Nvidia makes the best Android TV-based media streaming devices, hands down. The first version of the Shield TV was launched in early 2015, and then it received a spec bump in 2017 in the form of a more powerful Tegra X1 processor but dropped the microSD card slot and the IR receiver. Now, the company seems ready to launch a newer version of the Shield TV in not one but two variants, if recent reports are anything to go by. We managed to find a recent Bluetooth SIG certification listing that mentions an upcoming Shield TV, and we think that the media streaming device is very close to its launch.
Nvidia Shield TV 2019 Receives Bluetooth SIG Certification
The listing mentions NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Game Console, so we know for sure that Nvidia will continue using Google’s Android TV platform for its next media streaming player as well. Plus, it will continue using the SHIELD TV branding, similar to its previous generation devices. The company received the certification from Bluetooth SIG earlier today and the documentation reveals the model number of the device to be P3430, something that was also mentioned in the FCC filing of Nvidia’s upcoming gaming console. The 2017 version of the Shield TV carried the model number P2897.
Also, the upcoming Shield TV will feature Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, as mentioned in the certification document that you can see below. As per a report from XDA Developers, Nvidia could launch two Android TV devices with codenames ‘mdarcy‘ and ‘sif‘. The 2015 and 2017 versions of Nvidia’s Shield TV devices were codenamed ‘foster‘ and ‘darcy‘, respectively. Sif (P3425) is expected to feature an SD card slot, but there might not be a USB port or a TV tuner. Both upcoming devices are expected to be powered by the Nvidia Tegra X1 t210b01 processor that’s also found on the recently released Nintendo Switch Lite portable gaming console.
We expect them to be released with Android 10-based version of Android TV and have support for 4K 60fps HDR video playback. Other new features like support for Wi-Fi 6, USB Type-C port, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos audio, and far-field microphones for always-on “Okay, Google” detection would be the icing on the cake.
