Streaming · Review
Apple TV 4K
The most polished streamer money can buy - and the most locked-down. A beautiful walled garden.
No BS summary
Superb hardware and the smoothest, most reliable experience of anything here - the apps are the best versions going, Dolby Vision and Atmos are flawless, and there's not a single advert cluttering the interface. Two catches: it's expensive, and it's a closed shop. No sideloading, so the players and off-store apps that tinkerers want simply aren't available. Live inside the mainstream apps and it's wonderful; like to fiddle and you'll hit the wall fast.
Score: 7.5/10
Kudos for
- The fastest, most polished streamer going
- Best-in-class apps - the Plex app especially
- Flawless Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
- Not a single advert in the interface
- Ethernet on the top model, and years of updates
Dropped the ball
- Expensive - by far the priciest box for what most people do
- No sideloading at all - closed tvOS store only
- The niche players tinkerers want just aren't here
The walled garden
This is the thing to understand before you buy. Apple only lets you install what's in its tvOS App Store - there's no sideloading, full stop. The mainstream apps are all present and, frankly, are the nicest versions of themselves anywhere. But if your setup leans on an off-store player or anything Apple hasn't blessed, the Apple TV can't run it, and no amount of money changes that. It's the same fence the locked-down sticks sit behind, just a more expensive, more beautiful one.
What you're actually buying
Speed, polish and reliability. It's the box that never stutters, never nags, and never shows you an advert you didn't ask for. For a household that lives in Netflix, iPlayer, Disney+ and a good Plex library, nothing else feels this smooth. The top model adds an Ethernet port for rock-solid streaming; the cheaper one is Wi-Fi only.
The remote
The 11pm test - can you grab it in the dark and hit the right button? The aluminium Siri Remote isn't backlit, but it has a genuinely nice trick the others don't: no hardwired app-shortcut buttons. After every other remote on this site trying to fling me into Netflix by accident, a clean remote you can't fat-finger into the wrong app is a real relief. The clickpad can feel a touch fiddly at first, and it's a pricey thing to replace if it walks off, but it's the most grown-up remote here.
Performance in normal use
Faultless. Apps open instantly, 4K Dolby Vision snaps on with no spinner, and wired on the top model over our TalkTalk gigabit line it never wavered. Plugged into the 65-inch Philips Mini LED, it looked exactly as it should. This is as smooth as home streaming gets.
What's missing
Openness, and a sensible price. What I'd carry over from elsewhere is the freedom of the Nvidia Shield or the Google TV Streamer - both let you install what you like, which the Apple flatly won't. If Apple allowed even a fraction of that, this would be the easy top pick instead of the luxury one.
Who should buy this
Anyone already in the Apple world, or anyone who just wants the slickest, most reliable box for the big apps and a Plex library, and doesn't care about tinkering. It's a lovely thing to live with.
Who should skip it
Tinkerers and anyone watching the pennies. If you want to sideload, it's a non-starter - get a Fire TV Stick 4K Plus or a Google TV Streamer. And if you just want the big apps cheaply, a Roku or a Fire stick does that for a fraction of the price.
Specs at a glance
| Resolution | 4K Ultra HD, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ |
|---|---|
| Operating system | tvOS (no sideloading) |
| Audio | Dolby Atmos |
| Network | Wi-Fi (Ethernet on the top model) |
| Remote | Siri Remote (rechargeable, no app buttons) |
Where to buy
Pick your country. We may earn a small commission on some links once our affiliate programmes are approved - you pay the same.
| UK | Amazon UK · Currys |
|---|---|
| US | Amazon US · Best Buy |
| CA | Amazon CA · Best Buy CA |
Links go live as each affiliate programme is approved.
Final word
The best streamer nobody needs to spend this much on. As a piece of kit it's flawless - fast, silent, ad-free, beautifully made. But you're paying a premium for polish and giving up all the freedom to get it. Buy it if you're already in Apple's world and value smoothness over tinkering; otherwise your money goes much further elsewhere.