- Black box and silver remote control on a table
- Power adapter port, Ethernet port, HDMI port
The new Apple TV 4K looks a lot like the last one to most people, and that means it’s still the best streaming box you can buy if money isn’t your thing, and that goes double if you already live in the Apple TV ecosystem.
And most importantly, the significant price reduction helps to make it more attractive. However, that cut still isn’t big enough to make it the best deal in town.
When it was first introduced in 2017, Apple TV 4K was positioned as rethinking how we approach television. I later wrote, it fell short of those ambitions as Apple faced the vested and divergent interests of various players in the TV space. However, Apple TV 4K has a great interface, great picture quality, a strong feature set, and impeccable app support.
Since we’ve discussed the previous models at length, this review will mainly focus on the new ones, and that starts with the new pricing and configuration options.
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Prices and configurations
Let’s get to the bottom line first: the new Apple TV 4K is better than its predecessors. Its base configuration has 64 GB of storage, compared to 32 GB for the second-generation Apple TV 4K. Even better, the 64GB model starts at $129, up from $179 for the older 32GB model.
You can double the storage to 128GB for another $20 to $149; The 128 GB model also features a physical Ethernet port (base configuration is entirely Wi-Fi dependent) and is compatible with the Thread smart home networking standard.
Threading support is very convenient, and most people won’t need Ethernet either. Plus, Apple TV 4K doesn’t download video (it just streams it), so unless you plan on downloading dozens and dozens of games, you don’t need 128GB of storage. In other words, the $129, 64GB model is the right choice for most people.
This price reduction is the most important in the third generation model. The Apple TV 4K has been the best streaming box you can buy for at least two years, but it always costs a lot more than nearly identical streaming boxes from Google, Amazon, or Roku, making the value proposition questionable. The new model is still more expensive than these competitors, which do a great job of streaming 4K and HDR video, so the cost-conscious will want to steer clear of this model. I will soon explain why the additional cost continues for many people.
It’s worth noting that there’s no HDMI cable included in the box, by the way.