When comparing Nexus Player vs Nvidia Shield Portable, the Slant community recommends Nvidia Shield Portable for most people. In the question“What are the best Android gaming devices that have proprietary game controllers?” Nvidia Shield Portable is ranked 5th while Nexus Player is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Nvidia Shield Portable is:
Console mode allows the user to use a USB cable in order to output 1080p video to a TV or monitor, making for an easy way to play ones games on a larger screen just as they would with a console.
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Pros
Pro Straightforward UI
The UI is similar to the of XBox and Fire TV. The homescreen consists of four rows - things you've watched, apps you've installed, games you've installed and settings.
Pro Built-in voice search
You can use the remote to search for movies based on a range of criteria such as release date, actors, genre, etc.
Pro Can be turned into a stationary console with 1080p
Console mode allows the user to use a USB cable in order to output 1080p video to a TV or monitor, making for an easy way to play ones games on a larger screen just as they would with a console.
Pro Has a 5-hour battery life
With the size of the device a large capacity battery is able to be used internally which will give up to 5 hours of playtime with even the most demanding of games.
Pro Very good speakers for a portable device
Louder than a 3DS or Vita handheld the speakers in the Nvidia Shield makes for a pleasant listening experience that does not require any strain the hear what is going on.
Pro Can wirelessly stream to a Chromecast
Since the OS 5.1 update the device can stream to any Chromecast compliant device making for an easy way to stream ones games or other content to a bigger screen.
Pro Huge selection of games to choose from
Since this is an Android device the selection of games is quite large.
Cons
Con No ethernet port
The Nexus player is WiFi only, making for an odd choice for a streaming box as much content could use the extra bandwidth an Ethernet port would offer in order to buffer faster when playing videos..
Con Voice search looks only through google's services
Voice search won't look through, for example, Hulu or Netflix.
Con A relatively small subset of Android games available are optimized for controller use
Out of the majority of games available for Android most only have touch controls. There are a few that utilize HID controls and even fewer that utilize the nVidia controller. This makes for a very limited selection of native games to play on the device.
Con Navigating is cumbersome
Users can use the dual analog sticks to maneuver around the OS but sadly t is time consuming and not as accurate as touch controls. Users can of course use touch controls but now holding the device is difficult due to how it was designed to be held, with two hands.
Con Somewhat large and heavy for a portable device
At 1.5 pounds the device is quite heavy, which cuts down on the portability. What is worse is the size though as it is quite bulky and will not be fitting inside of anyone's pockets. Taking both of these into consideration reveals that this is not that portable of a device.