TWO WEEKS WITH THE APPLE TV 4K (2ND GEN)
Don’t stream it’s over Can a spec bump and a new remote persuade Stuff that Apple’s TV box still has a future? To find out, we spent a fortnight watching films on work time… from R3 200 / istore.co.za
DAY 01 It’s been four years since Apple first introduced a 4K TV box. That’s so far back its own TV+ streaming service didn’t exist at the time – and nowadays TV+ is baked into many TV’s own smart platforms. You might think that makes this latest version of the Apple TV 4K even less of a must-buy, especially given the most exciting thing about it is the new remote control. We’re talking about an incremental upgrade in a world of affordable Roku sticks and
it’s immediately chunkier and heavier – and has an actual power button, which is universal for your TV and home cinema setup too. You get a mute button, while the Siri button moves to the side. But it still charges via Lightning, not USB-C, which is a shame. There’s still a touch-sensitive centre button for navigating tvOS but now it’s surrounded by an iPod-like directional click-wheel that anyone can get the hang of. Disabling the touchpad functionality is possible too. Oh, this is a nice touch: the wheel can scroll through videos,
The new Colour Balance feature uses an iPhone’s sensors to match your TV’s picture to ‘industry standards’ Chromecasts… but this still promises to be one of the best all-round video streamers. It’s not tall, so it slips into our entertainment unit with ease, and an HDMI 2.1 socket means 4K HDR content at 60fps – a jump from 30fps – only there’s no HDMI cable with it and we need a new one to support the higher framerate. Bugger. This remote, then. We liked the old one, with its clicky trackpad and coin-thin build, but it was also maddeningly easy to lose, and not always intuitive. Unwrapping the new Siri Remote,
slowing down or speeding up at the whim of your thumb. Time for a bit of late-night viewing, but the lack of remote backlighting makes jabbing the wrong button a little too easy, and there’s no input button for switching to a different HDMI source on your TV. We’ve noticed you can’t use the Siri Remote as an Apple Arcade game controller like you could its forerunner either, but was anyone doing that anyway? It’s worth noting the remote can be bought separately if you want to upgrade an existing box.
The Apple TV app offers a fine curated selection of shows across various services… but not Netflix.
