New Nvidia Shield TV running Android 9 Pie pops up in Play Console device catalog

A new variant of the Nvidia Shield has popped up on the Google Play Developer console. The new hardware goes by the hardware codename “mdarcy,” in contrast to the current model’s “darcy,” and it will run Android 9 Pie.

Left: Current “darcy” Developer Console listing. Right: New “mdarcy” listing. Click to zoom. 

There are a few differences between the two hardware listings, but chief among them is support for the Android 9 SDK on the new version, which would indicate it will be launching with Android 9 Pie. The new “mdarcy” listing has the same Tegra X1 T210 SoC listed as the current Shield TV, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the hardware is unchanged. This could just be a placeholder, and an updated t210b01 Tegra SoC has been spotted in connection with it, though it could also go by the same X1/T210 product name.

Difference in features between mdarcy (red) and darcy (green), white is shared. 

There’s a hotword system feature associated with the darcy hardware that…