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Apple TV 4K (4th gen) review: Still great, but drastically more expensive
The Apple TV 4K has been our pick for the best premium streaming device since the third-gen model arrived in 2022. In terms of pure performance, it was undoubtedly the best you could buy, thanks to the combination of picture quality, speed and features you wouldn't find on any of the more affordable competition. That was true four years ago and it's still true now.
Unfortunately, the global tech landscape has changed massively over the last two years. Nearly every device is more expensive, especially if it needs RAM or its own processor. Apple's streaming box didn't escape that fate. For the 4th-generation Apple TV 4K, Apple made big upgrades to performance and added a slew of new features, and of course, it carved out a more prominent place for Siri AI in your living room. The compact streaming box is a lot more expensive than the previous generation cost at launch, though, and the new $299 price tag certainly dulls its shine.
If you were hoping for a new design, there are only subtle tweaks to report. The most evident is that Apple moved the light on the front of the box from the right to the center. If you dive into the spec sheets, you'll discover the new model is slightly larger than the previous version. I'm talking 0.24mm bigger in width and depth, and 3 grams heavier. You'll be forgiven for not noticing. The Siri Remote, however, is exactly the same size at 1.4 inches x 5.4 inches x 0.36 inches.
Apple upgraded the processor from the A15 Bionic to the A19 chip. In iPhone terms, that would be like going from an iPhone 13 to an iPhone 17, so the computing power increase here is significant. The company says that the A19 chip is capable of 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 2x faster GPU performance than the previous Apple TV 4K. I don't have the tools to quantifiably check those claims, but I can tell you the device is super responsive, navigation is speedy and overall the UI is noticeably more fluid. Plus, the A19 delivers a dedicated AV1 decoder for HDR rendering efficiency.
Of course, the A19 offers a boost to Siri AI, which is playing a bigger role in the living room thanks to the new Apple TV 4K. For starters, the streaming box now has three far-field microphones built in, so you no longer have to use the remote to interact with the assistant. You can simply speak your queries while watching TV and Siri is off and running. Like before, Apple's AI can help with finding and playing live TV, movies, shows and sports from your go-to apps. But with Siri's recently expanded capabilities, it can now pull in personal context from Messages and other apps too. So when you want Siri to "play the show Jack texted me about," the assistant knows just what to do. Additionally, audio captured from the far-field mics is processed within the Secure Exclave on the A19, so neither the apps, the OS nor Apple get access to any of the data.
The new feature that will get the most use at my house is Precision Finding for the remote in the Find My app. I have two kids who are constantly leaving the remote in undisclosed locations, so the added ability to play a sound has already greatly reduced the amount of time I spend searching for it. And when I can't hear it, Precision Finding is better than the previous method for locating the remote with an iPhone. With the built-in mics for Siri though, a lost remote is much less frustrating since you can just tell the Apple TV 4K what to do.
There's also a noteworthy audio upgrade on the Apple TV 4K. Before, you could only use two HomePod or HomePod mini speakers as a stereo pair. Now you can use up to four of those, so long as they're second-gen HomePods or HomePod mini 2s, for a more complete home theater surround sound system. The only additional requirement is that the two front speakers and two rear speakers have to match. So you can have two HomePods in the front and two HomePod mini 2s in the back, which is the configuration I tested. If you have four of the same speaker, that w