Out of the many products launched at the Apple Spring Loaded 2021 event that was held online on April 20, the second-generation Apple TV 4K media player was launched as well with a powerful chipset and a new remote.
The new Apple TV 4K replaces the A10X chipset that was used in the first-gen Apple TV to bring on-board the Apple A12 Bionic chipset that was first seen on iPhone XS in 2018. The chipset is designed to have better processing and graphics performance compared to the age-old A10X chipset. It has a six-core design with two high-performance cores and four power-efficient cores taking the heat with a quad-core GPU to make your content as lively as possible without losing a frame or stuttering.
What’s more? The new Apple TV 4K encodes 1080p content and converts it into 4K content that users can play on their Apple TV 4K. Plus, the new device is able to playback 4K HDR video content in 60fps including 4K@60fps Dolby Vision videos shot on recent iPhones with 60fps support using AirPlay. The Cupertino-based giant is also working with Red Bull TV, Paramount+, NBCUniversal, FOX Sports, and Canal+ to showcase HDR content with high frame rates.
Apple has worked upon the color calibration feature onboard Apple TV 4K and uses the sensor on-board your iPhone to do so and make it seamless. Apple didn’t mention any details as of now but it does work similar to a spectrophotometer. Note that this won’t be required if your TV is already professionally color calibrated. It rather uses any offsets to rectify using the sensors on your iPhone that ensures color accuracy on the content being streamed.
Well, you also get a new Siri Remote with the new Apple TV 4K. The new Siri Remote fixes the many issues with the old remote. It includes how users were unable to tell which way is the right way up when holding the remote in the dark. This was because of its symmetrical design. Cut to now, the new Siri Remote has been redesigned with a circular directional pad instead of a flat touchpad. The pad has five physical controls.
The design is seamless and minimalistic. There’s a Siri button on the right that you can press to summon Siri. You get a mute at the bottom of the buttons section and a power button on top and that’s all you need to know about it as of now.
The second-generation Apple TV 4K is priced at $179 and it goes on pre-orders on April 30 and the shipping starts after mid-May 2021. You can even buy the old Apple TV HD at $149 with the new Siri Remote included. Or you can purchase the new Siri Remote at $59 independently to be used with current or older generations of Apple TV HD models.
