NVIDIA SHIELD TV may be back with a (slightly) new version

NVIDIA puts its name to very few complete devices, and the SHIELD TV box is one of the very few exceptions. Its gamer-y esthetics, decent processor and general panel of functions won it acclaim when it launched. However, that may not have been enough for the GPU giant, as it has not released anything like a successor for the device since 2017.

Then again, it may be that the SHIELD TV is finally seeing a personal renaissance. XDA contributors claim to have found references to a new version of this machine on the Google Play Developer Console’s Device Catalog. However, they also concede that this evidence is not that much to get excited about. The device in question has the codename mdarcy, which is too close to the 2017 box's own code (darcy) for comfort.

The listing also indicates that this device runs on an SoC called the NVIDIA Tegra X1 T210. This has led to speculation that the processor is the fabled t210b01, which is essentially the X1 but with increased flexibility in its GPU overclockability. Then again, the 'new SHIELD TV' also runs on the Linux kernel 4.14 and is also certfied to use Android 9.0 (Pie).

The latest software update for the existing device allows it to use 120-hertz refresh rates, among other fortuitious attributes. However, it is also still based on Android Oreo (8.x). Therefore, should this new leak prove true, it would be a little cynical of NVIDIA to market a whole new version of the same TV box just on the ticket of the existing model's inability to run more up-to-date OSs on stock.