Apple TV 4K 2022 vs. 2026: What's new and is it worth the $100 jump?
The 2026 model is faster and can hear you from afar, but the 2022 box gets Siri AI as well.
It's taken Apple four years to bring us a new version of the Apple TV 4K, and along with it comes a now all-too-familiar price rise. The fourth-gen box Apple announced today is $299, a $100 jump over the cheapest previous-gen model. The sticker price is actually more than twice what the 2022 version cost at the start of the year, before the summer price increase. It's set to be released on November 13 with a faster A19 chip and built-in mics for talking to Siri without the remote.
If you've already got the 2022 or short-lived 2021 model, there's some good news: Siri AI, the chattier assistant Apple has built this launch around, is coming to your box in an update. And the new remote, the one that's much harder to lose, supports older devices and is being sold on its own.
What's new for 2026?
Apple has swapped out the A15 Bionic chip from the 2022 model and replaced it with the A19, claiming that it's up to 50 percent faster at CPU tasks and twice as fast at graphics. In iPhone terms, it's like jumping from an iPhone 13 to an iPhone 17. The A19 also comes with double the RAM and a dedicated decoder for AV1, a newer video compression format that lets services stream at high quality over less bandwidth. Wireless networking has also seen a boost, with Wi-Fi 6 upgraded to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5 upgraded to Bluetooth 6. Thread support remains unchanged.
Away from the chip upgrades, three new mics are built into the box and can hear a Siri request over whatever's playing. In contrast, the 2022 box has no mics, and using Siri features requires holding a button on the remote and speaking to it. The remote for the fourth-gen also adds Precision Finding, which lets an iPhone lead you to wherever you've lost it, and can play a sound. That feature does need an iPhone 17 or later, an iPhone Air or an iPhone Duo, though. It doesn't work on the 17e. The new Siri remote costs $59 when purchased separately and supports all Apple TV 4K models plus the 2015 Apple TV HD.
For the first time, you can hook up four HomePods to work as a surround sound system, two in front and two behind. To do that though, you'll need the fourth-gen box and either HomePod mini 2 or second-gen HomePod speakers in matching pairs. Previously, you could only connect HomePods to an Apple TV 4K in a stereo pair.
What the extra $100 gets you
Apple refreshed the Apple TV 4K for Siri AI, but the fine print says the assistant is available on all Apple TV 4Ks from the second-gen onward. Old box or new, whoever is set as the home's owner needs an iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence, and at launch it works only in English across eight countries. The new Siri Remote works with the 2022 box too, but neither generation goes past 4K, and both handle Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos. A lack of AV1 hardware decoding has been a pain point for some Apple TV 4K users, especially when using platforms like YouTube, so that addition is welcome.
The 2022 Apple TV 4K came in two versions: a 64GB Wi-Fi model at $129 and a 128GB model with Ethernet at $149, until Apple raised them to $199 and $249 back in June, of course blaming AI data centers for a surge in memory and storage component demand. That increase alone had us questioning whether the Apple TV 4K was still worth buying after the price hike. The 2026 model comes one way only, with 128GB and Ethernet, for $299.
Essentially, you're getting double the storage, an Ethernet port, the A19, the new remote and those built-in mics for the extra $100 over the model it replaces. If you're comparing it to the 2022 Ethernet version, you're paying an extra $50 for the newer chip, remote and the mics.
Is it worth upgrading?
Both the 2022 and 2026 boxes are limited to 4K and 60 fps, so the A19 in the 2026 model will do little for you if all you're doing is streaming. Sure, hands-free Siri is convenient, but, at least on paper, there's nothing big to get your wallet out for. You'd mostly be paying $299 for a box with a faster chip and the convenience of talking to it.
If you regularly play games on Apple TV, or see yourself making use of Siri AI a lot, the equation may be different — we'll have to test just how much better the new hardware is at more complex tasks. The value proposition also changes if you're on the older Apple TV 4K or an Apple TV HD, because Apple's Siri AI isn't supported on those models.
We'll have a full review of the latest Apple TV 4K soon, which will answer the upgrade question with more than first impressions.