Apple TV 4K Gets a Built-in Mic and Siri AI Support, But It’s Now $299

Apple is launching the fourth generation its Apple TV 4K media player on November 13 with a built-in microphone and Siri AI support. The new version of Apple’s assistant is also coming in beta to the 2nd- and 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K models, but the new far-field microphones on the new model will enable a fully hands-free experience.

At launch, Siri AI will only be available in English in the US, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK, so it clearly won’t benefit everyone. However, in supported markets, Apple promises “a profoundly more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, and the ability to take even more systemwide app actions, making it effortless to find entertainment.”

In practice, Siri AI will be able to understand natural language prompts and follow-up questions. All responses will appear as an overlay on the screen and won’t be spoken out loud. When it’s being used by someone with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, Siri AI on the 4th-gen Apple TV 4K will be able to provide more relevant answers by understanding users’ personal context.

Design-wise, the 4th-gen Apple TV 4K looks similar to the previous model, though the Gigabit Ethernet port and Thread support are no longer optional. In addition to the three-microphone array with voice isolation, Apple also added a speaker to the remote to make it play a sound when it goes missing.

Under the hood, the new A19 chip delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 2x faster GPU performance than the previous generation. Apple also upgraded the storage from 64GB to 128GB, and the company also added Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.

The new Apple TV 4K can also be paired with four HomePod speakers for a more immersive surround sound experience. “The four speakers work together with Apple TV 4K to intelligently recognize their position in the room so audio timing and levels are automatically calibrated to the space,” Apple explained today.

With a $299 price in the US, the new Apple TV 4K is $50 more expensive than the previous model, which previously saw its price increase from $149 to $249 in June. Overall, the Apple TV 4K remains a solid choice for people in the Apple ecosystem and others also looking for an ad-free experience. However, with Siri AI also coming to previous models, the reasons to upgrade are quite minimal, unless you still have the first-gen Apple TV 4K model that didn’t receive the tvOS 27 update last month.