Apple TV 4K (2026) review

It’s hard to imagine a humble video streamer being controversial, yet that’s just what the new Apple TV 4K is.

The root of that controversy is the immense popularity of its predecessor. People love the previous Apple TV 4K for its excellent usability, comprehensive (and thoroughly optimised) app offering and superior AV performance. And while many owners have struggled to identify what they would actually want from a successor, the clamour for a next-generation model has been pretty intense.

That successor has taken four years to arrive, and it looks identical to the previous model, with a familiar operating system and broadly the same overall experience. Oh, and a massive price hike.

Needless to say, the response has been less than positive, and many existing owners haven't been swayed by promises of more power and Siri AI integration.

That's fair enough, certainly. Given the price rise, the on-paper case for upgrading from the previous Apple TV 4K is shaky if picture and sound quality are your only priorities.

But, subtle though they are, there are improvements to both picture and sound quality, and that makes the new Apple TV 4K the best video streamer you can currently buy. There are some genuine usability enhancements, and an intriguing wireless home cinema option, to consider, too.

First, though…

Price

The new Apple TV 4K has been given a price tag of £299 / $299 / AU$449. That’s an increase of £100 / $100 / AU$150 over the entry-level version of the previous model when it was discontinued.

But the previous model had itself recently gone up in price. At launch, it cost just £149 / $129 / AU$219 for the 64GB model, and £169 / $149 / AU$249 for the 128GB version.

All of which means the new Apple TV 4K costs roughly twice as much as its predecessor did at launch. Admittedly, the new model comes with 128GB of storage as standard, but that does little to soften the blow.

There aren't many direct rivals. The Google TV Streamer and Amazon Fire TV Cube are both roughly half the price of the new Apple TV 4K, but both disappoint in terms of AV performance, particularly the Amazon device.

The new Apple TV 4K’s real task, then, is to surpass its predecessor, which remained the best product of its type until Apple put it out to pasture – and to put cheaper streaming sticks to shame.

Design

You’ll need a keen eye to spot any design differences between the new Apple TV 4K and its predecessor.

The compact, understated black box is unchanged, measuring just 9.3cm square and 3.1cm tall – small enough to tuck discreetly alongside your TV or out of sight altogether.

It’s worth bearing in mind, though, that the addition of far-field microphones means the new Apple TV 4K shouldn’t be hidden away in a cupboard – at least not if you want to benefit from the new hands-free Siri experience, more on which below.

The only obvious design alteration is the repositioned power light, which now sits in the centre of the front panel rather than towards the lower-right corner. Mercifully, that light is also dimmer, making it less distracting if you keep the streamer close to your screen.

The design of the remote is unchanged, but that's no bad thing. Its aluminium construction feels suitably premium, while the shape, dimensions and weight are just right.

The buttons have a reassuringly tactile feel, and the circular touchpad remains an intuitive way to navigate menus, whether you prefer swiping, circling or clicking to get around.

Features

Getting the new Apple TV 4K up and running is an absolute doddle. If you have an iPhone, simply hold it close to the streamer, enter the four-digit code displayed on screen, and most of the set-up process takes care of itself. You’ll be asked to read a short phrase aloud if you want to use the far-field microphones, allowing the Apple TV to check that it can hear you clearly.

There’s one important setting to change before you start watching, too. Match Content is switched off by default, so head into the Video And Audio menu and enable both Match Dynamic Range and Match Frame Rate. This ensures that content is played in its original HDR or SDR format, rather than being unnecessarily upconverted, and at the correct frame rate to minimise judder.

Frame-rate matching is offered by most video streamers these days, but it doesn't always work consistently across every app, and that can mean unwanted judder when watching films and TV shows. The Apple TV 4K, however, is exceptionally dependable in this respect, with its Match Content settings working correctly across all of the streaming apps we test. It's a significant advantage, and one that makes a tangible difference to the viewing experience.

App support is, as you’d expect, excellent. Of the 32 apps we check on every video streamer and smart TV, the Apple TV 4K has 26. The six missing apps are all related to either cloud gaming or music streaming: GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Xbox, Qobuz, BBC Sounds and TuneIn. That will matter to some people, but the selection of video streaming services is otherwise excellent, and the major apps support the HDR and audio formats they should, including Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos where available.

There is one very disappointing exception for UK viewers, though. BBC iPlayer still doesn't support 4K HDR on the Apple TV 4K, which is a significant omission when the format is available through the iPlayer apps on the vast majority of competing streamers and smart TVs. This is a legacy issue for Apple TVs, and it's never been entirely clear whether Apple or the Beeb is more to blame, but most buyers won't care: the upshot is that most devices deliver HDR content via the iPlayer app, but the Apple TV 4K does not, and for many, that's a significant flaw. Here’s hoping it is, one day, resolved.

As you would hope, the new Apple TV 4K is incredibly snappy in use. Apps open almost instantly, and asking Siri to find one for you produces similarly immediate results. But it’s the new Siri AI experience that represents the biggest change here. It needs to be enabled in the General menu, and is still officially in beta, but it transforms the assistant from a fairly basic voice-control tool into a much more capable, conversational way of finding things to watch.

You can ask for recommendations using natural language, refine those recommendations with follow-up questions, and even ask for information about the programmes and films you're considering. We asked for something similar to The Gentlemen on Netflix, for example, and Siri suggested Peaky Blinders, Brassic and Tulsa King. After explaining that we'd already seen the first and weren't interested in the other two, it came back with the Snatch TV series. We could then ask whether it was any good, whether Guy Ritchie was involved and whether Rupert Grint was on the poster, getting accurate answers to each question, all without having to press a button.

There are limitations, though, and Netflix is a particularly frustrating example. The service doesn't fully integrate with the Apple TV app, so while Siri can recommend Netflix content, it can't launch that content directly. Instead, it might tell you it can't play the programme, or it will take you to its listing in the Apple TV app, where you'll be invited to buy or rent it. You can ask Siri to open Netflix, of course, but you then have to find the recommended title yourself. Thankfully, the other apps we tested have much deeper integration, allowing Siri to recommend and play content directly.

Siri AI is occasionally patchy in other ways, too. It told us that a Spurs match would be shown on Paramount+, despite it clearly being covered by the Premier League's 3pm broadcast blackout, and it occasionally hangs when asked follow-up questions during testing. These issues are very possibly due to Siri AI's beta state, but they're worth bearing in mind for those considering taking the plunge now.

One neat new addition for the latest Apple TV 4K is the remote's Precision Finding feature, which works through Apple's Find My app to guide you to its hiding place down the back of the sofa. The chirpy little tune it plays at the same time further aids rescue.

More significant is the new Apple TV's ability to work with up to four HomePod speakers, rather than the two supported by its predecessor. This allows you to create a four-speaker Dolby Atmos home cinema system, using either four HomePod 2 speakers or matching pairs of HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini 2 models. The system also supports eARC, so audio from your TV – or an external source running through it – can be played through the HomePod home cinema, as well as content from the Apple TV itself.

Setting up a HomePod surround system is remarkably straightforward, too. Add the speakers to the same room as the Apple TV in the Home app, select them from the Audio Output menu and choose the option to create a home cinema. The Apple TV then plays test sounds through each speaker to establish its position and calibrate it accordingly. The whole process takes about a minute.

Our initial impressions, based on a couple of hours with two HomePod 2s and two HomePod Mini 2s, are encouraging. There's a surprising amount of bass (a relief, given that there's no option to add a subwoofer), and the presentation is detailed, clear and impressively dynamic.

It does feel a little front-heavy, however, with the rear speakers sounding somewhat detached rather than creating the seamless bubble of sound we'd hope for from a system of this type. That could be down to the size of our test room and the use of Mini speakers at the rear, though, and we'll be fully testing a system of four HomePod 2s for a future feature.

That four-HomePod system is unlocked by the new Apple TV 4K's A19 chip, which also promises up to 50 per cent faster CPU performance and twice the GPU performance of the previous model.

We appreciate that most people won't buy an Apple TV 4K primarily for gaming, but if you're one of the few who does, the extra power is worthwhile. Running NBA 2K27 Arcade Edition at its highest Ultra High graphics setting, the new model plays smoothly, whereas the previous generation struggles to deliver the same experience at those settings, with noticeable judder and sluggishness, particularly during longer passes across the court. It's not a reason for everyone to upgrade, but it does make the new model a more capable gaming machine.

For most buyers, though, the benefit of the extra power is a minor increase in operational snappiness that will likely become more prominent as future tvOS updates put a strain on the older model's more dated architecture.

Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 are also upgrades over the previous model's Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 but, again, most buyers won't feel the benefit immediately.

A dedicated AV1 decoder, meanwhile, adds support for more efficient video compression. In time, this could help improve streaming reliability on slower connections, but the benefits depend on individual services adopting the format and are unlikely to be noticeable on a fast, stable broadband connection.

Finally, while the Apple TV 4K supports every HDR format (HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision), it doesn't support DTS or Dolby TrueHD audio.

For the vast majority of people using it to stream films and TV shows, that's not a problem: every major streaming service uses Dolby Digital Plus for its Atmos soundtracks, which the Apple TV supports. But if you have a library of locally stored Blu-ray rips, the lack of support for these higher-quality audio formats is a significant limitation.

Given the Apple TV 4K's fairly mainstream intentions and Blu-ray-ripping's dubious legality, though, this isn't something we're going to punish the device for.

Picture quality

The Apple TV 4K delivers a consistently accomplished picture, with a clean, detailed presentation that makes the most of the material it's given. Its performance with native 4K content is particularly refined, but it's the way it handles lower-resolution video that really impresses.

With Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in HD, the Apple TV 4K does a lovely job of making the most of the available detail. Edges are clean and well defined, while compression artefacts are kept in check. Colour gradients are also smoother, with less of the banding and blockiness that can make older or more heavily compressed material look rather rough. It's a polished, convincing picture given the limitations of the source.

Things get even more impressive when we switch to Peep Show in SD from Disney+. There's no disguising the fact that this is a low-resolution source, but the Apple TV 4K does a remarkable job of upscaling it. The picture is surprisingly clean and smooth, with refined edges and shading that help make the most of the limited information available. You could almost mistake this for HD.

Comparing the new model directly with its predecessor reveals just how much its processing has improved. The older Apple TV 4K is no slouch itself, and it still does a good job of both HD and SD content, but its successor is consistently cleaner and smoother, particularly around fine edges and subtle changes in shading. The difference isn't night and day, but it's a worthwhile improvement for anyone who regularly watches older or lower-resolution material.

With native 4K HDR content, the differences are much less pronounced. Initially, there's very little to separate the two models, but look more closely, and the new Apple TV 4K reveals some subtle refinements. Shading is handled with a little more nuance, colours have slightly greater subtlety, and edges look fractionally sharper, with a touch more fine detail coming through.

These are small gains, certainly, but they combine to give the new model a slightly richer, more three-dimensional appearance. The previous generation remains an excellent performer with high-quality 4K content, so don't expect a dramatic transformation. But the new Apple TV 4K does squeeze a little more from the best sources, while making a much more convincing job of the less impressive ones.

Sound quality

The previous Apple TV 4K is already a very capable source of movie sound, but the new model manages to extract a little more from a film soundtrack. We test through a Denon AVC-A1H AVR and KEF R Meta speaker package, and the improvements are subtle but worthwhile, with a cleaner, more detailed and dynamically assured presentation.

The post-explosion sequence in Deepwater Horizon, as Mark Wahlberg's character regains consciousness, is a particularly good demonstration. The film's excellent surround effects are even better resolved by the new Apple TV 4K, with individual elements given a little more clarity and definition.

The presentation is also subtly more dynamic, making the scene feel that bit more realistic and doing a better job of drawing you into the action. It's not a night-and-day difference, but there's a tangible improvement in the way the new model communicates the detail and scale of a busy cinematic soundtrack.

That extra sense of precision and energy carries over to music. Listening to Marianne by Fontaines D.C. in stereo through the Denon AVC-A1H in Pure Direct mode, the new Apple TV 4K sounds a little more upfront rhythmically and dynamically, giving the track extra drive without upsetting the nicely balanced, effortlessly listenable character of its predecessor.

The central vocal has an appealing airy spaciousness, and when the busy chorus arrives, the new model makes better sense of the arrangement. The older streamer sounds good, too, but its delivery is a little more homogeneous and less likely to get the toe tapping.

There's a worthwhile improvement in the organisation of complex recordings, too. Dionysus by President has greater separation between its layered vocals, making it easier to pick out the synthetic backing vocals and background growls and screams. There's a touch more weight, too, with extra fullness through the midrange and bass.

The difference is perhaps most obvious with Save It For Later by Eddie Vedder. There's more depth and richness to the guitar picking and soulful vocals, while Vedder's delivery has greater focus and directness. The performance feels more textured and immediate, with each guitar pick more solidly resolved and the vocals fuller and meatier.

None of these improvements is especially dramatic in isolation, but they add up to a more engaging and accomplished sound. The previous Apple TV 4K remains a very good performer, particularly with movie soundtracks, but the new model offers that bit more insight, precision and richness across the board.

Verdict

The new Apple TV 4K doesn't represent a huge leap over its predecessor, but it makes worthwhile improvements to picture and sound quality while adding some genuinely useful features.

Its upscaling of HD and SD content is particularly impressive, while the subtle gains with 4K and the more noticeable improvements to audio make it an even more accomplished all-round performer.

The extra processing power should also help keep the streamer feeling slick for years to come, while making more demanding games run better. The addition of far-field microphones makes Siri AI more convenient, and support for up to four HomePods opens up an intriguing alternative to a traditional home cinema system.

There are still a few frustrations, not least the continued lack of 4K HDR support in BBC iPlayer, and the price has gone up considerably. At £299 / $299 / AU$449, it's far from cheap, and there's little reason for owners of the previous model to rush out and upgrade unless the new features are particularly appealing.

But for anyone buying a video streamer from scratch, the new Apple TV 4K is an excellent choice. The previous model was the best mainstream video streamer we've tested, and this latest generation makes it better still.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 5
• Features 5

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