Vratislav Holub An interesting product - Apple TV - has been in Apple's offer for over 10 years. Apple TV has managed to gain a solid reputation over the years of its existence. In short, it could be said that Apple TV functions as a digital media receiver, or even as a set-top box, which can turn any television into a smart television and complement all this with a number of great functions and connections with the Apple ecosystem. But although Apple TV was an absolute sensation in every living room a few years ago, due to the growing possibilities in the segment of smart TVs, questions are starting to prevail as to whether the apple representative still makes sense at all.
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Flying around the world with Apple Practically everything that Apple TV offers has been offered by smart TVs for a long time. Households can therefore completely do without this apple and, on the contrary, make do with television. The fact that the latest model, or rather the current generation, does not differ from the previous one in many respects does not help much either. Let's therefore focus on whether the new generation of Apple TV makes sense at all. Not even Apple fans and Apple fans can agree on this. While some are excited, others are of the opinion that upgrading to the latest model is pointless. Another, slightly more radical camp follows, according to which it is time to draw a line behind the Apple TV era.
Apple TV 4K (2022): Does it make sense?
So let's move on to the most important thing, or the question of whether the Apple TV 4K (2022) makes sense at all. First, let's shine a light on the most important novelties and advantages of this model. As Apple directly points out, this piece dominates mainly with regard to the performance, which is directed by the Apple A15 Bionic chipset. In addition, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are powered by the exact same chipset, which clearly shows that this is definitely not a baseline. By the way, that's why we also received HDR10+ support. Another extremely important innovation is support for Thread networks. But what does this mean in practice? The Apple TV 4K (2022) can therefore function as a smart home hub with support for the new Matter standard, which makes the product a rather interesting smart home companion.
Apple TV 4K (2022)
At first glance, the new generation brings interesting benefits that are definitely not to be thrown away. However, if we take a closer look at them, we will come back to the original question. Can these news be considered sufficient reasons to switch to the latest generation Apple TV 4K? That's exactly what the dispute between the apple growers is all about. Although last year's model is indeed equipped with a more powerful chipset and therefore has the upper hand in terms of performance, it is worth considering that this is an Apple TV-type device. So is such a difference even necessary? In practice, you will practically not see it. The only advantage we have is the aforementioned support for Thread networks, or support for the Matter standard.
Although the Apple TV 4K (2022) deserves a plus point for this gadget, it is appropriate to realize who Apple is actually targeting with this. Currently, Matter will mainly be addressed by users who are really serious about a smart home and are building a complex home full of individual products, sensors and automation. But for these users, we can also count on the fact that they will most likely have a virtual assistant in the form of HomePod mini or HomePod 2nd generation, which offer the same benefit in the form of support for Thread networks. So they can also play the role of a home center.
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Bottom line, going from Apple TV 4K (2021) to Apple TV 4K (2022) isn't exactly a bargain. Of course, considering the future, it is better to have a newer model with a newer chipset on hand, but don't expect any other groundbreaking differences from this product. It is practically the same in the case of support for the Matter standard, which has already been mentioned several times.
Switching to a newer AppleTV generally makes no sense (except in special cases - see Matter).
Personally, I wouldn't even consider these 2 products to be 2 different generations, but only a refresh - it's simply not worth it for Apple to maintain a model with an older processor... And the customer, even if he has no chance to know the real difference, gets the current iron when buying, which can be expected classic support period of approx. 5 years.
The only difference of ATV generation 2021 vs 2022 is CPU A12 vs A15, RAM 3GB vs 4GB and HDR10 vs HDR10+. The latest model also has a lower body due to the absence of a fan. Support for the Thread protocol and the Matter standard came to the 2021 model with the release of the TVOS update.