Apple TV 4K test: breathtaking, but exclusively for Apple fans
"The Apple TV 4K is a boon for Apple power users (but anyone else is better off with a Roku Ultra)."
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Extremely intuitive user interface
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Siri's search / control has been vastly improved
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Powerful graphics and processing
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Nice 4K HDR picture
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In some cases the SDR content is dimmed slightly
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No longer the only way to do AirPlay
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Expensive compared to the competition
Apple introduced the Apple TV 4K in 2017. Despite ongoing software updates that can be expected as a streaming force, the hardware and price have stayed the same.
For the first year after its launch, Apple was able to justify the starting price of $ 179 for the 32GB model (the 64GB model costs $ 199). After all, it was one of the few streaming devices on the market that supported 4K, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos.
But it's 2020 now and Apple's competitors haven't stood still. Roku updated its flagship $ 100 Ultra, Amazon launched and continues to update its $ 120 Fire TV Cube, Nvidia is updating its game on the $ 150 Shield TV, and Google officially moved to the remote media category with the incredibly affordable $ 50 Chromecast with Google TV Streamer.
Apple's little black box does a few things better than these other products, but that list is dwindling, making it increasingly difficult to make an argument that you should be spending that much. Let's take an updated look at the Apple TV 4K and see if it's still the king of Streaming Device Hill.
Out of the box
Apple wrote the rulebook for the out-of-box experience, and the Apple TV 4K packaging proves that the company is still the master at this point. From the heavy cardboard box to the neat cable management to the first-class appearance of the box and the remote control, everything on the Apple 4K TV screams “premium”, which you should expect given the price of 180 US dollars.
For that sum, you'll get a streaming device that feels like loving care and attention has been put into its design. Most streamers are made of plastic, but Apple's is visibly superior. The remote control feels good too – it's just right in your hand and makes you want to swipe up on the touchpad.
Bill Roberson / Digital Trends
Bill Roberson / Digital Trends
In addition to the Apple TV 4K, its power cord and its remote control, you also receive a lightning cable for charging the remote control and a quick start guide with all three sentences. That's all you need as setting up couldn't be easier.
configuration
If you own a relatively new iOS device (sorry, iPad 2 owners, you're excluded here), you can already experience the fastest set-up process we've seen from a set-top box so far. After selecting the language and country, simply hold your iPhone or iPad near the Apple TV 4K and a few clicks later your WiFi information and Apple ID have been copied. All of your iTunes purchases – music, TV shows, movies – are instantly available on your new Apple TV 4K.
Bonus, if you're a third or fourth generation Apple TV owner who saves device settings in iCloud, your tvOS layout will automatically sync so your new streamer looks almost exactly like your old one – only better.
If you don't own an iPhone or iPad, you'll quickly find that you're not getting the best that Apple TV 4K has to offer. As you would expect, the more you invest in the Apple universe, the more bonuses and amenities you will enjoy.
However, once you've manually connected to your WiFi router (or, better yet, plug in an ethernet cable for a better overall experience), you'll find that plenty of goodies are in stock. Either way, your Apple TV 4K will be set up in no time.
If this is your first Apple TV, or if you don't store your tvOS setting in the cloud, then Netflix, Hulu, and many of the other common suspects aren't pre-installed. So you have to go get them. Apple makes it a little easier for pay TV subscribers by collecting provider information and then automatically downloading the streaming apps that users can enjoy with their pay TV subscription.
You must also sign in to all of your apps. This is the most tedious process of setting up a streaming box or smart TV. Apple makes it easier by automatically offering text entry through iOS on the iPhone or iPad to enter usernames and passwords, or by using Siri to say the letters and numbers out loud and have them transcribed. Both methods are infinitely less of a chore than chasing and pecking through a virtual keyboard, although this option is also available.
User experience
Apple has always had a focus on user experience (known technically as "UX" because of acronyms), which has led to buzzwords like "it just works" and products that have a reputation for being easy for everyone to use . The Apple TV 4K is rich in UX, and the convenience and well-conceived features are deep. There is also a plethora of apps for Apple's set-top device. We cannot discuss all of them here, but we will address those who we consider to be the most notable.
Siri
Most people are already familiar with Apple's digital assistant, but Siri on Apple TV 4K is especially helpful.
Remote Tips and Key Features for Apple Digital Trends:
- Ask Siri, "What should I see tonight?" A menu of suggested movies and shows is displayed in the lower third of the screen. All recommendations are selected daily by the editors to show what is particularly important.
- Double tapping the Home button on the remote will bring up recently used apps. This allows you to seamlessly switch between apps without having to go back to the home screen.
- Move your most used apps to the top line of the home screen for quicker access. For example, add Netflix to your mix. When the icon is selected, shortcuts to Netflix titles will appear at the top. Just click on a title to view it.
- Easily organize apps on Apple TV with folders.
- When you highlight a track in Next, hold the button and you'll get quick shortcuts like marking an episode as viewed.
- You can add any iTunes movie to your Up Next queue using Siri by saying "Add Up to Up Next" on the movie page.
- Press the play button on any song in Watch Now to start playing immediately.
- Ask Siri to “Play TVShowX” from your Next list to continue watching.
One of Siri's most helpful uses is finding content that you want to watch – specifically, finding 4K and HDR content that you can watch.
Siri search results are no longer as exclusive as they used to be. Apple might have limited search results to iTunes listings, but Apple TV 4K now shows whether the TV show or movie you want to watch is available outside of iTunes. The quest for orange is the new black, and you have options to buy or rent through iTunes, or watch it for free on Netflix (assuming you have a Netflix subscription, of course). A search will give you similar results for The Handmaid & # 39; s Tale, which you can watch on iTunes but which is free with a Hulu subscription.
Additionally, a narrow search for a specific movie title or a more focused search for movies with specific actors will produce a long list of results from numerous streaming sources. We tried searching for “Movies With Charlize Theron,” and there were certainly many that we could only get through iTunes, but there were several available from other streaming services to which we subscribed. We even searched for “4K Movies on Netflix” and loved it when Apple TV 4K showed us a long list of titles we could watch in 4K.
Other search tricks include asking to see movies in 4K HDR from multiple sources and refining your search by saying, "Just show me the sci-fi movies."
If you miss a dialogue, ask Siri, "What did you say?" and it will backup the video for 15 seconds and enable subtitles for that period. You can also ask Siri to skip forward or forward for a specified amount of time instead of using the backward or fast forward buttons.
Layout: TV app or symbol grid
The layout of the Apple TV 4K is intuitive, especially for previous Apple TV users, with a big and bold grid of colored icons for each app. However, starting with tvOS 13, Apple TV users have a different way of using the Apple TV app as their home screen.
The TV app acts as a single point of contact for all of your streaming needs and has an interface that mimics what you watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. The difference is that the TV app pulls content from all major services, not just one, and makes recommendations based on your viewing patterns and subscriptions.
Supported services include Apple TV +, Disney +, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, and Pluto TV. For some services, such as Netflix, the TV app shows the programs that are recommended. However, to actually watch them, you will be directed to the Netflix app instead of watching them in the TV app.
It can keep track of which movies or episodes you've watched, thus providing "Watch Next" and "Watch Next" lists.
If you're a Spectrum or AT&T cable customer, you can watch your subscribed channels in the TV app instead of having to switch inputs on your TV.
With sections dedicated to sports and kids, plus the ability to access the same content on the go with the Apple TV app for iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it's a very robust experience.
Gaming, fitness and more
Apple
You have to hand it over to Apple: Although the Apple TV 4K is quickly approaching its fourth birthday, it keeps getting new features.
In 2019, Apple added Apple Arcade, a subscription service for casual gamers. To enhance the experience, support for gaming controllers has been expanded from the very restrictive list of devices designed for iOS to include both the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox controllers. Unfortunately, developers and gamers haven't exactly made Apple Arcade a runaway success.
More recently, Apple announced its Fitness + subscription service, a virtual series of workouts guided by professionally hosted videos (via Apple TV, of course) and tied to the sensors built into the Apple Watch. We can't tell just how good Fitness + is (it will be rolled out later this year), but here's how it compares to Peloton on paper.
The latest version of Apple TV software, tvOS 14, has some cool extras like picture-in-picture, the ability to monitor HomeKit-compatible security cameras from your TV, and support for audio sharing if you have two Apple or two Pairing Apple Devices Suggests wireless headphones to Apple TV 4K.
The information
The Apple TV 4K makes it clear if 4K with HDR is available for the content you're watching, which is more than can be said for some of its competitors. There are also numerous reviews for TV shows and movies that are sourced from multiple outlets such as Rotten Tomatoes. You can also learn more about the cast and crew of your favorite movies and TV shows by clicking on the actors' profile picture. This is similar to Amazon's X-ray functionality, but is better implemented.
The speed
The Apple TV 4K is fast thanks to the A10X Fusion processor under the hood. If your internet connection can keep up, load times are lightning fast, info screens appear instantly when you click them, and even scrolling through long title tapes is remarkably smooth and fast.
The image quality
In HDR mode, the picture quality of the Apple TV 4K is excellent. The 4K content in Dolby Vision and HDR10 looks beautiful, especially with movies on iTunes. Most of the standard dynamic range (SDR) content also looks very good.
Pro Tip: Apple TV 4K converted 24fps movies to 60fps before they were delivered to the TV and there was no way to turn them off. Now there is an option to "match content" for audio and video in the settings we recommend.
Dolby Atmos
A key addition to Apple TV 4K, which was introduced with tvOS 12 in 2018, was support for Dolby Atmos, the leading surround sound format for home users. While not fully compatible with all apps (Plex can handle Dolby Atmos, for example, but only if the source is Dolby Digital Plus and not Dolby TrueHD), this was a huge win for home theater owners with Dolby Atmos sound systems. Here's how to find out if you're actually getting Dolby Atmos on your Apple TV 4K.
If you subscribe to Tidal's HiFi tier, you can use the Tidal app to listen to Dolby Atmos songs if you have a compatible home theater system or soundbar.
Dwindling benefits
There was a time when owning an Apple TV was the only way you could AirPlay screen mirroring or transfer content from an iOS device to your TV. It was also the only way to access iTunes movies and TV shows. Times have changed, however, and these once-exclusive features are increasingly being built into the latest generation of smart TVs and third-party streaming devices.
The iTunes Movies and TV app and the Apple Music app are available from 2018 and newer Samsung Smart TVs.
AirPlay 2 has been added to the latest smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Vizio, and Sony. There will also be 4K-capable Roku in the coming months. Along with AirPlay 2, most of these devices also get Apple's smart home platform, HomeKit, which Siri can use to control them.
The Apple TV app, arguably the nerve center for the overall Apple TV 4K user experience, also appears on the same devices as well as Amazon's Fire TV platform. The TV app isn't the entire Apple TV experience, but it's a significant part.
When you consider how much functionality is included in lower-cost streaming devices like Chromecast with Google TV, Fire TV Stick 4K, or Roku Ultra, how much value do you put in the exclusive features of Apple TV 4K like Apple Arcade? or Apple Fitness +.
warranty
The Apple TV 4K warranty provided by Apple protects against product defects for one year before purchase. Apple also offers an extended warranty for the AppleCare Protection Plan.
Our opinion
The Apple TV 4K is a fast device with Apple's unique design stamp. Those deeply immersed in the Apple universe will be delighted by the way the streaming set-top box integrates with other Apple devices, as well as the Siri integration which offers convenient search and voice control , be thrilled.
Is there a better alternative?
For Apple power users, the Apple 4K TV is just the thing. For everyone else, devices like the Streaming Stick + from Roku, the Roku Ultra, the Fire TV Stick 4K from Amazon or Chromecast with Google TV offer a much better price-performance ratio.
How long it will take?
With the A10X Fusion processor inside, the Apple TV 4K still has a lot of untapped potential. And even if Apple announces new hardware this year, you can bet the company will continue to support the current generation for many years to come.
Should you buy it?
Buy the Apple TV 4K if you are heavily invested in the Apple universe and / or have a large library of movies, TV shows, and music in the iTunes Store – and you don't intend to buy a new smart TV anytime soon. Don't buy the Apple TV 4K if you just want to get 4K HDR content through an easy-to-use device that's priced well below $ 100.
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