In 2022, Apple did something I’d love to see more often: it made the Apple TV 4K faster and cheaper. Four years later, the fourth-generation model is faster again, but it costs a lot more: AED 1,199 in the UAE. If you’re expecting a long list of shiny new features for that price, look away.
Sure, there’s a new A19 chip, and surround sound if you happen to have four compatible HomePods. Arguably more useful is the addition of microphones on the box that let you ask Siri to turn on the TV or pause a film without reaching for the remote. And if the remote’s gone missing, you can finally make it chirp.
And if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, the Apple TV makes good use of the stuff you already own. Your iPhone doubles as a remote and saves you pecking out passwords on a television. Two people can watch a film on their own AirPods after everyone else has gone to bed. I like all of that. But I liked it on the old Apple TV, as well. So why would I replace it?
Apple TV 4K (2026)
The Apple TV 4K remains an excellent streaming box, with fast, clean software and great picture and sound. Hands-free Siri and easier remote finding are welcome additions, but at AED 1,199, the faster chip and far-field mics don’t give much reason to replace the 2022 model.
- Excellent streaming picture and sound
- Fast, clean interface without home-screen ads
- Useful hands-free Siri and improved remote finding
- Easy AirPlay and audio sharing with two pairs of AirPods
- Expensive at AED 1,199
- Little reason for 2022 owners to upgrade
- Games don’t make enough of the faster chip
How much is the Apple TV 4K (2026) in the UAE?
The Apple TV 4K (2026) costs AED 1,199 in the UAE and goes on sale on November 13. There’s one configuration: 128GB of storage with Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet, plus the Siri Remote.
That price follows an increase earlier this year. The comparable 128GB model went from AED 599 to AED 999 after Apple’s June price hike, so the new one is AED 200 more than its immediate predecessor. It’s also roughly twice what that predecessor cost before the increase.
You can get a streaming box from other companies for considerably less, or even just use your Smart TV if you mostly use Netflix, YouTube, and a few other streaming apps. Apple is asking a lot for a better interface and the convenience of having everything work nicely with your other Apple devices.
What’s new in the 2026 Apple TV 4K?
The A15 Bionic has been replaced by the A19, and Apple claims up to 50% faster CPU performance and up to twice the GPU performance. The chip also has a dedicated AV1 decoder, which gives streaming services another way to deliver video efficiently, provided their apps use it.
Alongside the new chip, you get upgraded wireless connectivity and three far-field microphones for hands-free Siri. The comparison below is with the 128GB Ethernet version of the 2022 Apple TV 4K.
| Hardware | Apple TV 4K (2022) | Apple TV 4K (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | A15 Bionic | A19 with hardware AV1 decoding |
| Storage and Ethernet | 128GB with Gigabit Ethernet | 128GB with Gigabit Ethernet |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 |
| Siri microphones | In the remote | Remote mic plus three far-field mics in the box |
| Siri Remote | Nearby finding with an iPhone | Adds a speaker and Precision Finding on compatible iPhones |
From the sofa, you’d struggle to tell the boxes apart. The new one is a small black square, about nine centimetres across and three high. Apple has moved the status light to the centre, but power, HDMI and Ethernet remain at the back. Check that you have a spare HDMI cable before you settle in, as Apple doesn’t include one.
Is the new Apple TV 4K nicer to use?
A little, and the remote is now much easier to find. I tested the new box on tvOS 27.2, comparing it primarily with my 2022 Apple TV 4K, then my Google TV setup and the apps built into my LG TVs. The older Apple TV was always going to be the tougher comparison. It already did most of what I wanted, and never felt slow doing it.
Setting up the new one was pleasantly uneventful. With an unlocked iPhone nearby, Set Up with iPhone handles your Apple Account and Wi-Fi settings. Individual streaming apps can ask you to sign in again, but at least you’re spared entering everything with the remote. There’s a manual setup option if you don’t have an iPhone.
Once I was in, the new box felt a bit more snappier than the 2022 model. It wakes quickly, menus keep up with the remote, and the App Store is quick to browse. Coming from my Google TV setup, where I’d got used to waiting for menus to catch up, the difference was much more obvious. For everyday streaming, though, the A19 feels more like insurance against the box slowing down in a few years than something I need today.
Speed is only part of why I prefer using it. The home screen lets me put my apps where I want them without scrolling past ads, although Apple’s choice for the remote’s TV button does irritate me. By default, it takes you into the Apple TV app. I changed it to Home Screen under Settings → Remotes and Devices → TV Button. That’s where I’d want a button marked with a TV to take me.
Once I’m watching something, I appreciate the smaller conveniences. Skip back ten seconds after missing a line, and subtitles appear briefly to help you catch it. It’s a small thing, but one I use far more often than most of the features on the spec sheet.
I’m glad Apple has kept the circular clickpad. I can press the edge to move one item at a time or swipe through a row of apps, and the aluminium remote feels good in the hand. Finding it after I’ve put it down is another matter. There’s now a small speaker inside to help with that, an overdue addition to something so easy to lose between sofa cushions.
On my iPhone 15 Pro, the finder in Control Centre told me whether I was getting closer, while the sound helped narrow things down. With an iPhone 17 Pro, Precision Finding showed the distance and direction. The extra guidance is handy, but the basic finder was good enough for me.
Otherwise, it’s much the same remote, down to the USB-C charging. I’d have appreciated backlit buttons while Apple was at it, especially when trying to find the right one in a dark room. If losing yours is your main complaint about an older Apple TV, the new remote is available separately for AED 249 and works with the 2022 model. That’s a considerably cheaper fix than replacing the whole box.
How good is hands-free Siri?
Good enough that I often left the remote alone. Its three far-field microphones picked me up from the sofa, nearly three metres from the TV, and even from the hallway. An open MacBook listening for Siri got involved once; otherwise, the Apple TV handled most requests without a fuss.
I got into the habit of asking it to open an app before I’d even picked up the remote. “Open OSN+” worked, and asking for The Gilded Age brought up the show’s page, but I had to click to watch it. So much for keeping the remote down. Siri had an easier time with Apple’s own catalogue: asking for season two, episode three of Stick brought up the episode.
Once a show was playing on OSN+, Netflix or the other apps I tried, Siri was very quick to respond. “Go back ten seconds,” “skip ahead two minutes” and “play from the beginning” all worked. I could turn on subtitles, pause and resume. Asking for Enhance Dialogue or Reduce Loud Sounds was also a handy shortcut.
Those playback commands are where hands-free Siri proved most useful to me. The more ambitious Siri AI update with conversational search and personal-context features is launching in select countries, and the UAE isn’t on that list. It will also come to Apple TV 4K models from 2021 onwards, as a beta.
Of course, leaving the remote alone means adding another device that listens for your voice. Apple says microphone data is processed in Secure Exclaves, protected runtimes kept separate from the rest of the system.
How does streaming look on the Apple TV 4K (2026)?
As good as ever. Put on Foundation, and it’s easy to remember why I like watching through an Apple TV. The picture on my LG TVs looked crisp and detailed, with vivid Dolby Vision colours that suited the show’s enormous scale. Silo‘s second season offered a less cheerful test, but even its dimly lit concrete had plenty of detail in the shadows. Both shows looked just as good on my 2022 box.
Getting the picture right is also reassuringly easy. Alongside Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, you get the useful Match Content options under Settings → Video and Audio. Match Dynamic Range keeps an older SDR sitcom in its original format and lets a Dolby Vision film play in HDR, while Match Frame Rate adjusts the output to suit the material. With supported apps, I can go from a few comfort episodes of Friends to a film at 24 frames per second without fiddling with the settings.
The official F1 TV app held up well during races, too. With Match Content enabled, camera pans were smooth, with no obvious judder or noticeable delay between picture and sound.
How does the Apple TV 4K (2026) sound?
Very good, and much the same as the 2022 model. F1: The Movie was a good excuse to turn up the sound. Through the LG soundbar in my living room, the engines had plenty of body and impact without burying dialogue in the quieter scenes. It had the weight and clarity I’ve come to enjoy from the older Apple TV.
I heard very little difference between the 2022 and 2026 boxes, whether I used that Dolby Atmos setup or the simpler 2.1 TCL bar in the bedroom. Both Apple TVs gave me the fuller, warmer sound I preferred to streaming through my TV’s built-in apps or my Google TV setup.
I don’t always want to turn the volume up, though. Enhance Dialogue earned its keep with Slow Horses, making speech easier to follow at the sort of volume I’d use on a weeknight. Reduce Loud Sounds helped with the other end of the problem, keeping louder scenes from taking over the room. I’d happily have both on every streaming box.
For watching after everyone else has gone to bed, there’s also audio sharing with two pairs of AirPods. It worked well when I wanted to leave the speakers off altogether. Pairing both through Control Centre took very little fuss.
A catch for your movie collection
Home cinema enthusiasts have a reason to grumble: there’s no bitstream passthrough to send an original TrueHD Atmos or DTS:X soundtrack to a receiver for decoding. Infuse can decode lossless surround tracks to multichannel PCM, but the extra object and height information in those formats doesn’t make it through. This is a limitation for local movie libraries, rather than the Atmos tracks you get from mainstream streaming services.
Four HomePods for surround sound
For anyone who prefers to build their setup around Apple’s speakers, Apple has announced four-HomePod surround sound for the new box. It uses a pair of HomePod mini 2 speakers at the back and a matching pair of either HomePod mini 2 or second-generation HomePod speakers at the front.
Local pricing and availability for the new HomePods are unclear at the time of writing. I used soundbars for this review, so I can’t say how the setup sounds, but it’s an interesting addition if you already have compatible speakers. Starting from scratch means budgeting for four HomePods as well as the box.
Is the Apple TV 4K (2026) good for gaming?
Gaming feels secondary on the Apple TV, but there’s enough here to make pairing a controller worthwhile. Among Apple Arcade’s many casual games are popular indie ports such as Dead Cells+ and PowerWash Simulator. My DualSense paired without a fuss, and a quick Balatro+ run is a good excuse to keep it nearby.
To see what the A19 could do beyond those games, I fired up a few more graphically intensive titles. Oceanhorn 3 looked good and ran well for the most part, with a few stutters in denser environments. NBA 2K27 Arcade Edition also played reasonably well, although some detail looked soft on the TV. These games have to work on phones and tablets, too, and a large screen makes their visual compromises easier to spot.
Games feel a little smoother than on the 2022 model, with the A19 doing its work in a small, fanless box that gets warm during play. It’s a capable little machine, and I’d like to see a games library that gives the A19 more to do. For now, I’d buy it for streaming and enjoy Apple Arcade as a bonus.
You can stretch that catalogue beyond the App Store. RetroArch opens up older games through emulation, and you can use a variety of apps to bring your PC library to the sofa. The catch for gaming is Apple TV’s 4K/60 output limit, which means you won’t get 120Hz on the television.
What else can it do with your Apple devices?
The Apple TV’s appeal beyond streaming also depends on how much other Apple stuff you use. AirPlay lets you send a video from your iPhone to the television or mirror your MacBook’s screen when you want a bigger display. It connected and worked well with both in my testing.
iCloud Photos and Fitness+ offer other ways to use it beyond streaming films and shows. Apple Music Sing was less successful for me. Using an iPhone as a karaoke microphone sounded fun, but delay and speaker feedback made my attempt difficult to enjoy. Switching to the TV speakers helped a little, but I’m unlikely to host a karaoke night with it.
Should you buy the Apple TV 4K (2026)?
For me, the Apple TV 4K remains the best streaming box, and the new model doesn’t change that. It’s fast, pleasant to use and free of the home-screen clutter that makes some alternatives so irritating. Add the picture and sound quality, easy AirPods pairing and hands-free controls, and there’s plenty to like if this is your first Apple TV.
The hardware should also serve you well for years. The A19 has plenty of processing headroom, and AV1 decoding prepares it for more efficient streams as services and apps adopt the format. It’s a steep price for streaming, all the same.
The harder sell is to anyone with the 2022 model. The interface is quicker, and games feel a little smoother, but there’s little else in everyday use that takes advantage of the A19. Hands-free Siri is convenient, and four-speaker HomePod surround sound gives some households a new option, yet the overall experience is very familiar. The old 2022 Apple TV already does the things I use most, and I’m in no hurry to replace it.
- You’re fed up with your TV’s sluggish apps: The quick interface, clean home screen and excellent picture and sound make this a lovely box to use every day.
- You’re already in the Apple ecosystem: Your iPhone, AirPods and other Apple devices play nicely with it, making setup and everyday use that much easier.
- You want a streaming box to keep for years: The A19 has plenty of power to spare, and AV1 support prepares it for more efficient streams as apps adopt the format.
- Your 2022 Apple TV is doing the job: Streaming looks and sounds much the same, and the new conveniences don’t add up to an essential upgrade.
- You mainly want an affordable way to watch your subscriptions: Cheaper boxes from Xiaomi and Google or even your Smart TV cover the basics for much less.
- Gaming is your main reason for upgrading: Performance is a little better, but no 120Hz support and the catalogue hasn’t given the A19 enough to do.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth upgrading from the 2022 Apple TV 4K?
Not for most people. Streaming looks and sounds much the same, and the main gains are hands-free Siri, a slightly snappier interface and a remote you can make chirp. If a lost remote is your main complaint, the new Siri Remote costs AED 249 on its own and works with the 2022 model.
Does the new Siri Remote work with older Apple TVs?
Yes. Apple says it works with the Apple TV HD and all Apple TV 4 K models. Precision Finding needs an iPhone 17 or later (not the iPhone 17e), iPhone Air or iPhone Duo, but older iPhones can still find it in Control Centre and make it play a sound.
Does Siri AI work on the Apple TV 4K in the UAE?
Not yet. The UAE isn’t among Siri AI’s launch markets. Hands-free Siri still works for opening apps, finding shows and controlling playback.
Does the Apple TV 4K (2026) support 4K at 120Hz?
No. Despite its HDMI 2.1 port, the Apple TV 4K outputs up to 4K at 60Hz, so PC game streaming won’t reach 4K at 120Hz.
Does the Apple TV 4K come with an HDMI cable?
No. The box contains the Apple TV 4K, the Siri Remote, a power cord and documentation, so you’ll need your own HDMI cable.
