If you've read any of my other AV material at Pocket-lint, you might be a little surprised to see the headline up top. I've got a couple of Apple TVs in my home, and I often wax about the device being the gold standard for add-on media streamers. I stand by that — even an older model is liable to be faster than most of the competition, and it offers a clean interface that's mostly ad-free.
An updated model is expected later this year, presumably centered around a Gemini-enhanced version of Apple Intelligence. But whether it's in 2026, 2027, or even 2028, I think we're due for a more fundamental rethink of the product's design. Hopefully, it won't take too much persuasion to get you onboard.
What's wrong with the Apple TV 4K?
Time out of joint
In many respects, nothing. Like I said, it has a slick interface, and performance that's pretty much unrivaled unless you switch to a mini PC. Even a 2017 model can keep up with the latest apps, including some games, whereas anything that old from Amazon, Roku, or Google might struggle to run the latest version of Netflix, never mind an action platformer. On top of this, the 2022 edition supports just about any standard you might care about, from HDR10+ through to Matter and (on higher-end models) Thread and gigabit Ethernet. You can even pair any AirPlay speaker for wireless sound, although a pair of HomePods is…