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VPNs for ad-blocking One passing glance at the specs will tell you that existing Apple TV 4K owners don’t need to upgrade but it’s still a fantastic streaming solution, particularly if you don’t have a smart TV and you’re deeply entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. The handful of technical improvements inside the box are nice to have, just not monumentally different. There’s the new A12 Bionic Chip for improved performance, HDMI 2.1 and High Frame Rate support and WiFi 6 connectivity to take advantage of faster internet speeds. I’ll dig more into how those new features pan out below. There’s no doubt in my mind that the new Siri remote is a substantial improvement on the old model but it’s not at all exclusive to the new 2021 Apple 4K TV. It’s backwards compatible with all existing Apple TV devices and is available separately for $79. If that’s the upgrade that means the most to you, save yourself a few hundred and pick up the new Siri remote by itself. When the upgraded chipset was first announced, our first thought was what that meant for the future of Apple Arcade on the big screen but the reality is not much has changed yet. Action titles like Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time look gorgeous on boot-up but start to chug as the game throws more enemies in the fray. The Pathless is a certified stunner on PlayStation 5 that isn’t done justice on Apple TV 4K; it struggles at 1080p and suffers severe pop-in, which isn’t great for such a fast and fluid game. The latest Apple TV 4K has got the power and the potential but it still isn’t a gaming device. It’s a streaming device with a lot of room for growth. The A12 Bionic chip does have other benefits. Navigating menus is notably smoother and switching between TV shows and apps feels as instantaneous as it could be - making the Chromecast with Google TV feels sluggish in comparison. But it’s about as incremental as Apple’s annual smartphone releases (just four years in the making). The Apple TV 4K and Chromecast with Google TV are almost identical in terms of specs (4K HDR at 60fps, HDMI 2.1 etc.) but Apple’s device offers a smoother overall experience. It’s less about the hardware itself and more about the ecosystem and bonus features Apple has built around it. iTunes remains the best digital store to buy and rent TV shows and movies for a couple of reasons (better bonus features and free 4K upgrades) and more recent features, like picture-in-picture allow you to peruse the library while running something in the corner of the screen. My one gripe is that Apple hasn’t included an HDMI 2.1 in the box. I’m all for cutting back on waste when it comes to oversupplying chargers and earbuds, but HDMI 2.1 is already a hard enough upgrade to describe to the average consumer. I’d wager that most won’t know that their regular HDMI cable won’t let them make the most out of the new device’s High Frame Rate HDR potential. The settings menus are easy to navigate and features like Colour Balance and HDMI check are simple solutions for optimising your home theatre setup. Colour Balance is a feature that uses your iPhone’s front-facing camera to identify your television screen’s colour balance, feeding that data back to the Apple TV hardware which then calibrates its output settings to recreate more lifelike colours. In my testing, Colour Balance delivered a much more vibrant image - the original settings appeared sallow in comparison. Spatial Audio is an advanced 360-degree audio technology that recreates the experience of a surround sound setup when wearing AirPods Pro or AirPods Max. On iPhone 11 and iPhone 12, the star of the Spatial Audio feature is Apple’s clever ultra-wideband U1 chip, which powers the incredibly precise tracking found in products like Apple AirTags. Without the U1 tech in the Apple TV 4K, Apple has MacGyvered an alternative accelerometer-powered solution that detects when you’ve been looking in the same direction for a while and calculates the position of your television based on those assumptions. The results so far are a mixed bag. When it works, movies with a good Dolby Atmos mix sound glorious, movies like Sam Mendes’ high-energy and harrowing war flick 1917. It’s incredibly liberating to be able to crank up the volume of an explosive action flick without bothering anyone else in the house. But there have been a few occasions where the Apple TV 4K’s head-tracking has been thwarted by my constant fidgeting, resulting in sound placement that’s just slightly off. Those little hiccups are to be expected in beta but even so, I’m thoroughly impressed with the implementation so far. For everyone else, the $99 Chromecast with Google TV is still the best option for an affordable, all-in-one streaming device. Especially now that it has Apple TV Plus.
