Apple TV 4K Review: One Powerful (But Pricey) Streaming Box – AppleTV 4 Jailbreak (appletv4jailbreak.com)
The fourth-generation Apple TV was a competent, if unexciting streaming box, buoyed by strong Siri navigation and hamstrung by navigational oddities and a high price tag. Now that Apple has had two years to improve, the company has debuted the Apple TV 4K ($179 to $199). This set is everything we loved (and hated) about Apple’s streaming box, but now with 4K and HDR capabilities making the best streaming device … for Apple users, at least.
But as one of the best Apple HomeKit products, you’ll still find an attractive and customizable interface, strong Apple ecosystem integration, and powerful voice search via Siri. You’ll also still find unintuitive navigation options, a remote with a learning curve and an asking price that borders on prohibitive. If you live, breathe and dream Apple and need a way to watch iTunes content in 4K, the Apple TV 4K may be worth a look. Otherwise, this set doesn’t offer many advantages over its cheaper competitors.
Design
Apple has generally adopted an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to the Apple TV, which has evolved from a small black box into a slightly more elaborate black box. Measuring 4.0 x 4.0 x 1.3 inches, it’s neither small enough to hide behind your TV nor big enough to affect the overall appearance of your entertainment center. It looks unremarkable yet elegant.
The back of the device is similarly uncluttered. There’s a power port, an HDMI port and an Ethernet port. (The device also works just fine via Wi-Fi.) The lack of a digital audio port could be a pretty significant oversight, because that port can enhance your audio experience significantly. Presenting 4K HDR videos without a high-fidelity audio option makes this set feel incomplete.
Interface
The Apple TV 4K’s interface is something of a paradox. Visually, it’s one of the cleanest, most attractive, most customizable menu systems around. Navigationally, it could still use a lot of work, particularly for those times when you’re trying to switch among multiple services.
First and foremost, Apple TV’s home screen and menus are simply gorgeous. Unlike the tedious Amazon Fire TV or the jumbled Nvidia Shield TV, the Apple TV makes use of large, clean, movable icons for each of your apps. There is absolutely no guesswork in figuring out where to go for your favorite content. Every app you have is available right from the home screen, and you can drag and drop their icons into whichever order is most convenient for you, or even make folders to cluster similar apps together. The addition of folders, in fact, puts the Apple TV slightly ahead of the Roku, long the gold standard in streaming-box organization.
Away from the home screen, however, things are a little less straightforward. Apple has always favored surface-level aesthetics over deep-cut functionality in the Apple TV, but after two years, barely anything has changed. Unless what you’re looking for is on the front page, the App Store is a mess (more…
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/apple-tv-4k,review-4693.html
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