Product gallery - Remote

Remote control

None of the two new models are bundled with a controller, a remote only. It's interesting and a price reduction thing, but with NVIDIA promoting Geforce NOW pretty hefty lately, perhaps some gaming SKU would have been a good idea with an included controller. That said, in the year 2020 content streaming is a very hip thing, and that is what the Shield is focussed on primarily with wide support for Youtube, Netflix, Prime, Disney+, GeForce now ... but not Apple TV (yeah really, I looked and did not find but the same goes for anything Android TV-based). A new remote is included. Honestly, I like the old ones, simple and easy to use. The first generation was even rechargeable over USB, I loved that. The later models were powered by a battery, the new 2019 model, however, has been completely revamped. 

The new ones feature more buttons controlling power, volume, and rewind / fast forward. It holds a small MIC for voice search (the Google assistant is fully compatible), home, and back buttons are still present, and at the bottom is a dedicated shortcut button for Netflix, and yes Netflix is the one exclusive button. It's IR and BT compatible, so if you hide your Shield unit, don't worry it will communicate just fine. In fact, the remote (much like the previous models) even update themselves OTA over that Bluetooth connection. 

New is a button that you can customize to open any app located on the top right side of the remote. Very handy as you can browse through active applications, it defaults to settings and preferences though, very handy if you quickly would like to alter say that AI enhancing feature. Especially with media streaming like Plex and Kodi this will become very handy. Small note, the buttons are backlit and activate themselves when motion is detected. The remote is powered by two AAA batteries and as mentioned has Bluetooth (for communicating with the Shield) and IR (for controlling your TV and soundbar).

No buttons or anything, the remote and/or HDMI-CEC compatible devices control it all.  

Ethernet wise you can use 100/1000 Mbit LAN or the unit's wireless 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi also compatible with 802.11g/n WiFi and then Bluetooth for headsets, other optional game controllers, etc. I did hope for something WIFI6 /AX, but that is not the case.