It's Taken 4 Years, But A New Apple TV 4K Has Arrived With Siri AI And A New Remote

Apple announced a new Apple TV 4K on October 13, four years after the last update to its streaming box. The biggest upgrade to the streaming box is Siri AI — borrowed from the iPhone 17 — which brings the new assistant to the living room device for the first time thanks to the A19 processor. The Apple TV 4K also now has microphones of its own, so you can talk to it without reaching for the remote.

On the outside, though, the Apple TV 4K looks identical to its predecessor. The new model keeps the same small black box design as the 2022 version, down to the dimensions and the ports on the back. The Siri Remote has been revised, however, which at long last includes a speaker inside it that helps you find the thing when it slides down the back of the couch. Plenty of users have been requesting this feature for years now.

The Apple TV 4K starts at $199 in the U.S. Pre-orders open today (October 13) and the streaming box ships and reaches stores on November 13, alongside the HomeView — Apple's new smart home display, which was announced at the same event.

The outgoing Apple TV 4K launched in October 2022 with an A15 Bionic chip and 4GB of memory. BGR's reviewer praised it as the best streaming box for anyone in the Apple ecosystem. The device's internals were reasonable back in 2021, but they have become the main thing holding the device back from competitors in 2026. The new Apple TV 4K moves to the A19 processor, and increases memory to between 8GB and 12GB depending on your configuration. Siri AI needs a large pool of RAM to keep its models loaded, which is why the feature never reached the old Apple TV through a software update.

Apple's A19 chip should also offer speed improvements across the board. Apps that take a while to open on the current streaming box should now appear immediately, scrubbing through 4K video should be smoother, and Apple Arcade titles will play better. Games on Apple TV have always run on a chip two or three generations behind the current iPhone, but the A19 is more recent. The new processor also adds support for more speakers — up to four HomePods or HomePod mini 2s instead of just a stereo pair.

Apple's N1 wireless chip handles connectivity, moving the box to Wi-Fi 7 from Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 6 from Bluetooth 5.0, with Thread support carried over. Wi-Fi 7 only really pays off if you own a Wi-Fi 7 router. The main benefit there will be stability rather than speed, since the newer Wi-Fi standard primarily copes better with congestion. Thread lets the box run as a border router for the HomeView and the LG-made cameras and locks, which Apple announced alongside the new streaming box. The Ethernet port is still there, though Thread support is no longer locked to it.

Talking to your Apple TV 4K used to mean pressing and holding the Siri button on the remote or shouting at a HomePod in the same room. The new streaming box can listen all on its own, so a request works the way it would on a smart speaker. Plus, you can now talk to it with your hands full or from the other side of the room. Rather than talking over whatever you're watching, Siri responses will appear in the bottom corner of your screen.

Your requests for Siri can be looser as well thanks to Siri AI. The old Siri on Apple TV could only handle a narrow set of phrases around playback and search. Anything outside of that would usually redirect you back to your iPhone. Siri AI takes everyday language, tracks what you said a moment ago, and draws on your personal context. In theory, this means you should be able to ask it to carry on with the show you started on your iPhone at lunchtime without naming the episode, or for it to play the show a friend text you about.

Siri AI is still in beta on Apple's other platforms; it also launched in English first, and some of its cloud features carry daily usage limits. The HomePod mini 2 announced at the same time won't get Siri AI until later, which makes the new Apple TV 4K and the HomeView the only two new devices that ship with the updated assistant. If you want more out of your setup in the meantime, there are plenty of iOS features that work well with your current TV and plenty of Siri AI features that work best on an iPhone 18 Pro.

The revamped Siri Remote now contains a speaker at long last. Its job is to make a noise when you cannot find the remote, which is a feature users have been requesting for years. The current Siri Remote will only show a proximity readout on your iPhone if you lose it, which means hunting around the room to find it. A remote that beeps from under a cushion solves this problem in a much easier way. You can still use the Find My app on your phone if you'd rather.

Roku has shipped a find-my-remote button on its higher-end players for years, and the feature is one of the practical reasons to opt for one of its more expensive devices, as our comparison of Roku's simple remote against its voice remote lays out. Replacing a lost Siri Remote will set you back at least $59, so the incentive to find the one you already own is considerable.

Apple has not detailed other changes to the remote, and the exterior appears unchanged from the aluminum version introduced in 2021. It remains one of the most minimalist TV remotes you can buy, which you'll likely either love or hate. While Apple hasn't confirmed this, I imagine the Siri button might be removed from the remote in future releases.

The Apple TV 4K starts at $299 in the U.S. Pre-orders start today (October 13), with shipping and in-store availability from November 13.

That $299 price is not new. Apple raised the price of the previous Apple TV 4K from $129 in June, when memory chip costs climbed across the industry. The new model arrives at the price the old one had already increased to, which is better than jumping up again. Anyone who held off buying an Apple TV 4K over the summer will end up with more bang for their buck now. For anyone with a second-generation HomePod, or planning on getting the new HomePod mini 2, the four-speaker surround support is an excellent upgrade.

But that price still leaves Apple charging several times what most of its competitors retail for. Roku and Amazon sell capable 4K streamers for under $50, and Google's TV Streamer undercuts Apple comfortably even after its own price increase this year. Apple is betting on the chip, Siri AI, and its ecosystem to justify the premium price, which will land differently depending on how much of your house already runs on Apple hardware. After using multiple streaming boxes, the Apple TV 4K is my favorite, but I already own multiple Apple devices.