So I got a Shield Pro, just like I threatened I would. $300USD from Amazon, plus shipping. When you consider that you're getting a top-of-the line device for that price, it's pretty good. So these are my first impressions.
The box itself is a pretty neat package:
So, I'll get the annoying things out of the way first.
- The controller is... not great. It somehow manages to be chunkier than an 'bone pad, and at the same time, utterly cramped and uncomfortable to use. It's weirdly comfortable to just hold though, so maybe it's a chick. The triggers are firm, but not in a pleasant way. The buttons are too close together and feel cheap. This may all change after some use, but at the moment everything feels too firm to be usable.
- The included USB cable is laughably short at about 1.5m. Compare this to the bone's 3m one, and you start to wonder if nVidia have any idea.
- The power adapter uses a proprietary (reversible) connector, and outputs a non-standard voltage. Kind of annoying when it shipped with a USA plugpack, so I had to pick up a travel adapter. Thankfully my local EB Games had one, because the local Coles didn't. Perhaps they don't expect Tasmanians to know about the outside world or something.
- When there is some kind of internet connectivity issue, Android TV falls over. It's an ugly, ugly mess of unintuitive behaviour. Basically, Google Play refuses to load, and gives no error message. It's fun to try to diagnose.
- nVidia have apparently not seen fit to enable ADB-over-Network for this thing. Kind of annoying when you want to sideload stuff.
- The user manual is awful. It's a fold-out diagram of what goes where, and that's it. There's another manual included, but the most useful thing in it was the instruction to not fart near the machine. That could be a problem for me.
- Navigating the store is a PITA.
- The machine itself is a decent weight. I was concerned that it'd be too light to actually be able to sit anywhere, but no. It's surprisingly heavy, and the base is rubberised so it stays put. The design is far better in person than I was expecting, too.
- The setup experience was surprisingly painless. It gives you a PIN, so you just have to visit a link in your phone or PC web browser and enter it. None of this faffing about with the controller or remote to enter usernames and passwords. Unless you want to.
- You can get around the annoying Play Store by installing apps directly from your PC web browser through the we-based Play Store.
- I haven't played much with this one yet, but it's an emulation powerhouse. It's nice to have all those old games on the big screen again.
- It comes with Plex, which works quite well. It's actually one of the biggest reasons I got the machine.
- My cats love the box it came in.
or 
as a media device alone?
). Potentially a fucking cool handheld emu station; android truly makes things easy on that front. With a beefier handset it would be really good; I tried on a friends S5 and it was much better. But once it started looking like I'd have to spend more I thought about it and its better saved for the ricketty mame arcade machine I have been working on which has been in a semi completed state for far longer than I'd like to admit. Shared housing and several moves have hindered its progress along the way. Its playable and looks like an arcade machine but without more work its quite clear it was conjured up by some hair brained fool.
