The Shield has 16GB.

Mainly due to cost constraints. Not all eMMC storage is equal in performance. Same goes for RAM.

Reliable fast, high quality eMMC storage costs more then generic cheap stuff sourced from the bargain bin in Shenzhen China.

I’m talking hardware from the Brand name Major players like Amazon, Xiaomi, Nvidia, Apple, Roku etc. Units Numbers mass produced in the Millions.

You do not need Hugh storage or RAM capacities for streaming Up to 4K video.

I asked myself the same question when I unboxed a 2k Sony TV.. made me miss my Nvidia Shield

Not all of them, the only underrated and hated Android TV devices I've seen in this subreddit have 16, 32 and 64 gigabyte variants...

I also assume it's because you can add a thumbdrive or a hard disk and format it as "internal storage"...

Adoptive Storage works fine for me on Android TV.

My major question is why only 2gb RAM?

And yet all the official Google Android TV boxes only have 2GB.

If you look at the specifications most modern Android TVs (2019/2020 models) actually have 16GB of internal storage.

True.. you don't need them for streaming.. but for games you do need more than 8gb

1st guess... If it has more storage it could disrupt PlayStation, Xbox market share..

I sell android TV boxes with 8, 16, 32 and 64 GB.

They also come with 1, 2 or 4 GB of RAM.

Right now I'm selling 2/16 devices and 4/32 devices. Not an 8 GB device in sight.

I can go into details of the limits of the different Rockchip and AmLogic processors, but there's no need to bore you.