VIDEO STREAMERS
Smart and user-friendly, these video streamers will provide the best 4K content right now
Apple TV 4K (2021) £169
It may not be overwhelmingly exciting, but Apple has performed a nip here and a tuck there and produced an Apple TV 4K that’s good enough to set the standard in this video streamer category.
The most significant upgrade is the processor: Apple has swapped the A10X Fusion chip of the old model for the A12 Bionic. The company claims that this change results in “more realistic games, more lifelike videos and more immersive sound.” Combined with the new remote, complete with ipod style click-wheel, it certainly produces a snappier user experience. The processor also combines with a new HDMI 2.1 socket to add support for 4K HDR content in frame rates of up to 60fps, whereas the old model was limited to 30fps when playing 4K HDR. It’s also worth noting that HDMI 2.1 is capable of handling signals even more data-heavy than 4K HDR at 60fps, and there’s potentially headroom here for Apple to add support for 120fps 4K or even 60fps 8K. That extra power could be leveraged more in the future, perhaps with more advanced games and video performance. In the shorter term, it should make for smoother, better-looking video streams.
Apple TV 4K supports HDR in the HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision formats. Audio formats supported include MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, FLAC and WAV for stereo, and surround formats up to Dolby Atmos. Apple has added support for spatial audio via Airpods Pro and Airpods Max headphones with the release of tvos 15, so you can now get a Dolby Atmos movie experience via headphones. Dolby Atmos is becoming more of a technology for music too, with Apple Music now offering a chunk of its catalogue in the format. Both Apple Music and Tidal play Atmos content correctly via the Apple TV 4K.
Central to the Apple TV 4K’s experience is its picture quality, and there’s still an extra degree of authenticity and nuance to its delivery over its stick-and-dongle rivals. It’s not quite up there with a good 4K Blu-ray player, but still produces an image with all of the punch, definition and dynamism necessary to genuinely thrill.
In short, Apple TV 4K is the best video streamer currently available.