Alongside the new version of the Nvidia Shield TV, an Android Nougat-powered media streamer, the company will be launching the Nvidia Spot.

Our quick take

Nvidia Spot p

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It's a tiny sphere that you plug into an available power socket which works with the Shield TV box and basically allows you to use Google Assistant away from the main device.

That means you can simply plug one in a bedroom socket and use voice commands to find out the weather, managed your schedule and just about do anything a Google Home can do. And through the connected Nvidia Shield TV on the same home network, you can also control your IFTTT and SmartThings smart home appliances and devices using speech.

It is essentially Nvidia's answer to an Amazon Echo Dot and is similarly priced: at $49 (around £40).

You can have multiple Nvidia Spots around your home, and even placing one in the same room as the Shield TV could be a good idea. That's because the media box's voice control is performed through the included game controller and you might not want to leave one of those lying around in view.

The Spot on the other hand is tiny and easy to tuck away thanks to not requiring an external power supply. It has a simple green glowing light on the outside, but is otherwise inconspicuous.

We're yet to test its range for voice, and we're not yet sure of availability - it's coming after the Shield TV, which is out from 16 January - but we're definitely looking forward to giving it a whirl.