SHIELD remote.

The Tegra X1 SoC with 256 Maxwell cores debuted at CES 2015 where Jen-Hsun and NVIDIA demonstrated its 1 TFLOP performance in a power efficient SoC for smart cars. The newly announced SHIELD console brings that power efficient performance to living room gamers while staying whisper quiet. To impress viewers of the systems gaming capabilities, an Android port of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! was demonstrated running at 30 FPS. To impress viewers even more, Jen-Hsun raised the question “Can it run Crysis?” to which the SHIELD ran a port of Crysis 3 multiplayer.

The NVIDIA SHIELD console will have over 50 titles available at launch and is priced at $199. Included with the SHIELD is a SHIELD controller and a SHIELD remote control.