Apple announced a new Apple TV 4K yesterday, and the headline feature is Siri AI, the rebuilt Siri that holds a conversation and answers follow-up questions about what you’re watching. It costs USD 299, or about KES 38,800, and reaches stores on 13th November. In the same announcement, though, Apple says Siri AI is also coming to the Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) and later as a beta in tvOS 27.2. That covers the 2021 and 2022 models. So the new box’s headline feature is coming to the old ones too, which makes it a weird box to sell.
I bought the 2022 Apple TV 4K a while back, the 128GB model with Ethernet and Thread, the low-power network smart home accessories use to talk to each other. I love it. For most of its life it was a box that streamed a few apps. That changed last month, when Apple added its Apple TV streaming service to iCloud+ in Kenya, so even the cheapest plan, at USD 0.99 or about KES 130 a month, now includes Apple’s shows. There’s more to watch on the box now.
What the extra money buys
The 2022 box started at USD 129, or about KES 16,700. The new one comes in a single 128GB model at USD 299. For that, you get the A19 chip, which Apple says is up to 50 percent faster on the processor and up to twice as fast on graphics as the A15 in my box. The A19 also decodes AV1, a video format Apple says streams the same quality using less bandwidth. The box has three far-field microphones, which pick up your voice from across the room, so you can just say “Siri” without reaching for the remote. And it adds Wi-Fi 7 and four-speaker surround sound with four HomePod mini 2 speakers or full-size HomePods.
The new Siri Remote works with Find My. Older remotes also have some sort of Find My support. But only the new remote can play a sound or use Precision Finding. You can buy that remote on its own for an older box.
The picture quality doesn’t change. Both boxes play 4K at 60 frames per second with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. So you’ll watch the same shows, at the same quality.
More Powerful than the MacBook Neo
The 2021 box shipped with a chip from a three-year-old iPhone. The 2022 and 2026 boxes got the chip from the previous year’s iPhone.
| Apple TV 4K | Chip | Chip first used in |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd generation, 2021 | A12 Bionic | iPhone XS, 2018 |
| 3rd generation, 2022 (mine) | A15 Bionic | iPhone 13, 2021 |
| 4th generation, 2026 | A19 | iPhone 17, 2025 |
That puts the A19 in the new box a generation ahead of the A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo, Apple’s cheapest Mac, which last month we compared with Lenovo’s IdeaPad Vibe. The Neo starts at USD 699, or about KES 91,000. So yes, the new Apple TV is powerful. But it’s also expensive: USD 299 is more than 40 percent of that laptop’s price, for a box that spends most of its life playing video my A15 already plays at the same 4K.
Siri AI doesn’t need the A19
The A19 is the biggest change inside the box, and Apple is selling the box on Siri AI. But the A19 isn’t what makes Siri AI work. Apple says Siri requests on an Apple TV 4K “can use on-device processing or Private Cloud Compute”, Apple’s own servers for AI requests. And to use Siri AI at all, the owner of the home in Apple’s Home app needs an Apple Intelligence iPhone or iPad with Siri AI switched on.
My understanding is that the phone and Apple’s servers carry much of the load, which is why a 2021 box with an A12 chip, three generations older than mine, still qualifies. Siri AI also has daily usage limits, and as we explained yesterday, Apple says more access will cost a fee later. Paying for a faster chip to run a capped assistant that leans on the cloud doesn’t add up for me.
You don’t need Apple’s box for Apple TV
The Apple TV app runs on smart TVs and streaming devices, including Amazon Fire TV, Android TV boxes such as the Nvidia Shield and the Google TV Streamer, and Sony TVs. Apple lists both the app and the subscription as available in Kenya. On Fire TV and Android TV you can’t buy films inside the app, but if you get Apple TV through iCloud+, you just sign in and watch. So if you already have a smart TV or one of those streamers, a USD 299 box to watch the same shows feels unnaturally expensive.
The price could make sense for a games console, with that faster graphics chip and Apple Arcade in iCloud+. But Apple isn’t selling it as one, and there’s no controller in the box. You’d pay for one on top of the USD 299.
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