These are the best alternatives to the NVIDIA Shield TV
The NVIDIA Shield TV is hands down the best Android TV set-top box you can buy, offering a great mix of features for cord cutters and gamers alike. But all that greatness comes at a fairly high price. If you're looking to save some money on your next streaming box, we've rounded up our picks for the best alternatives to the NVIDIA Shield TV.
A streamlined Android TV experienceXiaomi Mi Box
The Xiaomi Mi Box is the best option for those wanting the full Android TV experience at a lower price point. Featuring modest specs and capability with 4K TVs, this is an affordable option for anyone looking to stream content from the most popular services - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube and so on.
Streaming channels aplentyRoku Ultra
The latest streaming box from Roku supports HD and 4K UHD content with a remote that includes smart features like a headphone jack, voice search, and a built-in speaker for the times when it gets lost in a couch cushion. There's support for all the expected streaming services, local news programming, and hundreds of private channels streaming content of all varieties.
Alexa, play my favorite showsAmazon Fire TV Cube
The Fire TV Cube is a great choice for anyone who's heavily invested in the Alexa ecosystem. The latest streaming solution from Amazon supports 4K Ultra HD streaming and includes everything you love about Alexa baked right in. It also supports cable and satellite voice controls.
No remote? No problem!Google Chromecast Ultra
The Google Chromecast Ultra is certainly not a fully-fledged streaming box like the other options on this list, but it works really well and is something you can control with just your phone. No remote here, just an HDMI dongle that connects at the back of your TV and lets you cast apps from your phone to your TV. The Ultra edition also supports 4K streaming where available.
We'd still recommend the NVIDIA Shield TV as the absolute best option for Android TV streaming (with all the gaming goodness thrown in as a cool bonus), but if you're looking to save some coin while still getting a similar user interface and access to the Google Play Store, we'd recommend the Xiaomi Mi Box ($71) as an affordable option. Of course, the Roku or Fire TV Cube are also full-featured options, too, so you really can't go wrong with any of the options on this list.