The new Apple TV 4K is more powerful, entertaining, and affordable than ever, and offering impressive cinematic quality. Driven by a binned version of the 5nm A15 Bionic chip that delivers faster performance and more fluid gameplay, the new Apple TV 4K features endless entertainment options for everyone to enjoy on the biggest screen in the home.
HDR10+ support joins Dolby Vision on Apple TV 4K, so users can watch their favorite movies and TV shows in the best quality possible across more TVs.
Running tvOS, the powerful and intuitive OS for the living room, and featuring the popular Siri Remote, Apple TV 4K simplifies the way users discover and enjoy their favorite content. Its seamless integration with other Apple devices and services magically transforms the living room in different ways for the entire family, while also adding convenience as a smart home hub.
The new Apple TV 4K is available in two configurations: Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi), which offers 64GB of storage for $129; and Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi + Ethernet), which offers support for Gigabit Ethernet for fast networking and streaming, Thread mesh networking protocol to connect even more smart home accessories, and twice the storage for apps and games (128GB) for $149.
Rasmus Larsen for flatpanelshd:
Apple TV 4K (2022) is smaller, lighter, quieter, faster and better. It still supports more or less all of the popular streaming apps, offers the best TV user experience, the best remote control, the widest support of 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos across streaming apps, the largest catalog of 4K movie rentals/purchases, and unique features such as spatial audio with AirPods which works very well. It integrates seamlessly with HomePods for wireless audio and is even capable of pulling audio from your TV and its HDMI-connected devices over HDMI eARC.
A15 Bionic in Apple TV 4K (2022) is a binned version with only 5 CPU cores as opposed to 6 CPU cores in other A15-based Apple products, confirmed in our testing, and possibly also reduced GPU performance based on Apple’s claimed 30% GPU improvement, although we cannot confirm this due to lack of GPU diagnostics and benchmark apps for tvOS. It is the most efficient, fastest and first 5nm chip in a TV device and it delivers smoother navigation, improved performance with less throttling, and reduced power consumption. It is one step closer to console-quality gaming and 128GB of storage lets you install more games, but it is not quite there yet and in the end A15 falls between two chairs. It is overpowered for 4K60 streaming but underpowered for 4K120 streaming and console-quality gaming. Apple TV 4K (2022) is a decent casual ‘game console’ with a handful of good games from Apple Arcade and wide support for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and other controllers but there is so much more potential here. Bring the M-series chip to Apple TV!
If you own Apple TV HD and a 4K TV it is time to upgrade but if you own either one of the previous Apple TV 4K boxes it is harder to find compelling reasons to buy the third generation unless you like to play Apple Arcade games or want HDR10+ for your Samsung TV. QMS is a potentially nice upgrade for video enthusiasts while Thread with Matter turns Apple TV 4K into the brain of the smart home. If you decide to upgrade, we recommend the 128GB version with Thread and Ethernet. It is so good that is raises the bar for ‘Features’ in our dynamic score system
MacDailyNews Note: In flatpanelshd’s rating system, the new Apple TV 4K scores 96% in APPS/GAMES ECOSYSTEM, 90% in FEATURES, and 89% in USER EXPERIENCE for a total score of 95%.
Notes:
• APPS/GAMES ECOSYSTEM is an evaluation of the app catalogue and the quality / user friendliness of the apps
• FEATURES, is an evaluation of the built-in functionality and how useful it is, as well as build quality
• USER EXPERIENCE is an evaluation of user friendliness and the general use of the box, including the remote control
• Total score weighted as: 40% Apps, 30% Features, 30% User experience.
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Binned?
Sounds like they’re from the reject bin since they only have 5 cores instead of the original 6 and someone came up with a creative way to get rid of them.
Toms’ Hardware: What Is Binning? A Basic Definition