After what seems to be a slow year in the Android world, things are finally starting to happen. For so long, the only real option for those wanting to test the platform was the Nexus Player. Although, this device was a great introductory option, its features and abilities are limited and do not highlight what the platform as a whole can really do or achieve. For awhile now, some of the big names in both the gaming and TV industries had announced they were planning to release a number of products. However, the arrival of these products was quite slow. More recently, that has begun to change. Not long ago, standalone options from Razer in the form of the Razer Forge TV and inbuilt options from Sony did finally become available and adding to the availability and variance of Android TV. However, this week has now seen a couple more introductions which bring the selection of Android TV up to new heights.
The first new additions for this week came from Sharp, who announced the release of a few of their 4K capable TV sets which come with built-in Android TV. As such, Sharp are now joining Sony in having released an Android TV television and so begins the choice for consumers looking for a built-in option. Likewise, the standalone Android TV market also saw a new introduction this week, which came from NVIDIA. This was of course, the highly reported on Pro version of the NVIDIA SHIELD. Now, the arrival of the SHIELD Pro was not exactly new information, as after much speculation, NVIDIA did announce the launch of the NVIDIA SHIELD Pro at the end of last month. However, since then and since the release of the standard NVIDIA SHIELD, the Pro version has firmly remained on pre-order. That is what changed this morning when the device officially became available and is now shipping. This sees the NVIDIA SHIELD Pro join the ranks of the NVIDIA SHIELD, Razer Forge TV and the Nexus Player in the standalone market.
As a result, this week really was a great week for Android TV. The introduction of the Sharp TV sets, see the inclusion of some excellent 4K capable units becoming available while the introduction of the NVIDIA SHIELD Pro sees the benchmark for internal storage bring significant shifted. As the SHIELD Pro comes with a massive 500GB of internal storage, this should be enough to keep those who find the low 8GB of the Nexus Player or even the 16GB of the NVIDIA SHIELD or Razer Forge TV, happy.
Sharp 60-Inch Aquos 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV – $1,699.99
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Sharp 70-Inch Aquos 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV – $2,299.99