Nvidia Shield TV vs Firestick Comparison | Which one to Choose in 2022?

The streaming devices are media players that you connect with your TV. Then, you can connect to the internet to stream various media content from different sources. The streaming devices will improve the media streaming capabilities of your TV and find out the best shows, movies, music, and other content for you. Apart from media streaming, you can enjoy all your favorite games by installing gaming apps. There are many streaming devices available at affordable prices, such as Firestick, Roku, Nvidia Shield, Google Chromecast, and many more. Among them, the most notable streaming devices are Amazon Firestick and Nvidia Shield. But there is a small uncertainty among people in choosing between Nvidia Shield TV vs Amazon Firestick. Let’s take them into comparison and pick the best one out.

What is Nvidia Shield?

Nvidia Shield is one of the android-based outstanding media streaming players with a standalone gaming system. It supports various apps and comes along with remote and improved gaming controllers. You can stream all your favorite shows in the highest possible streaming quality 4K HDR, on this device. It is one of the expensive media streamers with excellent media features and gives access to GeForce Now Games streamed from Nvidia servers.

What is Amazon Firestick?

Amazon Firestick is the home entertainment device that allows you to stream all your media content from various online sources. It is a small dongle connected to the HDMI port on your TV. It supports tons of streaming apps and games available in the Amazon App Store. It comes with an Alexa voice remote and allows you to stream all the media resolutions, includes 4K UHD, Dolby sound quality, and has many more features.

Nvidia Shield TV Vs Amazon Firestick

Price

The basic version of the Amazon Firestick costs $40, whereas the Firestick 4K costs $50. The Alexa Voice remote comes with the latest Firestick 4K device purchase, which costs $49.99. On the other hand, the Nvidia shield is much more expensive when compared to the cost of Amazon Firestick. Nvidia Shield TV costs $149, and the Nvidia Shield TV pro costs $199. The Nvidia Shield comes with 16 GB internal storage and 3 GB RAM. On the other hand, the Firestick comes with 8 GB internal storage space and 2 GB RAM. Both work on the Android Operating System.

Design

First of all, both the devices are streaming devices. Also, both the devices possess the same color that is black. When it comes to the structure of the device, the NVIDIA Shield is cylindrical in nature, and the Firestick device is rectangle in nature. But while we compare these streaming devices in terms of weight, the NVIDIA Shield device is quite heavier. The only difference is that you need a cable to connect the NVIDIA Shield device to the TV. But with the Firestick device, you can directly connect it to the USB Port of your TV.

Performance

When it comes to performance in terms of streaming, you can find popular apps like YouTube TV, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and other apps in the respective app stores like the Google Play Store for Nvidia Shield TV and Amazon App Store for Firestick. But the only thing that you can’t find on both these streaming devices is the Dolby feature.

Some additional features like Bluetooth also play a major role in the connectivity section. Both have a built-in Bluetooth version of 5.0, and with it, you can connect your speakers, headphones, and gaming controllers. But Nvidia Shield TV has more to it that you can find an ethernet port and MicroSD slot to expand your storage. In the storage department, Firestick is weak since you don’t have the option to expand the storage with its default of 8 GB.

Also, the Nvidia Shield TV goes to the top with gaming support. Once you setup the Nvidia Shield TV, you can install a number of apps, and you will also find the GeForce Now app that lets you install and play games by connecting a gaming controller. Since Nvidia Shield TV runs on the fork of Android, you can access Google Play Games as well.

Setup

To set up Nvidia Shield, it requires two USB cables, power, remote, and Internet. Nvidia Shield is connected to the HDMI port on your Television. Similarly, connect the ethernet port or WiFi network. Then select the language and enter your Nvidia Shield password or select connecting to Google option (optional) and enter your Google Account login credentials. You can access all your cloud-based saved games, recommended apps, and many more.

To set up Amazon Firestick, you must have the Firestick remote, HDMI cable, internet, and Amazon Prime account. Connect your Firestick with the TV’s HDMI port and connect it to the internet and enter your Amazon Prime Account credentials to access Firestick. If you don’t have an Amazon Prime account, you have to create it before setup. If your purchase Firestick with your Amazon Prime account, your Firestick device is pre-registered with your Amazon account.

Remote

Once you have purchased a new Nvidia SHIELD TV, the NVIDIA SHIELD Remote is automatically paired with your SHIELD TV at the factory. It features user-customizable buttons, motion-activated Voice control, Bluetooth control, and an IR blaster to control your TV. It is also built-in with a Remote locator; it helps you find the remote when it is missing. In addition to the remote, it also comes with a gaming controller to control your gameplays.

Amazon Firestick comes with the Bluetooth remote along with its purchase. The latest version of the Firestick comes with the Alexa voice remote, which you can use to control all the Firestick functions that include search, play, pause, Install apps on Firestick, and many more using your voice commands. Amazon recently launched a mobile app called Amazon Fire TV, which you can use instead of using the remote. You may install this app on your smartphone (android and iOS) and use it as a Firestick remote.

Note: You can also use the voice command to turn off Firestick.

Installing Apps

There are four different ways to install apps on to your Nvidia Shield TV. It has over 5000+ apps available from different countries all over the world. It is built-in with the Google Play Store app; you can install all the Nvidia shield-supported Google play apps, which are slightly different from mobile and web versions. Sometimes the smartphone and tablet versions of Google Play Store apps may not function properly, so you have to install the apps from the Google Play Store app Web version. The Nvidia Game Store is the official game store app provided by Nvidia designed for the Nvidia Shield devices; it contains all the gaming apps, both free and paid. If any of the Nvidia-supported apps are not available in Google Play Store or Nvidia Game Store, you can side-load them on your device.

Amazon Firestick is built-in with the Amazon App Store; it contains more than 3,00,000 apps to install. It runs on the fork of Android OS, and so most of the Google Play store apps are supported by Firestick. In addition to all the official apps, you can also access third-party apps by side-loading them onto the Firestick.

Media Support

Nvidia Shield supports all the media resolutions up to 2160p and 4K Ultra HD. In addition, it is compatible with HDR10 and supports various video and audio formats, including ASF, AVI, DivX, M2TS, MKV, MOV, MP4, MTS, WEB-M, Xvid, AAC, AAC+, AMR, FLAC, MP3, OGG Vorbis, PCM and many more. It also supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS, DTS HD, and DTS-X, which turns your TV into an entertainment powerhouse. The Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos deliver ultra-vivid picture quality and deliver a breakthrough sound with crystal clear visuals.

Amazon Firestick is an effective streaming device with which you can stream your media files in various resolutions, including 480p, 720p, and 1080p. Unfortunately, the maximum video resolution supported by Firestick is 1080p. To resolve this difficulty, Amazon introduced the latest version of Firestick 4K. It supports all the HD resolutions up to 2160p and 4K UHD. It also supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus. The supported image formats include BMP, GIF, JPEG, and PNG. Also, you can update Firestick to get additional features.

Gaming

Nvidia Shield TV was first designed as a gaming console and later updated to a streaming device. It brings more games to your big screen, and you can find all your favorite games on the Google Play Store and Nvidia Game Store. It is also provided with GeForce Now, which is a cloud-based game streaming service. It supports both online and offline games to play with your friends. You can instantly transform your Nvidia Shield TV into a GeForce-powered PC gaming rig. With hundreds of supported titles and features like cloud saves, and cross-play on laptops and desktops, you can pick up a game from wherever you left off; it makes Nvidia Shield a perfect gaming gadget.

Amazon Firestick supports several gaming apps, as it also functions as a gaming console to play games but not to the level that Nvidia Shield provides. Most of the Android games are available on Amazon App Store. It allows you to use many wireless Bluetooth gaming controllers to play your game. Unfortunately, the wired controllers do not work well on Amazon Firestick.

Here Nvidia Shield clearly wins the game Nvidia Shield TV Vs Firestick.

To Conclude

Both Nvidia Shield and Amazon Firestick are cost-effective streaming devices with specialized features and specifications. Both the devices use the custom version of the Android operating system and also support several VPN services to protect your activities from theft or outside access. The Nvidia Shield is faster and allows you to access more apps without the hassle of side-loading apps. At the same time, Firestick also supports tons of apps. But it is less when compared to Nvidia Shield. If you are a gaming lover and wish to stream media go for Nvidia Shield. Else if you are more concerned with steaming movies and videos alone, go for the low-cost Firestick device.

FAQ