It consumes about 0.002kWh of electricity per hour of 4K HDR video streaming. Apple breaks down the streaming box’s environmental impact in its report. The Apple TV 4K contains recycled aluminium, gold, tin and plastic. The Apple TV box and aluminium Siri remote. While you can connect any Bluetooth headphones for private listening, more than one compatible set of Apple’s AirPods or Beats headphones can be used at the same time, which is extremely handy for late-night movie marathons with another person. You can also send video and audio from Apple devices to the TV via AirPlay 2, but it does not support Google’s Cast. You can instantly set up the Apple TV just using an iPhone, use it as a full remote, use the keyboard on your phone or tablet to enter text and passwords, or confirm purchases with your face or thumb, among other bits. If you do have an iPhone or iPad, it unlocks some very handy features. The Apple TV can be used without any other Apple devices, but if you’re an Android-only user there are better options from Google or Amazon available.

The voice assistant can also open apps, control playback, answer content-related questions and control smart home devices, but occasionally you’ll run into questions it can’t answer on the TV that it will on an iPhone, which is a bit odd. If you don’t already have access to the content, it will show you the price to rent or buy it from Apple.

Press and hold the button to ask for a show or movie via voice to find where it is available based on the apps you have installed. Siri works as a universal search, accessed through a button and mic on the remote. Open the Apple TV to show recommendations from various apps on its Watch Now page as well as Apple’s paid-for TV+ service and the store for buying or renting content. Multiple user profiles within tvOS allow some of these recommendations to be customised to each member of your family, but individual apps still require you to select who is trying to watch the content on bootup. Or you can switch it to displaying the next episode of shows, such as the next episode of Andor from Disney+ or House of Games from iPlayer, which I find more useful. Hover over the Apple TV app and it will recommend content to you with big flashy pages in the background. You can move the apps around so your favourites are where you want them, while a dock of sorts sits right at the top.īy default, Apple’s apps sit in this top row, but you can put whatever you like there. The interface looks like a smartphone screen with app icons you click on with the remote to get going. You don’t have to use any of them, but a free Apple ID is required to use the box.Īnother advantage is its simplicity and lack of ads on the homepage, which can’t be said of most other smart TV platforms. The apps are generally better, more stable and see more support than other platforms.Īpple’s various apps and services are integrated, of course, including TV+, Fitness+, Music, iCloud Photos and Arcade. It is a similar story in other countries too. It has all the UK services such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, STV Player, UKTV Play, Now, BT Sport, BritBox, Sky Go and others. Every major streaming service is available on it, including Amazon, Disney+, Netflix and YouTube (with Google Play Movies). Speed aside, the Apple TV’s killer feature is its comprehensive app support that far outstretches the competition in both availability and quality. The App Store has apps from essentially every streaming service under the sun.

Live stream player apple tv 4