Apple’s living room box has been running on the same hardware since October 2022, which in streaming-device years is practically retirement age. Now there’s finally concrete evidence that a replacement exists. MacRumors spotted an image asset buried in Apple’s own software labelled Apple TV 4K (4th generation), giving the long-rumoured successor an official name for the first time.
Don’t expect a redesign. The leaked image shows the same squat black box that has sat under televisions for years, which suggests whatever changes Apple has planned are happening on the inside.
That’s where the rumours get more interesting. The current model uses an A15 Bionic paired with 4GB of RAM, a setup that was perfectly adequate for streaming but increasingly looks thin for anything more demanding. Reports point to a much newer chip, with an A17 Pro or later being the most commonly cited option, though sources don’t fully agree on which silicon Apple will choose. Any of the candidates would bring hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a feature Apple first pushed with the iPhone 15 Pro and has been using to court console-style games on its devices ever since. Memory is also expected to double to 8GB.
That RAM bump likely has less to do with games and more to do with Siri. Apple’s revamped, AI-driven assistant needs headroom to run, and the Apple TV is expected to become one of the anchors of the company’s broader smart home strategy. In theory, that means a Siri that handles natural questions, surfaces content and launches apps with fewer frustrations. In practice, Apple’s AI roadmap has slipped before, so it’s worth waiting to see what actually ships.
Connectivity should also improve, with Apple’s in-house N1 wireless chip, which debuted in the iPhone 17 lineup, reportedly bringing Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Wi-Fi 7 can use the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands simultaneously, although real-world gains depend heavily on the router at home. A revised Siri Remote is expected as well, with no clear details on what changes.
Timing remains open. Apple left the Apple TV out of its September event, but October has historically been a common window for smaller hardware launches. Price is the bigger question. Apple raised the current Wi-Fi model from $129 to $199 in June, and the Ethernet version from $149 to $249, a jump that makes the existing box a tough sell today. For now, the leak only confirms the name and design. Whether Apple can justify those higher prices with genuinely smarter hardware is the part nobody can answer yet.
