Apple TV review

The new Apple TV is understated and subtly smart, but also underdeveloped

DESIGN AND INTERFACE

With the comparisons out of the way, let's move on to the design of the Apple TV. Overall the unit has the same premium feel you'd expect from an Apple product: It's glossy, sleek and completely understated.

It's bigger than I expected, though. It's about the size of two old Apple TVs stacked on top of each other and then fused together with an still-pretty-fresh A8 chip at the helm of the ship.

As you might expect, it pairs nicely with the new Siri Remote, the primary way you'll control your new piece of plastic though, Apple has recently re-released its Remote app for iOS with new Apple TV support giving you a choice in the matter.

But, despite how it sounds so far, just know it's not sunshine and rainbows in Apple's venture into the living room.

Design

Let's start with some stats. The Apple TV is, again, about twice the height of the last iteration but not much wider at 1.4 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches/35 x 98 x 98mm (H x W x D). It's a small footprint for a video streaming box, and one that seems even smaller when combined with its sleek black, inconspicuous exterior.

Speaking of the exterior, there's not a lot to see on the box. There's a small white LED indicator on the front of the unit and an Apple logo carved into the top. It's about as minimalist as an Apple-designed product has ever been, and that's a very good thing.

Spin the unit around you'll find your standard 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, HDMI 1.4 and USB-C ports, though the latter is only used for service and support. It's not all that exciting, honestly, especially considering the last Apple TV came with an optical audio-out connection.

At least the technology packed on the inside of the Apple TV is a different story.

For starters you'll find a much-improved Apple A8 processor, a proprietary chip the Cupertino company uses in the iPad Mini 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It also supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which should offer faster, uninterrupted streaming for anyone upgrading from an older model.

Siri Remote

The main attraction however is the new Siri Remote. The remote, alongside the new tvOS, are the two biggest reasons to jump onto Apple's living room bandwagon.

Feature-wise, the Siri Remote sports a built-in microphone for Siri support and a matte touch pad, as well as a number of sensors developers are still wrapping their heads around.

There are only six buttons on each unit (seven if you're including the touchpad, which can be clicked down), but really you'll mostly use the top two buttons - menu and TV. Menu is a faux back button while TV takes you back to the home screen. It's not the most intuitive setup, obviously, and one which Apple can improve upon in the future.

But what I do like is that the Siri Remote doesn't use batteries. You'll recharge the remote by plugging the included lightning cable into any USB port on your laptop or PC. This could be problematic down the road once the battery starts to wear out, but battery life isn't a huge concern as the remote has yet to die after a week of testing.

Interface

With the remote in hand and your unit set in the center of your entertainment space, it's time to plug in and enjoy your new hardware.

Setup takes minutes and can either be done by manually entering information using the Siri Remote (this is not recommended) or by syncing the unit with your iPad or iPhone via Bluetooth.

The latter pulls all the data it needs - your Wi-Fi network ID, the password and your iTunes account info - in a matter of seconds and brings you to the stunning new home screen. (Editor's note: If you don't want your data to be shown and distributed to potential advertisers, make sure you check the "do not share my information" box when prompted during setup.)

The UI is divided into three main parts: a highlight bar that can store five apps and show real-time updates or highlighted content from those apps (the second area), and an area where the rest of the apps live underneath.

Introduction and oveview

Update: Apple TV recently brought BitTorrent Now, a music and video streaming platform offers pay and ad-supported content, to the App Store.

Original review continues below...

If it existed in a bubble, the new 2015 Apple TV would be a stellar product. It offers a steady improvement over its three-year-stagnant predecessor - a device built for the then revolutionary new standard of 1080p - and comes with one of the most premium remotes on the market.

If there was nothing to compare it to, it'd be hard to point out the number of flaws the system has. It's lacking the majority of Australian streaming apps, for example, and Siri recognises less than half the commands on the new Apple TV than it does on iOS, watchOS or OSX.

The situation is improving. At WWDC 2016 Apple noted that 1,300 video channels have now made it to the device alongside 6,000 native apps.

That's not to mention the fact Siri is voiceless at the moment, relying on text and graphics to respond to any inquiries you might have.

Siri has had a major upgrade promised at WWDC 2016 however. Soon you'll be able to use Siri to search for film categories, as well as to search YouTube or even channel live streams.

The remote itself I really like, as do many of the developers I've spoken to about it. But it isn't the panacea Apple marketed it as. Entering text one letter at a time for a password is tedious, and even though you can now pair your Apple TV to your iPhone or iPad to enter text, it's still not an intuitive solution.

Thankfully at WWDC 2016 Apple announced that the remote's functionality would be coming to a dedicated iOS app. As well as offering touch navigation, Siri voice recognition and motion controls for games, you will also be able to use the keyboard on your iOS device to search for content. A very welcome addition indeed.

• Read: Check out our guide to the best Apple TV accessories!

But that's the snag with the new Apple TV: it's just shy of being the product we were promised.

It might very well be one day once the system grows up, gets a few patches and more developers see the same promise in the living room they see in our pockets and tablets. But, for now, there's a lot of work that needs to be done and the competition shows no signs of going easy.

Before we dig into the latest prodigal fruit from Apple, let's first delve into the core of what made the original three Apple TVs worth buying.

Apple TV: What is it?

The Apple TV in question or, more precisely, what the company is calling the new Apple TV, is the fourth iteration of a "hobby project" Steve Jobs started in 2006. Jobs' vision was to create a dead-simple entertainment hub, one that could access your media in a few simple steps.

That came to fruition in 2007 with the first Apple TV. (Apple wanted the name iTV, however the major British broadcast network of the same name threatened to take legal action should Jobs brand Apple's new device using that moniker.)

In the time since then we've seen two sequels that upgraded the internal Wi-Fi antenna from 802.11b to 802.11a/b/g/n before landing on 802.11ac for the latest build. The processor has been radically changed in that time, too, starting at a 1 GHz "Dothan" Pentium M equipped with 256 MB and ending on a vastly improved 64-bit Apple A8 processor.

• 
  

Yes, a lot has changed since the first Apple TV. There's less hard drive space on the new unit, ironically, but that's because streaming has overtaken the notion of owning content.

Speaking of hard drive space, the new Apple TV comes in two sizes and price points: The 32GB version costs $149 (£129, AU$269) while the 64GB version comes in at $199 (£169, AU$349). The only difference between the two is the amount of memory which, considering how small most streaming apps are, means the former will probably have sufficient space for years to come and offers the better value right now.

The new Apple TV is driven by apps of all shapes and sizes, not just first-party ones anymore. For the first time ever you'll see the wealth and power of the Apple App Store in the living room, and I expect that once the system matures it will be a sight to behold.

And, unlike the bastardized OS of systems past, the new plastic runs a platform of its own called tvOS, a nomenclature taken from the Apple Watch's watchOS.

• Read: These are the best games and apps on Apple TV

What hasn't changed is that Apple still cares first and foremost about Apple products. The new Apple TV works best with iPads, iPhones and Macs thanks to Apple AirPlay and will allow you to easily stream content from your phone or tablet to the big screen.

And while there have been steps taken to make the system feel less Apple-centric, the iTunes store stands firmly in the center of everything. Every search includes results from iTunes. Every purchase goes through iTunes. You can't go more than five minutes without being shown some new TV show or movie that, as soon as you click on it, will bring you back into the icy-cold money-loving hands of Apple's ecommerce magnate.

Apple TV vs the competition

If you're entrenched in the Apple ecosystem (by which I mean you buy movies and shows from iTunes, subscribe to Apple Music and/or stick to phones and tablets running iOS), then the Apple TV will be a supremely good addition to your living room that will only improve with age.

The less of those features you care about, however, the less you'll like the new Apple TV against the other extremely strong contenders in the streaming video space.

Posted in: apple