Apple TV 4K 2022 or 2026: what the $299 model adds, and why most 2022 owners only need the $59 remoteApple TV 4K 2022 or 2026: what the $299 model adds, and why most 2022 owners only need the $59 remote

The 2026 Apple TV 4K replaces the 2022 model, and a 2022 owner gets most of the new software without buying it.

Apple's fourth-generation box costs $299 in the US and £299 in the UK, in one 128GB version, with pre-orders open and availability from 13 November, as we reported when Apple announced the A19 model with microphones for Siri AI. Apple's US store lists no other Apple TV when checked on 16 October. The third-generation model it replaces went on sale on 4 November 2022 from $129, according to Apple's release at the time, and finished at $199 for 64GB and $249 for 128GB after a June 2026 rise, MacRumors and Engadget both report. This guide is built from Apple's specification pages for the two models, with those outlets as cross-checks.

What are the differences between the 2022 and 2026 Apple TV 4K?

Apple says the A19 is up to 50 per cent faster on the CPU and up to twice as fast on graphics as the chip it replaces. MacRumors adds that the new chip does ray tracing and mesh shading in hardware, which the A15 handles without dedicated hardware. Apple's new remote adds Find My with a built-in speaker and Precision Finding, which needs an iPhone Duo, iPhone Air or iPhone 17 or later, excluding the iPhone 17e.

What stays the same?

Picture and sound are capped in the same place. Both boxes output SDR and HDR up to 4K at 60 frames per second over HDMI 2.1, both support Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG, and both play Dolby Atmos, Apple Lossless and FLAC. The 2026 model gained nothing on that ceiling, which is why the new box still offers no 4K120, no audio passthrough and no DTS. Apple's footnote says cinematic 21:9 aspect ratios work on the third generation and later, so the 2022 box has those too.

Siri AI is the other shared feature. Apple says it reaches the 2021 and 2022 Apple TV 4K as a beta in tvOS 27.2, in English, in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa, as long as the home owner has an Apple Intelligence iPhone or iPad with Siri AI on. On the 2022 box it starts from the remote's Siri button. Only the new model answers to the voice alone.

Who should buy which?

• Keep the 2022 model, and buy the $59 remote, if your frustration is losing the remote or you want Find My for it. The new remote works with every Apple TV 4K and the Apple TV HD, Engadget and MacRumors both report.
• Upgrade if you are building four-speaker HomePod surround. It needs the 2026 box and matching front and rear pairs of HomePod (2nd generation) or HomePod mini 2.
• Upgrade if you own the 64GB 2022 model and want a Thread border router for Matter accessories. The 128GB 2022 model already has one.
• Upgrade if your apps stream AV1 or you play demanding games, and the A19's graphics matter to you.
• Buy the 2026 model if you are new to Apple TV. Apple no longer sells the 2022 box, so it is only an option at a clear discount from another retailer.

Owners of the first Apple TV 4K from 2017 face a different choice. That model lost tvOS 27 and went on Apple's vintage list, gets no Siri AI, and is the one case where a new box is the only way forward.

Our take

Most of what changes day to day for a 2022 owner comes in software and in the remote, not in the box. Siri AI arrives free. A remote that slips down the sofa is the everyday annoyance of any streaming box, and $59 fixes it with a speaker that rings and, on a recent iPhone, directions to where it fell. That is why APPDOOK is telling 2022 owners to start with the remote and stop there unless one of the reasons above applies.

From an interface point of view, the microphones are the change that alters how the product is used. Asking for a show without picking anything up turns the TV from a screen you drive with a remote into one you can talk to across the room, and Apple has built Siri AI on Apple TV to answer on screen rather than aloud. But it only works when tvOS is set to one of nine languages, and a family that already reaches for the remote may not change the habit. We would want to live with it before calling it worth $240.

Surround is the clearest dividing line, and it is not cheap. The feature that code in the audioOS 27.2 beta first showed as four-HomePod surround is exclusive to the new box, and four HomePod mini 2 speakers add $596 in the US. Anyone planning that system is buying the 2026 model anyway. Anyone with a soundbar or an AV receiver gains far less, because the picture and sound limits did not move.

Two things are still unknown. Apple has not said whether the 2022 model's spec page will gain Dolby Vision Profile 8.1, which the new page lists and the old one does not, or whether AV1 will be decoded in software on older boxes. We have also not found Apple's final UK price for the 2022 model, so the UK comparison rests on the new model's £299 alone.