Is the Apple TV 4K still worth buying after the price hike?

The most recent Apple TV 4K is a four-year-old product that Apple never seems quite sure what it wants to do with. And yet, the very same model, like many other Apple products, just became a lot more expensive, thanks to the ongoing memory crisis and rising component costs.

The various iPad and Mac price increases might have grabbed all the headlines when Apple announced them last week, but the Apple TV 4K price jumping from $129 to $199, a $70 hike, is pretty significant too. That adjusted price is for the 64GB model, with an even bigger bump to the 128GB variant, which now costs $249 (up from $149).

The obvious question these price hikes raise is whether Apple can justify charging more money for an aging product, and whether there are alternatives that represent better value for money. So let's dig into that.

To be clear, there remains a lot to like about the Apple TV 4K. When Engadget's Devindra Hardawar reviewed the most recent version of Apple's streaming box back in 2022, he called it the best of its kind "by a long shot." It also ranks as the "best premium streaming device" in our buying guide of the best streaming devices.

Everything that was great about the Apple TV 4K in 2022 remains good now. It supports all the major HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound, and pumps out a picture that looks really quite fantastic, whatever you're watching. The A15 Bionic chip is very powerful, making navigation and loading apps supremely speedy, a user experience rarely matched by the built-in smart interface most modern TVs offer.

As you'd expect, being a paid member of Apple's walled garden elevates the experience. Having an iPhone makes setup a breeze, and subscription services like Apple Arcade and Fitness+ are even better when paired with an Apple TV 4K, with the latter letting you watch workouts on a big screen while your Apple Watch tracks your metrics. Third-party app support is also very good, and even Siri is actually pretty useful when it lives inside a TV remote.

At $129, the Apple TV was an excellent — albeit expensive — streaming device. At $199 you really need to examine whether another device might give you more bang for your buck. Take the Google TV Streamer, for example. At $99, it's a whopping $100 cheaper than the newly revalued Apple TV 4K, and yet we still awarded it "best all-in-one streaming device" in our buying guide. The Google TV Streamer outputs in 4K/60fps, just like Apple's box, and supports all the important HDR and audio formats. It's not quite as fast as the Apple TV 4K, but it definitely isn't $100 slower.

Like the Apple TV 4K, it offers voice support via Gemini, and our experts think Google TV is the best smart TV interface thanks to the way it pulls in content from different apps in one intuitive menu. You are, however, going to have to put up with more ads than the relatively ad-free Apple TV 4K homescreen, which is definitely one of the biggest advantages of going with Apple.

There are also a number of Amazon-flavored alternatives to consider, all of them now significantly cheaper than the Apple TV 4K. Amazon's set-top box equivalent is the $140 Fire TV Cube. Given the existence of Amazon's plethora of Fire TV Sticks, you don't hear the company talk about the Fire TV Cube much these days, but it does have some useful premium features, such as hands-free Alexa voice control, Wi-Fi 6E support, Ethernet and an HDMI input for connecting other entertainment devices.

The Fire TV Cube outputs at 4K/60fps and ticks all the boxes for Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos. The Apple TV 4K produces a punchier image, but with the Fire TV Cube you get great app support and a nice interface. That is, as long as you can make peace with being bombarded with Amazon's self-promotion every time you turn it on.

If you're just looking for a media streamer, the Fire Stick TV 4K Max is now comically cheaper than the Apple TV 4K at $60, and it's often on sale for much less than that. While lacking the premium features of the Fire TV Cube, as a pure streaming device it's got everything that matters, with Dolby Vision and all the other HDRs on board, Dolby Atmos audio, and even a built-in Xbox Game Pass cloud-streaming app. At 16GB, storage space is a lot less than what you'd find on a premium streaming box like the Apple TV 4K, but who really needs that much anyway?

Your streamer options extend well beyond the big three, with the likes of Roku also offering a variety of devices, from budget-friendly sticks to premium options like the Roku Ultra 2024. At $100, it's yet another alternative pick that is now half the price of the Apple TV 4K, despite having a very similar spec sheet.

And then you have the left-field options, like the NVIDIA Shield Android TV Pro. While targeted as much at gamers as at cinephiles, and saddled with the slightly outdated Android TV, a lot of people still swear by the Shield TV Pro as an all-round media-streaming powerhouse. It can stream in native 4K, supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 (though not HDR10+), and can use AI to upscale older content.

The Shield TV Pro was always seen as a very expensive streaming device, but now the Apple TV 4K costs just as much, and if you're a PC gamer, the built-in support for NVIDIA's GeForce Now cloud gaming service arguably makes the former a far more compelling proposition.

The final option is the simplest: Just use your smart TV's built-in interface. It can often be sluggish and awkward compared to a dedicated device, but it ultimately provides the same service.

If you're an Apple lifer and enjoy the seamlessness of its cross-device ecosystem, the Apple TV 4K still has a lot to offer, even at its now very high new price. You'll also struggle to find a more impressive picture on any rival media streamer.

Whether all that is worth $200 is up to you, but there's no doubt that after the recent price hike you can pick up a comparable device for a lot less. Apple devices usually come at a premium, but in the case of the Apple TV 4K, it's now a pretty huge one.