Confused about the use case for this unit - why this over smart tv or other android boxes? Pretty big price diff so obv there's something I'm not seeing but you guys are?
Uhh.... Netflix 4K? Amazon 4K?
Other boxes don't license the decoder tech and can therefore only display Netflix/etc in SD. Even if you buy the Beelink GS-King X at $270, you will still only get netflix in SD. That's pretty crap if you ask me.
Emulation. No more to explain there... great box if you wanna do that.
Sheer Speed, GUI and experience, and maybe cause it will get support for 5+ years? Old nVidia shields are still getting updates to this day....and good updates, not the ones that make the system slow that try to get you to upgrade.
If you buy some chinese knockoff player, the software support goes out the window the minute it leaves the factory.
Apparently it's also the only device that can handle a 4K stream with 0 framedrops, according to some popular youtuber that tests all these players.
What about super accurate voice search, or nvidia's 4K AI Upscaling? Their remote is amazing with it's CEC, it just works - switches on the TV and Receiver when you switch on the Shield. it can even beep if you lose the remote, and it has a gyro/motion sensor in it, so when you move it the buttons light up.
Now, maybe you can get a Amazon Firestick or something that DOES do Netflix 1080p or 4K... okay, cool... but now you're stuck with a dead end OS that sucks, with either only a 100mb LAN port, or even none - that means no SteamLink to play games on!
Lastly, what I personally like best is the onboard x265 HEVC Decoder Chip.
Comparison Chart:
docs.google.com
Basically, if you want the best, there is nothing better. Sure it's $200, but damn it's worth it, will last for many years.