The Apple TV 4K has finally been updated after a four-year wait, with the new model getting a new chip, microphones, and a new Siri Remote with Find My.

Updated as part of Apple's smart home-focused event, the new Apple TV set-top box looks a lot like the old one. Taking the form of the traditional spec-bump update, it looks visually identical to the previous model, with the main changes being internal.

Inside, the new model uses the A19 chip, up from the A15 Bionic introduced in October 2022. The change means better performance for apps and games installed on the Apple TV, with 50% CPU and 2 times faster GPU performance claimed over the previous model.

More importantly, it now supports Siri AI.

More Siri

By supporting Siri AI, users can now ask questions that can take advantage of personal context understanding and a broader world knowledge, and conversationally, too. Users can ask things like "Where was Pluribus filmed?" or "Is this appropriate for a 15-year-old?" with responses appearing a compact overlay.

Another change this time is an update to the Siri Remote, which now includes Find My support. This is something that should help users track down the controls whenever they lose them down the back of a sofa, especially when using Precision Finding.

An unexpectedly useful addition to the Apple TV is a set of far-field microphones echo cancellation, which can be used to summon Siri completely hands-free. This will be especially useful if users don't have a HomePod mini in the room, as it'll serve the same practical purpose but attached to a television.

Surround Sound and other changes

While you can already pair HomePod with the Apple TV 4K, this has been upgraded too. Now, users can create a four-speaker surround sound experience using the latest Apple TV 4K and four HomePod mini 2 speakers.

The HomePod minis can work together to determine their position in the room, calibrating audio timing and levels too.

While you do need the just-announced HomePod mini 2 for this application, you can also use the second-generation HomePod, so long as the front and rear speaker pairs match.

Sticking with device interconnectivity, the Apple TV 4K is still going to be a home hub for smart home devices. Even with the introduction of the HomeView.

There are other changes in the Apple TV too, such as how there's now only one version available.

Previously, you could get the Apple TV 4K in a Wi-Fi model with 64GB of memory or a Wi-Fi+Ethernet version with 128GB. Only the Wi-Fi+Ethernet remains, with the same capacity.

Wi-Fi has also been upgraded from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7, still with 2x2 MIMO, while Bluetooth has graduated from 5.0 to Bluetooth 6. Thread is still around, as is the infrared receiver.

The new fourth-generation Apple TV 4K can be preordered in the U.S. and 29 other countries now, priced at $299, with availability from November 13.