Apple’s latest Apple TV 4K is available to preorder now, with a $299 price tag and a November 13 release date. It’s the first new model in four years, which is long enough for a streaming box to acquire the mystique of a missing aircraft. Preorders are currently available only through Apple; other retailers may follow.
The headline change is Apple’s A19 chip, replacing the A15 Bionic in the now-discontinued 2022 model. The new box also adds a dedicated AV1 decoder and improved wireless connectivity. Those are meaningful upgrades on paper, although Apple’s $299 asking price makes “faster than the old one” feel like the opening argument, not the whole case.
Siri AI is part of the pitch, but it won’t be exclusive to the new hardware: Apple says the feature will work in beta on second-generation Apple TV 4K models and newer. The new Find My tracking feature has a different requirement. It works with the second-generation Siri Remote and newer, so owners should check which remote they have before treating it as a reason to upgrade.
At $299, the new model costs nearly twice what the 2022 Apple TV 4K originally cost. That older model’s price later rose to $249, but the gap remains striking for a device whose primary job is to get you to the next episode before you remember you meant to go to bed.
There is a less expensive alternative: Apple is selling a refurbished third-generation Apple TV 4K from 2022 for $209. It includes features such as Thread connectivity, Ethernet, 128GB of storage and HDMI 2.1, and it shares many capabilities with the new model. The A19 should help the 2026 box stay responsive for longer, but that doesn’t make the older one suddenly sluggish. The Verge’s Cameron Faulkner says the 2022 model he recently bought is surprisingly speedy.
So the practical choice is fairly simple. If you want Apple’s newest hardware, the A19 and AV1 decoder, and don’t mind paying $299, you can preorder directly from Apple now for delivery or availability starting November 13. If the price makes you blink twice, Apple’s refurbished 2022 model costs $90 less and still brings a substantial feature set. Whether the newest chip is worth that difference depends on how much you value a longer runway—and how often your streaming box currently gives you a reason to think about it.
For now, Apple is the only confirmed preorder destination. Retailer listings could arrive later, but they are not part of the deal yet. The new Apple TV is more powerful; whether it’s a better value is the part buyers will have to decide for themselves.
Sources: Glitch Please! and The Verge — https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/1009921/apple-tv-4k-2026-preorder-buy — Cameron Faulkner’s report on Apple TV 4K preorders, features, pricing, and the refurbished 2022 model.
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