The all-new Siri Remote, which CNET calls a “must-have,” features an innovative clickpad control that offers five-way navigation for better accuracy, and is also touch-enabled for the fast directional swipes Apple TV users love. The outer ring of the clickpad supports an intuitive circular gesture that turns it into a jog control — perfect for finding a scene in a movie or show. And with its one-piece aluminum design, the new Siri Remote fits more comfortably in a user’s hand.
The new Siri Remote also has a power button that controls a TV’s power, and another for mute, making it the only remote needed while enjoying TV. Using Siri, customers can easily search for specific shows or movies, control smart home accessories, check sports scores or the weather, and much more. Siri now works on Apple TV in Austria, Ireland, and New Zealand, joining the 13 countries and regions that already support Siri.
There’s a new back button. If you have the original Siri Remote, you may be confused looking at the new remote and its lack of a Menu button. That button’s main purpose was to take you back in the Apple TV’s interface, or sometimes display playback controls. So, instead of keeping the menu label, Apple ditched it and it now serves as a back button.
The updated remote may not have a giant touchpad area like the original, but the clickpad is touch-sensitive. You can press in on the middle circle of the clickpad to do things like open an app or toggle play/pause while watching a show. The outer ring of the clickpad can be pressed to more precisely navigate through a long list of items, or if you need to skip ahead or rewind in 10-second increments.
Or if you prefer touch controls, you can swipe across the entire pad and navigate through your Netflix library. You’ll still need to press the interior of the pad to select an item — tap to select isn’t an option.
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I replaced my Apple TV 3 with the new Apple TV 4K. I like the new remote but I turned off the touch control. It may be better than the old ATV4K remote but I still find the touch control to be “out of control”, meaning that I accidentally swiped over it and moved the cursor/frame (or whatever) unwillingly. Thank you Apple that you thought of a Settings feature to choose with or without touch control.