The Cheapest Apple TV 4K: A Review of the Latest Model

When it comes to buying an Apple TV, many people are drawn to the brand's ecosystem and seamless integration with other devices. However, for those deeply invested in the Apple universe, there may be a more affordable option available - the latest Apple TV 4K model.

The new Apple TV 4K is designed to work seamlessly with existing Apple products, making it an attractive choice for those already part of the Apple ecosystem. However, for someone like you who's really immersed in the Apple ecosystem, you may find that the Roku setup simply isn't relevant. Instead, this piece of the HDMI puzzle brings a more modern and feature-rich solution to the table.

One of the key features of the new Apple TV 4K is its support for HDMI 2.1, which offers several benefits over its predecessor. One of these benefits is the ability to output at 10k resolution and 120 frames per second - while this may not be a feature currently supported by the box itself, it leaves room for future-proofing and potential advancements in the technology.

In addition to its impressive technical specifications, the new Apple TV 4K also boasts several other features that make it an attractive choice for those looking for a high-quality streaming experience. Wi-Fi 6 and Thread support are just two of the key features that set this device apart from its predecessors. Wi-Fi 6 simply means that you'll be able to stream higher-bandwidth content in a more seamless manner, while Thread support offers a low-powered wireless mesh network that makes it easier to automate your smart home.

The new Apple TV 4K also comes with a redesigned Siri remote that addresses some of the criticisms of its predecessor. The remote features dedicated mute and power buttons, as well as a clickable directional button on the side - making it easier to navigate than ever before. One thing to note is that the old remote's accelerometer and gyroscope are no longer included, which may impact support for certain games.

For those who don't need or want the latest Apple TV 4K model, there's an alternative option available. Buying the remote alone, without purchasing a new box, can be a cost-effective way to upgrade your existing setup. The remote is priced at $59, making it an attractive option for those on a budget.

Finally, when it comes to storage, it's worth considering how much space you'll actually need. The base model 32GB Apple TV was once enough to hold all the content I needed, but that was back in the day - nowadays, it's unlikely you'll come close to filling up your storage. If you plan on getting a new box, consider whether you really need more than 64GB of space.

Overall, the new Apple TV 4K is a solid choice for anyone looking for a high-quality streaming experience and seamless integration with other Apple devices. While it may not be the cheapest option available, its features and performance make it well worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's chris we got a brand new apple tv that just came out along with a really great new siri remote so which one should you buy if either that's what this deep dive is designed to help you figure out and pay attention until the end if you care about smart home stuff at all because there's an underrated feature lurking about in this new release that nobody's really talking about okay first things first do you even need a new apple tv streaming box or can you simply get by with the apple tv app that comes packaged with several new smart tvs well apple tv the box is a platform that comes with an app store and apple arcade along with some home kit smart home features along with a few other perks while the apple tv smart tv app basically just pipes in content if content is all you care about then the apple tv app will pipe in apple tv plus along with some premium channels like showtime stars epic etc and it'll also merge in movie renting and buying popular streaming services and cable tv providers alright so why might you be interested in buying an actual apple tv box though well you get everything i just talked about plus the platform tv os so games and gaming capabilities access to non-streaming apps and an upgraded watching experience powered by a fast new processor great input and output options ie ports and capabilities like high frame rate and dolby vision and dolby atmos support oh and this awesome new siri remote which is completely redesigned this year to be the remote we've always wanted the apple tv to have which yes can be purchased separately from an apple tv streaming box for 59 admittedly expensive but that may be the upgrade that a lot of people care about more than anything else now personally right now i have three apple tvs one that's kind of my main apple tv setup that's in my living room one that lives in the basement and then one that lives in my bedroom and if you're thinking about doing some upgrading here maybe you'll do something like me i'm only going to be upgrading the apple tv on my main tv setup and then maybe grabbing some extra remotes for my other apple tvs why though am i going to be upgrading one of my apple tv boxes partly for smart home stuff partly for future proofing both of those things i'm going to break down as we go through the video and break down all the features so let's just get into it right now you can actually still buy an hd version of the apple tv but the original apple tv 4k that has been discontinued so you can get the new 4k or the old hd and yep that old hd will come with the new remote now if you are somebody who has the old apple tv 4k from 2017 is four years old at this point the only major changes here are support for high frame rate content an updated hdmi situation and then of course wi-fi six both the new and the old apple tv 4ks are capable of watching 4k hdr dolby vision and dolby atmos content and the storage options aren't new this year so it's the same 32 and 64 gigs and i gotta let you know that very cool new color calibration feature that lets you use an iphone 10 or newer to color balance your tv at least for non-dolby vision content will work on older apple tvs via a software update and that even includes the apple tv hd surprising i know now if you do currently have an hd version of the apple tv box this is a compelling time to upgrade as long as you have a tv that can handle all the great new features what i'm going to do is link up my favorite oled tv down in the description it's the tv i would recommend if you really want to go all out and make the most of your apple tv experience whatever apple tv box you have and that's all i'm going to say about tvs in this video because i have personal experience with it it's just what i like and use now should you care about dolby vision well you're gonna find dolby vision content on netflix amazon prime video disney plus and apple tv plus so there are plenty of places in the real world to find dolby vision content and if the idea of frame by frame optimization for your favorite movies or tv shows appeals to you then yeah it's worth looking into but i also have to tell you the latest iphone pros shoot dolby vision hdr video and man does it look nice i did an explainer video on dolby hdr on the iphones breaking the whole thing down so you can go check that out i'll try to remember to link that up down below too so you can see what it's all about if it's worth it but if you want to be able to stream that or airplay that to your apple tv yeah that's going to be like the cherry on top before we get any further if you're liking the vibe of this video this is a great time to get yourself subscribed to the channel because if you want to see my review this is not the new apple tv this is my old one which is just here as a prop that's going to be coming up soon along with lots of other apple condos so don't miss it all right let's talk a little bit about the processor the new apple tv now the older apple tv models were never really known for being sluggish in terms of launching apps or just performance in general it's not something anyone ever complained about so with this new chip in here you can bet you're going to have some extra overhead for potential future applications that might be able to make better use of a more powerful processor the way apple puts it you should see a significant boost in graphics performance video decoding and audio processing by contrast i have personally used some roku devices that have felt very very sluggish in the interface so while the apple dv has always been really great these things do actually matter when it comes to usability when you're shopping around now the original apple tv launched with an a10x chip but the new one here is rocking the a12 bionic which is actually the same chip that you'll find in the 4th gen ipad mini when the rubber really meets the road this chip is here to power hfr content high frame rate content so let's talk about that next if you care about sports in particular you should care about hfr of course you are going to need a tv that supports hfr again i'll link one up down in the description but simply put 4k high frame rate hdr content is gonna look smoother more fluid and more realistic and i feel like this is one of those things that if you see it you're like wow but if you've never seen it you're like what's the big deal and i'll just reiterate here if you like me like to airplay iphone footage to your really nice tv then it will look cool to shoot over your gorgeous 60 fps footage from your iphone 12 pro or max i will just note the roku ultra does support dolby vision at 60fps for just 100 bucks so 79 less than the cheapest apple tv 4k but for someone like me who's really immersed in the apple ecosystem i'm just not even interested in that roku setup at all another piece of the hfr puzzle here is the addition of hdmi 2.1 versus hdmi 2.0 some of the benefits of that are going to have to be revealed maybe down the line we may not even know what those are going to be yet but it more than doubles the output of this port interestingly hdmi 2.1 does allow for 10k resolution and 120 frames per second so while this new apple tv box only supports 4k at 60fps this does leave room for some interesting possibilities in the future now let's talk about wi-fi this new apple tv 4k has wi-fi 6 and thread support and i'm guessing that most people have just glossed right over that thread and wi-fi 6 capability wi-fi 6 simply means you're going to be able to stream higher bandwidth content in a more seamless manner but thread support is much more interesting and it's the most underrated feature of the new apple tv box especially if you're planning on building your smart home around apple's home kit in a nutshell threads a low-powered wireless mesh network so think zigbee or z-wave that not only makes your smart home network more stable but also allows different products from different companies to flawlessly work together without having to use something like ifttt if this than that so in other words thread support is potentially going to make it way easier to automate your smart home so maybe you've heard of the company named eve they make some great thread products nanoleafs a pretty cool smart lighting company that makes some great thread products and guess what that not too old homepod mini was the first apple device with thread support so the rollout is quietly continuing here when it comes to this redesigned siri remote i think we can all agree it's just a good thing fast forwarding and rewinding on this old siri remote was such a pain really didn't work very well at all so count me among the people who while i tried to make the best of the old remote is glad that this new one is here part of the problem with this old remote was just it was so symmetrical it was hard to tell what was up and what was down in a dark room you know like when you're watching a movie so this new remote fixes all of that obviously dedicated mute and power buttons are awesome here and that siri button on the side kind of like what you get on the iphone is better too what's cool is that the touch action yet also clickable direction buttons are a definite winner too no more accidental swipes or presses or gestures or what have you something else you should know about the new remote versus the old remote here is that the new one doesn't have an accelerometer or a gyroscope built in like the old one did that was used for certain games and those games will not be supported on the new remote but you know what you probably don't care anyways because what you can do now is pair the latest controllers with your apple tv alright so i'll make this really easy for you if you don't care about high frame rate content smart home stuff or future proofing your setup then you should probably just buy that new remote all on its own without getting a new box if you can stomach that 60 price tag one final note storage if you plan on getting a new box how much do you actually need 32 or 64 gigs i will say that once upon a time i did use up all the available storage in the base model 32 gig apple tv but that was because i downloaded a bunch of games that you know what i never actually played and so i just deleted a bunch and i moved on with life it was never a big deal i don't really think that most people are ever going to come close to touching that 32 gig storage but you never know in the future things could change wow that's it for this video when i got into this and i was doing some research and kind of putting my thoughts together i did not expect for this video to be so in depth and for there to be so many different angles to consider but i'm glad that i made this because i think there's more to consider than i realize and if that's the case then a lot of people realize so hopefully you found some value here if you did drop me a know let me know if you still have some questions let me know about that too see what i can do about answering don't forget i linked up my favorite tv for you down in the description it's an affiliate link just an fyi and i'll catch you guys in the next video get yourself subscribed too so you don't miss the review alright i'm done laterit's chris we got a brand new apple tv that just came out along with a really great new siri remote so which one should you buy if either that's what this deep dive is designed to help you figure out and pay attention until the end if you care about smart home stuff at all because there's an underrated feature lurking about in this new release that nobody's really talking about okay first things first do you even need a new apple tv streaming box or can you simply get by with the apple tv app that comes packaged with several new smart tvs well apple tv the box is a platform that comes with an app store and apple arcade along with some home kit smart home features along with a few other perks while the apple tv smart tv app basically just pipes in content if content is all you care about then the apple tv app will pipe in apple tv plus along with some premium channels like showtime stars epic etc and it'll also merge in movie renting and buying popular streaming services and cable tv providers alright so why might you be interested in buying an actual apple tv box though well you get everything i just talked about plus the platform tv os so games and gaming capabilities access to non-streaming apps and an upgraded watching experience powered by a fast new processor great input and output options ie ports and capabilities like high frame rate and dolby vision and dolby atmos support oh and this awesome new siri remote which is completely redesigned this year to be the remote we've always wanted the apple tv to have which yes can be purchased separately from an apple tv streaming box for 59 admittedly expensive but that may be the upgrade that a lot of people care about more than anything else now personally right now i have three apple tvs one that's kind of my main apple tv setup that's in my living room one that lives in the basement and then one that lives in my bedroom and if you're thinking about doing some upgrading here maybe you'll do something like me i'm only going to be upgrading the apple tv on my main tv setup and then maybe grabbing some extra remotes for my other apple tvs why though am i going to be upgrading one of my apple tv boxes partly for smart home stuff partly for future proofing both of those things i'm going to break down as we go through the video and break down all the features so let's just get into it right now you can actually still buy an hd version of the apple tv but the original apple tv 4k that has been discontinued so you can get the new 4k or the old hd and yep that old hd will come with the new remote now if you are somebody who has the old apple tv 4k from 2017 is four years old at this point the only major changes here are support for high frame rate content an updated hdmi situation and then of course wi-fi six both the new and the old apple tv 4ks are capable of watching 4k hdr dolby vision and dolby atmos content and the storage options aren't new this year so it's the same 32 and 64 gigs and i gotta let you know that very cool new color calibration feature that lets you use an iphone 10 or newer to color balance your tv at least for non-dolby vision content will work on older apple tvs via a software update and that even includes the apple tv hd surprising i know now if you do currently have an hd version of the apple tv box this is a compelling time to upgrade as long as you have a tv that can handle all the great new features what i'm going to do is link up my favorite oled tv down in the description it's the tv i would recommend if you really want to go all out and make the most of your apple tv experience whatever apple tv box you have and that's all i'm going to say about tvs in this video because i have personal experience with it it's just what i like and use now should you care about dolby vision well you're gonna find dolby vision content on netflix amazon prime video disney plus and apple tv plus so there are plenty of places in the real world to find dolby vision content and if the idea of frame by frame optimization for your favorite movies or tv shows appeals to you then yeah it's worth looking into but i also have to tell you the latest iphone pros shoot dolby vision hdr video and man does it look nice i did an explainer video on dolby hdr on the iphones breaking the whole thing down so you can go check that out i'll try to remember to link that up down below too so you can see what it's all about if it's worth it but if you want to be able to stream that or airplay that to your apple tv yeah that's going to be like the cherry on top before we get any further if you're liking the vibe of this video this is a great time to get yourself subscribed to the channel because if you want to see my review this is not the new apple tv this is my old one which is just here as a prop that's going to be coming up soon along with lots of other apple condos so don't miss it all right let's talk a little bit about the processor the new apple tv now the older apple tv models were never really known for being sluggish in terms of launching apps or just performance in general it's not something anyone ever complained about so with this new chip in here you can bet you're going to have some extra overhead for potential future applications that might be able to make better use of a more powerful processor the way apple puts it you should see a significant boost in graphics performance video decoding and audio processing by contrast i have personally used some roku devices that have felt very very sluggish in the interface so while the apple dv has always been really great these things do actually matter when it comes to usability when you're shopping around now the original apple tv launched with an a10x chip but the new one here is rocking the a12 bionic which is actually the same chip that you'll find in the 4th gen ipad mini when the rubber really meets the road this chip is here to power hfr content high frame rate content so let's talk about that next if you care about sports in particular you should care about hfr of course you are going to need a tv that supports hfr again i'll link one up down in the description but simply put 4k high frame rate hdr content is gonna look smoother more fluid and more realistic and i feel like this is one of those things that if you see it you're like wow but if you've never seen it you're like what's the big deal and i'll just reiterate here if you like me like to airplay iphone footage to your really nice tv then it will look cool to shoot over your gorgeous 60 fps footage from your iphone 12 pro or max i will just note the roku ultra does support dolby vision at 60fps for just 100 bucks so 79 less than the cheapest apple tv 4k but for someone like me who's really immersed in the apple ecosystem i'm just not even interested in that roku setup at all another piece of the hfr puzzle here is the addition of hdmi 2.1 versus hdmi 2.0 some of the benefits of that are going to have to be revealed maybe down the line we may not even know what those are going to be yet but it more than doubles the output of this port interestingly hdmi 2.1 does allow for 10k resolution and 120 frames per second so while this new apple tv box only supports 4k at 60fps this does leave room for some interesting possibilities in the future now let's talk about wi-fi this new apple tv 4k has wi-fi 6 and thread support and i'm guessing that most people have just glossed right over that thread and wi-fi 6 capability wi-fi 6 simply means you're going to be able to stream higher bandwidth content in a more seamless manner but thread support is much more interesting and it's the most underrated feature of the new apple tv box especially if you're planning on building your smart home around apple's home kit in a nutshell threads a low-powered wireless mesh network so think zigbee or z-wave that not only makes your smart home network more stable but also allows different products from different companies to flawlessly work together without having to use something like ifttt if this than that so in other words thread support is potentially going to make it way easier to automate your smart home so maybe you've heard of the company named eve they make some great thread products nanoleafs a pretty cool smart lighting company that makes some great thread products and guess what that not too old homepod mini was the first apple device with thread support so the rollout is quietly continuing here when it comes to this redesigned siri remote i think we can all agree it's just a good thing fast forwarding and rewinding on this old siri remote was such a pain really didn't work very well at all so count me among the people who while i tried to make the best of the old remote is glad that this new one is here part of the problem with this old remote was just it was so symmetrical it was hard to tell what was up and what was down in a dark room you know like when you're watching a movie so this new remote fixes all of that obviously dedicated mute and power buttons are awesome here and that siri button on the side kind of like what you get on the iphone is better too what's cool is that the touch action yet also clickable direction buttons are a definite winner too no more accidental swipes or presses or gestures or what have you something else you should know about the new remote versus the old remote here is that the new one doesn't have an accelerometer or a gyroscope built in like the old one did that was used for certain games and those games will not be supported on the new remote but you know what you probably don't care anyways because what you can do now is pair the latest controllers with your apple tv alright so i'll make this really easy for you if you don't care about high frame rate content smart home stuff or future proofing your setup then you should probably just buy that new remote all on its own without getting a new box if you can stomach that 60 price tag one final note storage if you plan on getting a new box how much do you actually need 32 or 64 gigs i will say that once upon a time i did use up all the available storage in the base model 32 gig apple tv but that was because i downloaded a bunch of games that you know what i never actually played and so i just deleted a bunch and i moved on with life it was never a big deal i don't really think that most people are ever going to come close to touching that 32 gig storage but you never know in the future things could change wow that's it for this video when i got into this and i was doing some research and kind of putting my thoughts together i did not expect for this video to be so in depth and for there to be so many different angles to consider but i'm glad that i made this because i think there's more to consider than i realize and if that's the case then a lot of people realize so hopefully you found some value here if you did drop me a know let me know if you still have some questions let me know about that too see what i can do about answering don't forget i linked up my favorite tv for you down in the description it's an affiliate link just an fyi and i'll catch you guys in the next video get yourself subscribed too so you don't miss the review alright i'm done later\n"