Originally published at: Fourth-Gen Apple TV 4K Brings Hands-Free Siri AI at a Whopping $299 - TidBITS
As part of its “Welcome Home” product launch on 13 October 2026, Apple introduced the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, the first update to its streaming box since 2022 (see “Third-Generation Apple TV 4K Boasts More Storage for Lower Prices,” 18 October 2022). Apple’s press release says the new Apple TV 4K is “supercharged by Siri AI,” and it may be, but you don’t need the new hardware for that. The updated Apple TV 4K adds an A19 chip for faster performance, three far-field microphones for hands-free Siri, a Siri Remote that can audibly advertise its location, and support for four-speaker HomePod surround sound.
Those features won’t come cheap, and the price would have seemed absurd a year ago. You can pre-order a 128 GB fourth-generation Apple TV 4K with Wi-Fi and gigabit Ethernet for $299, and it ships on 13 November 2026. In comparison, the third-generation model started at $129 for 64 GB with Wi-Fi and $149 for 128 GB with added Ethernet. In June, Apple raised those prices to $199 and $249 (see “Apple Raises Prices for Many Products,” 26 June 2026). Apple eliminated the lower-capacity option, so now we have only the higher-end model at twice its initial price.
Siri AI on Apple TV
Unlike the HomePod mini 2, which will arrive before the software update needed for Siri AI (see “HomePod mini 2 Adds Siri AI, S10 Chip, and Sound Glow,” 14 October 2026), Apple says the Apple TV 4K will support the beta of Siri AI with tvOS 27.2. That implies we’ll see OS 27.2 on or shortly before 13 November 2026. Siri AI will be available in English in the US, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK.
All of Apple’s examples for using Siri AI on the Apple TV revolve around searching, discovering, and learning more about content. The press release’s examples include asking “What Apple TV shows won at the Emmy Awards this year?” or follow-up questions while watching, like “Where was this filmed?” With a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, Siri AI can tap into personal context—“Play the show Alinda recommended”—by searching your messages. Apple says responses appear in a compact overlay on top of the content.
Interestingly, although Apple has generally restricted Apple Intelligence to its most capable recent devices, Siri AI will also come to the second- and third-generation Apple TV 4K models, which use the A12 Bionic and A15 Bionic chips, respectively. Neither of those is capable of on-device Apple Intelligence processing, which suggests that Apple is offloading those queries to Private Cloud Compute. But if Apple can do it with old Apple TV 4K models, why not old HomePods, or are their chips—the A8, S5, and S7—just too old and weak?
It’s unclear what will happen when you ask Siri AI questions completely unrelated to TV content. There’s no reason it shouldn’t answer, but making results appear usefully on a TV screen and be navigable with the Siri Remote would take some work on Apple’s part. Regardless, I certainly hope that the new Apple TV 4K will ignore Siri AI questions when you’re not in front of the TV.
I’m also curious whether Siri AI will be able to return content from Netflix, which has long resisted integration with Apple’s TV app and wasn’t included in Apple’s promotional video for the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K. If Siri AI does not support Netflix, that will be a significant gap.
Hardware Upgrades
It’s possible, even likely, that the Siri AI experience will be worse on those older models, thanks to the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K’s new hardware capabilities:
- Microphones: For the first time, the Apple TV 4K includes three far-field microphones for hands-free Siri—you can trigger Siri without pressing the Siri button on the remote.
- A19 chip: The Apple TV 4K uses Apple’s A19 chip, which has sufficient processing power for on-device Apple Intelligence and may deliver faster Siri responses on the fourth-generation model. The A19 also includes a dedicated AV1 decoder, which Apple says will enable more efficient high-quality streaming while using less bandwidth. Whether you’ll notice is another question. It also provides Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
Other hardware improvements include:
- Four-speaker surround sound: The Apple TV 4K can pair with four HomePod mini 2 or second-generation HomePod speakers for surround sound, using two matching speakers in front and two matching speakers in back (you can’t mix HomePod types in the same pair). At $149 for the HomePod mini 2 and $349 for the second-generation HomePod, this sounds pricey.
- Audible Siri Remote: The Siri Remote adds Precision Finding to its Find My support and can play a sound to help you find it buried in the couch or when a family member leaves it somewhere random. Note that Precision Finding works only with iPhone models that have an N1 chip, meaning an iPhone 17 or later (excluding the iPhone 17e), the iPhone Air, and the iPhone Duo. The new Siri Remote is also available separately for older models for $59.
If you already own a second- or third-generation Apple TV 4K, I can’t see much reason to upgrade right away. Instead, update to tvOS 27.2 and see how Siri AI works for you with your existing Siri Remote. Once the fourth-generation model is available and we can see how much difference its new hardware makes, the upgrade decision may become clearer.
