The 4 Best Nvidia Shield Accessories, According to Owners

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Going against the grain can be fun, especially when it comes to something as mundane as how you enjoy your streaming entertainment. Devices like 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; Although both devices have received regular updates, there is no official word – but plenty of speculation – on when or if Nvidia will launch new streaming devices.

Fortunately, this seems to be a case of “nothing’s 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 for accessories, there isn’t much in the box other than a remote control. Don’t be too disappointed, though; There’s a whole world of third-party technology you can use with your Nvidia Shield streamer.

Part of the fun of using the more expensive Shield TV Pro is that you can create 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 make you want a dedicated controller. There are plenty of Shield accessories worth checking out, and today we’re going to focus 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. enter search terms, access deeper menus of the device). To that end, we recommend the $60 Logitech Pebble 2, available in black, white, or pink colorways. You can pair the combo with your Nvidia device via Bluetooth or use the included 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 offer up to three years of performance before needing to replace the cells (the mouse offers two years of battery life). You’ll also be able to program hotkeys with the Logi Options+ app and you can easily switch between up to three devices. This is especially handy if you want to use the combo for a desktop computer. And your Shield TV without manually unpairing and re-pairing devices.

Logitech has many fans at r/ShieldAndroidTV, as well as on Amazon, where it has a 4.5 out of 5 stars, based on nearly 1,600 user reviews. Some reviewers weren’t too happy with the fact that function key customization was locked behind Logitech’s software. But hey, look on the bright side: at least the software is free!

The internal storage of 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 limited to 8GB and can only be expanded with a microSD card. But if you’re a Shield TV Pro owner and have power user needs, the 16GB allotted by the Pro isn’t much better, especially if your content library is full of 4K movies and TV shows.

Enter the $275 Samsung T7 1TB Portable SSD, a USB 3.2 device perfect for hosting huge media collections. Sold in black, blue, and red colorways, the drive supports read and write speeds of up to 1,050 Mbps, thanks in part to its integrated 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.

Over 21,000 Amazon buyers have shared their feedback on the Samsung T7, earning it a solid 4.7 out of 5 stars. One user even recorded seven simultaneous video streams directly to the player, without lag or interruption. 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 of the benefits 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 to my phone or smart TV, instead of manually loading files onto a USB drive, is extremely convenient. That’s exactly what a Plex server lets you do, but remember: the Shield TV Pro is limited to 16GB of storage.

We’ve 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 could find that comes preloaded with storage; Most other NAS products are just enclosures (you have to supply 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 main advantage is that you will no longer be limited to the 16 GB of your Shield TV Pro.

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 a thumbs up, which made us feel a little better because its Amazon reviews (over 270) gave the product 3.8 stars out of 5. Setting up a NAS can be tricky, and it seems many people have had integration issues.

Did you know that 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 act like a larger console or gaming PC. We’ve already talked about a wireless keyboard-mouse combo, but many users will probably prefer a gamepad; thus, we found the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C wireless controller at $30. Amazon shoppers rated this product 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on over 7,300 reviews, and most reviews were 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 simple, and it also includes a 2.4GHz USB-A receiver. Switching between modes is as easy as sliding a switch, and its metal joystick rings are wear-resistant. You can even program custom commands on the R4 and L4 bumpers!

The Ultimate 2C is not without its small list of complaints; one user had issues with the controller constantly disassociating from their Windows PC, while another reported a dead controller after just a year of use (this was also their 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 opinion, and it gives third-party companies time to perfect how their products interface with Nvidia devices.

We’ve selected four Nvidia Shield TV accessories to highlight, and each manufacturer (Logitech, Samsung, Synology, and 8Bitdo) is reliable and long-standing. We also checked out Amazon user reviews to see exactly what owners of these accessories thought of the products. And while we don’t like to choose Amazon products with less than 4 stars, the Synology NAS’s 3.8 is a rare exception (setting up a NAS isn’t the easiest thing to do).