Apple's $299 Streaming Box Fixes Everything Except the Price
Apple announced the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K on October 13, 2026. Pre-orders opened the same day in the United States and 29 other countries and regions, with store availability from November 13. There is only one configuration: 128GB with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, priced at $299 in the U.S., £299 in Britain, AU$449 in Australia and Rs 39,900 in India. Apple Card holders can split it into six monthly payments of $49.83. Apple discontinued the cheaper 64GB Wi-Fi-only model, so there is no entry-level option left.
Apple's official pitch centers on the A19 chip, the same silicon as the iPhone 17. Apple says CPU performance is up to 50 percent faster and graphics twice as fast as the outgoing A15 model from 2022, with Wi-Fi 7 and an AV1 decoder added. Three far-field microphones with echo cancellation allow hands-free Siri requests, even mid-playback. For the first time the box can anchor surround sound with four HomePods, arranged as matched front and rear pairs with automatic calibration. The refreshed Siri Remote, sold separately for $59, adds Find My with Precision Finding, a built-in speaker that plays a sound, and weighs about 6 percent more than before.
The price story starts in June. Apple raised MacBook and iPad prices then, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage costs driven by AI data-center demand. The same wave hit the living room: the previous 128GB Apple TV, launched at $149 alongside a $129 64GB version, had already been raised to $249 in late June before being replaced. The prior HomePod mini went from $99 to $149 for its successor. Journalist Glenn Fleishman charted the history from the $99 second-generation Apple TV through the $129 third-generation 4K, showing the new jump runs well above inflation. The twist, cited by 9to5Mac, is that the very first Apple TV box also cost $299 back in 2007.
The criticism is blunt. The Verge calls $300 a hefty price when every rival streamer costs at least half as much. Roku Ultra and Google TV Streamer both remain $149, exactly half the Apple price. PCMag says $200 for any streamer is arguably too much, and the new box still lacks 8K video, 120fps 4K and HDMI pass-through. The hardest blow for upgraders is software: Siri AI launches as a beta, in English only across eight countries including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa, and it also comes to second- and third-generation boxes through a tvOS 27.2 update. Owners of 2021 and 2022 models get the headline feature free. TechRadar's reviewer adds that Siri remains slow and unreliable in daily use, while online fans complain they are paying for AI nobody asked for.
What happens next favors patience. The new hardware replaces the old lineup, but discounted previous-generation units remain the smarter buy if they appear in clearance. Apple needs Siri AI to prove itself beyond the beta, and needs developers and Arcade titles to use the extra A19 headroom. Until then, the consensus from 9to5Mac, The Verge, PCMag and TechRadar holds: almost nobody should buy the $299 Apple TV 4K at launch, even if history shows it could have been worse.