The 4 Best Nvidia Shield Accessories, According To Owners

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Going against the grain can be fun, especially when it's a matter as pedestrian as how you enjoy your streaming entertainment. Devices like the Google TV Streamer and Roku Ultra are well regarded, but it's hard to beat the power and versatility of Nvidia's streaming hardware. The Nvidia Shield TV was released in 2017, and the Shield TV Pro in 2019; while both devices have received regular updates, there's no official word — but plenty of speculation — on when or if Nvidia will release new streaming devices.

Fortunately, this appears to be a case of "nothing is broken, so why bother fixing anything?" You can still buy the base Nvidia Shield TV (the tubular design) for $150 and the Shield TV Pro for $200 from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, or directly from Nvidia. As far as accessories go, there isn't much in the box, save for a remote control. Don't get too bummed, though; there's an entire world of third-party tech you'll be able to use alongside your Nvidia Shield streamer.

Part of the fun in using the higher-priced Shield TV Pro is that you can build and host a Plex server, so you may want to invest in a portable SSD or network-attached storage (the Pro only has 16GB of internal storage). You can also use both Nvidia products to play games, which may have you pining for a dedicated controller. Plenty of Shield accessories are worth learning about, and today we'll hone in on our four favorites.

You can do a lot with the remote that comes with both versions of the Nvidia Shield TV, but you can do even more with a great keyboard-mouse combo (e.g., inputting search terms, accessing deeper device menus). To that end, we recommend the $60 Logitech Pebble 2, available in black, white, or rose colorways. You can pair the combo with your Nvidia device via Bluetooth, or use the supplied Logi Bolt USB-A receiver for 2.4GHz connectivity.

Both the Pebble 2 keyboard and mouse come with the required batteries, and the former should provide up to three years of performance before you need to replace the cells (the mouse offers two years of battery life). You'll also be able to program shortcut keys with the Logi Options+ App, and you can easily switch between up to three devices. This is particularly convenient if you want to use the combo for a desktop PC and your Shield TV without manually unpairing and re-pairing devices.

Logitech has a lot of fans over on r/ShieldAndroidTV, as well as on Amazon, where it earned 4.5 out of 5 stars, based on close to 1,600 user reviews. Some reviewers weren't too pleased that Function key customization is locked behind Logitech's software. But hey, look on the bright side: at least the software is free!

The internal storage on both the Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro is better than what you'll get from most other streaming devices, but it's still not much. The Shield TV is capped at 8GB and can only be expanded with a microSD card. But if you're a Shield TV Pro owner with power user needs, the 16GB allotted by the Pro isn't much better, especially if your content library is packed with 4K movies and TV shows.

Enter the $275 Samsung T7 1TB Portable SSD, a USB 3.2 device that's perfect for hosting immense media collections. Sold in black, blue, and red colorways, the drive supports read and write speeds up to 1,050Mbps — thanks in part to its embedded PCIe NVMe technology. The model we're highlighting offers a full terabyte of storage, but the T7 is also sold in 2TB and 4TB configurations.

More than 21,000 Amazon shoppers shared feedback on the Samsung T7, earning the drive a solid 4.7-out-of-5-star rating. One user even recorded seven simultaneous video streams directly to the drive without lag or dropouts. The T7 also comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable, so you can plug it into your Shield TV Pro without issue.

One advantage of owning the Nvidia Shield TV Pro is that you can configure it to run a Plex server. I don't know about you, but being able to stream movies and TV shows from my personal library on my phone or smart TV—instead of manually loading files onto a USB flash drive—is awfully convenient. That's exactly what a Plex server allows you to do, but remember: the Shield TV Pro is limited to 16GB of storage.

We already talked about portable SSDs, but another great byte expander is a network-attached storage (NAS) device like the $365 Synology BeeStation 4TB Personal Cloud Storage Device. This is one of the only NAS hubs we were able to find that came preloaded with storage; most other NAS products are just the enclosures (you have to provide the hard drives yourself). The BeeStation can be configured in several ways, and you can share access with friends and family; the BeeStation even supports multiple user profiles. Of course, the star benefit is that you won't be limited to your Shield TV Pro's 16GB anymore.

You can store hundreds of movies and shows on the BeeStation and connect it to the Pro via USB-C or USB-A. Alternatively, you can program your Pro's Plex server for remote access to your NAS library. Our friends at PCMag gave the BeeStation two thumbs up, which made us feel a bit better that its Amazon reviews (over 270) earned the product 3.8 out of 5 stars. Setting up an NAS can be tricky, and it seems like a lot of folks had onboarding issues.

Did you know you can use both the Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro to play video games? Thanks to services like Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce NOW, your small streaming device can behave like a bigger console or gaming PC. We already talked about a wireless keyboard-mouse combo, but many users will likely prefer a game controller; thus, we tracked down the $30 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C Wireless Controller. Amazon shoppers gave this product a 4.4-out-of-5-star rating, based on over 7,300 reviews, and most feedback was at the 5-star level.

Available in multiple colors, the Ultimate 2C is compatible with Windows 10 or later and Android 9.0 or later (Shield TV devices run Android 11). Pairing the controller to your Shield via Bluetooth is straightforward, and it also includes a 2.4GHz USB-A receiver. Switching between modes is as simple as sliding a switch, and its metal joystick rings are wear-resistant. You can even program custom controls to the R4 and L4 bumpers!

The Ultimate 2C isn't without its small list of complaints; one user had issues with the controller constantly unpairing from their Windows PC, while another reported a dead controller after just a year of use (it was also his third Ultimate 2C). Unfortunately, the Ultimate 2C software also seems unintuitive.

The Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro are some of the most capable streaming devices on the market. Nvidia hasn't released new hardware in several years, which is a good sign in our book, and it's given third-party companies time to perfect how their products interface with Nvidia's devices.

We selected four Nvidia Shield TV accessories to spotlight, and each manufacturer (Logitech, Samsung, Synology, and 8Bitdo) is long-standing and reliable. We also referenced Amazon user feedback to see exactly what the owners of these accessories have thought about the products. And while we don't like picking Amazon products that scored less than 4 stars, the Synology NAS's 3.8 is a rare exception (configuring a NAS isn't the easiest thing to do).