The $60 Onn 4K Pro does all the things I kept my Nvidia Shield around for

Published Aug 31, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT Based in rural Minnesota, Brian Burgess worked in IT for 10 years before finding his passion for writing about consumer technology. Brian earned his degree in computer and network technology in 2000. He held various IT positions, including help desk support, router installations for IBM, database administration, and other associate network administration roles. He's been a personal technology journalist for 18 years and has written thousands of articles about Microsoft products and services, Android, iOS, streaming, and more. He has written for notable tech sites including XDA, InformationWeek, How-To Geek, Byte, groovyPost, and others. When he is away from the keyboard, you will hear him playing guitar, working outdoors, and watching Star Trek. When streaming devices became commonplace, Nvidia led the space, launching the Shield Pro in 2019. The company made the set-top box very "future-proof" by packing it with powerful hardware that lets it run as a Plex server, plus plenty of ports, great picture quality, continuous updates, and the customizability of Android TV. Since Google hasn't launched a quality Google/Android TV box (the Google TV Streamer is buggy), I've been hanging on to my Shield TV Pro. However, I've been blown away by the capabilities of the $60 Onn 4K Pro, and it can do most of what I've kept my Shield TV Pro around for. A powerful $60 Android TV box It's better than Google's own device I needed an extra Android TV box for a second room and picked up the 2026 Onn 4K Pro Android TV budget box mainly out of curiosity. However, I quickly discovered it's a powerful box and beats the Google TV Streamer in performance and responsiveness. Based on the specs, I figured the Onn 4K Pro would perform slower than the Streamer. However, I've found it beats Google's box in every way. Both boxes feature a quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU, but Onn uses Amlogic's S905X5M SoC rated up to 2.5GHz versus the Google TV Streamer's MediaTek MT8696, rated up to 2.0GHz. Since Google's hardware is older, it faces more bottlenecks. Despite a handful of software updates, the aging hardware causes glitches and screen lag on the Streamer. A chipset optimized for a TV box results in glaring performance differences in UI responsiveness and app load speed. Of course, neither compares to Nvidia's Shield Pro with the Tegra X1+ and 256-core dedicated GPU, which is in a different performance class altogether. Both the Streamer and Onn feature mid-range hardware. Still, for a $60 budget Android TV box, it's an impressive powerhouse. I even recently retired my new Fire TV Stick in favor of the Onn 4K Pro. I've never maxed out the full potential of the Shield TV Pro's hardware. I'm moving from Plex and rarely do any real gaming. I have mainly kept the Shield around because it's a powerful box and a great Plex server. However, since the 2026 Onn 4K Pro can handle 4K streaming, Jellyfin clients, reading local media, and the flexibility of Android TV, it has pretty much everything I need from an Android TV box. Onn 4K Pro Streaming Device $60 $60 Save $0 A USB port makes a big difference A single overlooked value I had no idea how much I still needed a USB Type-A port on my Android TV box until I tried the Google TV Streamer. I've been spoiled by having two USB ports on the Shield for connecting external drives and other peripherals. I'm also used to having USB ports in my smart TVs, so I tend to expect the legacy port to be built in. When I got the Streamer, I didn't check whether it had one, and unfortunately it didn't. It would be great if the Onn had two USB 3.0 ports like the Shield TV Pro, but it's a budget box with a single USB port. I get by with a powered four-port USB hub, and Android TV sees each port. I have one 250GB enclosed SSD full of media that I keep plugged in and swap out other drives and devices on the fly. I can use a USB-C hub with power pass-through with the Google TV Streamer, but it's still an unexpected obstacle. Hub or not, being able to plug in a flash drive filled with photos or other media files is a big convenience. Like the Shield TV Pro, the simple USB port lets me swap out my drives without thinking. Or, if I need to do some light work on the box, I can attach a Bluetooth receiver and type from the comfort of my couch. I never expected a common but overlooked port to make such a difference. Where the Onn 4K Pro falls short True server and gaming support Again, since the Shield TV Pro really is in a different class of TV box and includes a built-in Plex server, it's difficult to put the two boxes head-to-head. The Shield TV Pro's hardware power makes it a more capable and responsive Android TV box than Onn's budget variety. It also includes cloud gaming capability, a Plex server, and two USB 3.0 ports. The Onn can't function as a self-hosted media server or gaming device and includes a single USB 2.0 port. There is a bit of a workaround on the server side, but don't expect the Onn 4K Pro to act as a true self-hosted media server like the Shield Pro or a dedicated Plex or Jellyfin system. I tried to turn the 4K Pro into a media server using Kodi and external drives. However, because of a known Android+Kodi storage bug that hasn't been addressed, the furthest I got was turning it into a locally hosted media file server. The Onn can broadcast what's on connected USB drives, and clients like VLC can access and play media files over a network using Kodi's UPnP/DLNA sharing feature. However, it isn't a true media experience you'd expect from a dedicated server or NAS running self-hosted software like Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby. Still, some people want to simplify and avoid spending time and money on an additional dedicated server. A built-in Plex server inside their set-top box and a connected USB drive is all they need. The flexibility of managing media, libraries, and artwork from the couch is an added selling point. It's easy to attach a large drive full of movies and shows, serve the content to other Plex clients, and manage it with the remote. A capable budget Android TV box I've kept my Shield Pro around because it works, and I still like that the small box is a server. However, it's overkill for what I need these days. That's especially true since I have dedicated servers running Jellyfin and no longer game. These days, I need a responsive Android/Google TV streaming box with a USB port. The Onn 4K Pro gets it right, and the price can't be beat.