next NVIDIA – After a decade with an original 2015 NVIDIA Shield TV, the author argues a future refresh must tackle five practical upgrades: a safer remote layout, a standard-replacement power connector, stronger “future-proof” specs, a better Google TV experience, and fast
My NVIDIA Shield TV has been on more days than it hasn’t. The original 2015 model I bought for £90 in Prime Day 2016 has never truly stopped being part of my week. A decade later. it’s still my go-to streaming box—and the fact that Shield TV models haven’t seen meaningful hardware updates since 2019 is exactly why the next one matters.
The question isn’t whether a new Shield TV could be good. It’s what it has to change so it stays worth keeping for another ten years. Based on what’s already worked, and what’s already annoyed me, here are the five upgrades a next Shield TV absolutely needs.
A slightly revised remote. minus the stuff you don’t use
The remote is one area I don’t want NVIDIA to tinker too much. The 2015 remote. in my view. was “trash.” The 2019 remote is different—triangular in shape. comfortable in the hand. and loaded with tactile. clicky buttons that have held up for up to six years of constant use.
It also has backlit buttons for dark-room use. And if you lose it, there’s an internal speaker you can trigger from the Shield’s interface.
But if the remote deserves praise, it also deserves one small correction: remove the Netflix button. Not everyone has a Netflix subscription, and a dedicated hardware button for something you don’t use is just irritating. The Shield already allows double-taps on the home and menu buttons to be easily customized and remapped. so swapping the Netflix key to one or two custom shortcut buttons would make the remote feel less cluttered and more personal.
A more secure back panel
My second remote complaint is simple: the battery cover isn’t secure enough. You only have to look at it a little harder than usual for it to pop off. For how much I love this remote overall, this is the one piece of hardware design that consistently bothers me.
A standard (and replaceable) power supply
If there’s one issue that could quietly turn a beloved streaming device into an expensive paperweight. it’s the power supply. With the exception of the cylindrical 2019 base model. all Shield TVs use a proprietary power port—and NVIDIA doesn’t sell replacements.
That’s a major problem if the power supply starts failing. especially for people like me who plan to keep using their Shield TV as long as possible. There are third-party replacements on sites like AliExpress, but I’d be wary of trusting them. There are official Shield power supplies on eBay. but they cost £40. and I wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money just to replace a component that shouldn’t be irreplaceable.
Power supply failures aren’t rare, either. A failing supply can lead to sporadic reboots, a flickering light on the Shield itself, boot loops, and eventually an inability to turn on at all.
I know I’ve had “10 glorious years” with my Shield TV. But if it’s the power supply that eventually kills it—and there’s no straightforward way to replace it—that would be grim. The next Shield TV should use a standard power connector. or at the very least. let customers buy replacements directly from NVIDIA.
Class-leading performance needs to stay class-leading
The original Shield TV earned its reputation for a reason. NVIDIA didn’t go cheap on the hardware when it launched.
The Tegra X1 processor in the original Shield TV was built on the same architecture as NVIDIA’s desktop GPU from the year before. It was strong enough to stay useful for years, and even Nintendo used a modified version to power the Switch.
In other words: a Shield TV essentially uses the same processor as a Nintendo Switch, and it delivers twice the graphics performance of the Xbox 360.
My original model paired that processor with 3GB RAM and 16GB of storage. That storage was expandable via MicroSD or an external hard drive. The 2019 Shield TV Pro kept the same storage configuration.
I regularly play the Android ports of Knights Of The Old Republic on my Shield TV, and I want the next model to open that kind of experience wider. Memory prices are “a little crazy” at the moment, but there’s still room for NVIDIA to go above and beyond what other streaming devices offer in 2026.
The request is straightforward: 8–12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. With specs like that, a new Shield TV would feel as future-proof as the original—and it would let NVIDIA focus more seriously on Android gaming the way the original Shield TV did.
It’s also the moment to dream bigger: a partnership between Xbox and NVIDIA to bring an official Game Pass streaming app to the Shield would be a huge value add.
Google TV still feels like the wrong direction for some basics
Android TV used to be great. Then it was replaced by Google TV several years ago, and the experience—at least for me—has been getting worse.
The biggest loss to functionality was the removal of the Google Play Movies app. Google TV has a convenient way to access movies you’ve purchased via Google Play. but older Android TV devices have a convoluted workaround that doesn’t work as well. You can use the YouTube app. which has always been buggy for me when watching movies. or you can go to the shop tab and scroll to your library. It works, but it’s nowhere near as convenient as the old app or what Google TV offers.
On the Shield itself, the author says Gemini will never arrive. The Google Assistant experience has also been “practically non-functional” for over a year now.
There are other operating systems NVIDIA could choose, and the author mentions that platforms like Roku are out there—but Google TV remains their favorite TV software. The complaint isn’t just software ideology. It’s that the hardware currently running it doesn’t deliver the experience they want.
Thunderbolt ports could make it the best Plex box again
The Shield TV is often used as a home media server. and the author uses it as a Plex server—like many others. Storage is good enough for apps with its 16GB of onboard storage. and it’s easy to expand using two USB-A 3.0 ports and a MicroSD card reader.
That expandability is exactly why the 2019 Shield TV Pro feels like a step back. It dropped the MicroSD slot, limiting the options compared to older models.
If NVIDIA builds a new Shield TV, replacing those USB-A 3.0 ports with high-speed Thunderbolt ports would make it an even better media server than it already is. It would also help the Shield TV remain an easy recommendation for people setting up a Plex server for the first time.
In my case, years later, I’ve never needed to swap it out for anything else.
Where things stand now
NVIDIA hasn’t announced any plans to bring the Shield back. Given how much money NVIDIA makes from AI and how it has “abandoned gamers lately,” the author doubts a change is coming soon.
Still, there’s no hiding the affection in the argument. The Shield TV is described as one of the author’s favorite tech purchases of all time, and the plan is to keep using it “until the very last possible second.”
NVIDIA Shield TV Google TV Android TV Plex remote Tegra X1 Thunderbolt power supply HDMI streaming