To give an update, I did end up getting a Shield because I really want enough horsepower to have a proper, smooth experience. I got the non-pro version and saved a little bit with that, since I mainly just need it for streaming media from a NAS.

So far it’s been good, though I did also find out that some of the stuttering was probably caused by having subtitles on and using the LibVLC player instead of exoplayer (or automatic selection that was apparently choosing it?). I still had stutter on the Shield when using LibVLC in combination with subtitles, though I think it might have been less pronounced. As soon as I either disabled subtitles or changed to exoplayer, the stutter was gone. It’s still a little early to say for sure, though. The general UX and lack of UI navigation lag has been great.

I will also say that I feel like the image is just… different. I think the contrast is bigger and blacks are darker, despite making sure I’m on the same picture mode (from TV settings). I can’t really say that it’s better, just different. Might just be in my head too, honestly. I should compare the two at some point…

I might come back again even later to do another report. :)