Yesterday Apple launched its much awaited new Apple TV, it’s a significant improved over the previous set-top box from the company. “The future of TV is apps,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the presentation, finally acknowledging that Apple is catching up to other players in the set-top box market that have had app-based TV operating systems for a while now. The new Apple TV might have impressed the company’s fans but fails to charm NVIDIA’s socks off.
NVIDIA has published a blog post detailing how its existing smart TV solution, the Shield Android TV, is significantly better than the new Apple TV. The company says it provides 3x more performance as well as more features and more games, don’t forget the fact that it’s the only such device out there that’s capable of streaming content in 4K.
It has published a handy comparison table which ranks the Shield against rivals like the new Apple TV, Nexus Player, Amazon Fire TV and the Roku 3. At least on paper the NVIDIA Shield has better performance, more memory, greater number of features as well as support for USB 3.0.
NVIDIA knows a thing or two about gaming so it goes without saying that the Shield is a bonafide gaming machine, it lets users stream games from the GRID cloud gaming service allowing them to play high-end PC games straight on their TVs, plus it works with a console-class Shield controller that’s much better at gaming than the motion-sensing remote of the new Apple TV.
It really comes down to the ecosystem and software though, people who already rely upon a lot of Apple services will likely opt for the new Apple TV because it will slot right into the ecosystem, and perhaps that’s what Apple is counting on in the first place.
Filed in . Read more about Apple TV, NVIDIA and SHIELD Android TV.