New Apple TV 4K vs old Apple TV 4K: What's the difference?

Apple has unveiled a new Apple Tv 4K 2021 that offers a bunch of upgrades. There's a faster A12 Bionic chip within, support for faster frame rates when watching HDR content and a very clever color calibration mode that works with your iPhone.

There are quite a few changes here. including support for HDMI ii.1 and (finally) a new Siri remote. The new Apple tree TV will be available to social club on Apr thirty and will ship some time in the second half of May.

Here's all the biggest differences between the new and one-time Apple tree TV 4K.

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New Apple Goggle box 4K vs old Apple Television receiver 4K: Price

At that place are two models bachelor of the new Apple tree TV 4K, as there were with the last-generation model. The 32GB version costs $179 and the 64GB is $199. You'll get admission to Apple TV+ for one yr with the new model, so yous'll be able to picket flavor ii of Ted Lasso, which Apple also appear was arriving in June.

New Apple Television receiver 4K vs old Apple Idiot box 4K: Functioning

Apple has upgraded the CPU in the new Apple Tv set to the A12 Bionic, while the previous model used the A10X. This gives the new model a lot more horsepower, which should brand for a better experience for anyone who plays games on their Apple tree TV. But that's not all that this bit enables...

Apple TV 4K 2021 — (Prototype credit: Apple)

New Apple Telly 4K vs old Apple Goggle box 4K: High frame rate

The headline functionality here is the increase in the maximum supported frame rate. Previously, the Apple TV supported 4K HDR (Dolby Vision) video at 30 fps (frames per second). This has now been increased to lx fps.

There's a lot of possible excitement here. Adding support for HDR video at 60 fps means that anyone with an iPhone 12 can make utilise of its Dolby Vision support at 4K/threescore and stream to the box in the all-time possible quality.

It also opens Apple Boob tube up to even more streaming options. While movies tend non to use loftier frame rates, TV shows sometimes practice, which is of import when information technology comes to sports. In theory, if your favorite sport broadcast has an Apple TV app, y'all might see games in HDR and at loftier frame rates in the future.

New Apple tree Idiot box 4K vs sometime Apple TV 4K: HDMI two.one

The original Apple Boob tube 4K had an HDMI 2.0 connection, and this has now been upgraded to HDMI ii.1. This brings with it the potential for much higher data rates, from 18gbps (gigabits per second) upward to 48gbps.

Apple doesn't support 8K video, and information technology'due south certainly non in the specs. All the same, the new Apple Television set does seem to have hardware that could support higher-resolution video. The only question would be if the processor could support decoding 8K at some signal.

What HDMI ii.1 does ensure is that the quality of streamed video could, in theory, be much higher. Apple Boob tube and iTunes 4K content already looks pretty good. But perhaps nosotros'll meet even amend video quality in the future.

New Apple Television set 4K vs one-time Apple Goggle box 4K: iPhone calibration

One of the almost of import new Apple tree Goggle box 4K features makes apply of the color sensor on your iPhone in conjunction with Apple tree Tv 4K to calibrate the box to amend your Tv picture. This could exist fantastic for getting the accented best out of your Television receiver without the need to have information technology professionally calibrated.

This organisation uses the Apple TV'due south image processing for compensating for your Television's picture profile. While Tv calibration tin can no doubt produce amazing results, it'due south expensive to have performed by a professional, and this is a really neat way of improving things for free. That is, as long as you lot have both a new iPhone and a new Apple Boob tube.

Update: after we published this story it was revealed that this feature will work on the older 4K Apple TV as well, once information technology's updated to tvOS fourteen.5. You'll need an iPhone running iOS 14.5 and with Face up ID to use the scale fashion.

New Apple Television set 4K vs old Apple TV 4K: Siri remote

Apple TV 4K 2021 remote control — We tin't overstate how glad nosotros are to run across this... (Prototype credit: Apple)

If you've used the old Apple tree Telly 4K, you'll be pleased by the new remote. Gone is the touch surface — it has been now replaced with a touch-enabled clickpad. This should give owners a lot more than control over their navigation and is likely to exist a huge improvement.

The new remote uses Bluetooth 5.0, a step up from the previous model'southward Bluetooth 4.0. The newer remote should last longer on a charge than the old one, thanks to lower power consumption. In that location'due south notwithstanding an infrared controller, which will let you change the volume on pretty much whatever TV, soundbar or AV organisation.

The new remote replaces the "menu" push button with a simple "dorsum" symbol. The functionality hasn't changed here, every bit far every bit we can tell, only the new labelling makes more sense considering the button has ever gone back rather than to the main menu. To get to home, employ the TV icon button.

Also useful is the new bear upon wheel, which brings waves of iPod nostalgia. Running your finger over the touch-enabled clickpad will help y'all browse through your shows smoothly in a way that was tricky with the old remote.

The new specs don't mention the inclusion of the accelerometer and iii-axis gyro. We'll have to test the new Apple Tv to tell yous if that functionality remains. Charging is notwithstanding handled by a Lightning cable, and ane is included in the box.

New Apple Television receiver 4K vs old Apple tree TV 4K: Outlook

Overall, the new Apple Boob tube 4K remains a premium streaming device, but you're at present getting more for your money with better performance, higher HDR frame rates and the new Siri remote. Stay tuned for our full review.