The Apple TV 4K set-top box will get hold of some needed upgrades, including the remote. Today at a match mostly focused on the new M1-powered iMacs and iPad Pros, Apple advised attending press and Livestream viewers that a new model of the Apple TV 4K will commence shipping with the A12 Bionic CPU inside it The A12 Bionic chip will make games run faster and enhance video as well. The preceding model introduced in 2017 included the A10X.
The A10X was once a system-on-a-chip that included numerous components including a CPU and GPU; it used to be included in Apple’s 2017 iPad Pro tablets and used to be primarily based on the identical architecture as the iPhone. (The iPhone chips lack the X or Z in the name, for example, A13 or A14.) The A10X and the A12 Bionic are extra effective than their iPhone counterparts, though, specifically when it comes to graphics performance.
The new Apple TV 4K makes use of the chip for image processing for example, to upscale and code 1080p, standard-dynamic-range content for 4K HDR displays. The A12 Bionic similarly enables 4K excessive body fee HDR (likely 120Hz, although Apple hasn’t specified) most likely enabled by using HDMI 2.1, though Apple did not mention the newer HDMI standard’s inclusion at some stage in the stream. The previous Apple TV 4K stuck with HDMI 2.0, which is nevertheless enough for most people, however, it can not assist some technologies and features that are solely simply hitting the market in the very latest TVs.
That said, the Apple TV 4K additionally plays games, and it is right here that the A12 Bionic can show marked enchancment for the user experience. Apple has been pushing its Arcade gaming subscription provider for the previous several months, and it simply introduced a plethora of new titles. All Arcade games are required to run on Apple TV devices, however the A10X in the preceding model often proved inadequate to run the games nicely at the device’s target 4K resolution.
Like its predecessor, the new Apple TV 4K supports 4K output, HDR, and Dolby Atmos. Additionally, Apple is which includes the capacity to calibrate your Apple TV’s color presentation the usage of your iPhone 12 sensors. By holding your telephone to the screen, the light sensor analyzes the colors and nicely tunes them automatically to what Apple says will be expert color balance standards.
Finally, Apple has addressed one of the main complaints about prior Apple TV units: the remote. While it had a few fans, many customers did now not like the touch-pad far off from the Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K. This time, Apple’s returned to a riff on the original silver aluminum remotes with a click on the wheel and contrasting buttons. This fashion is melded with some of the contacts features it brought in the all-black, in part glass remote it replaces, like the capability to drag your finger around the click wheel to scrub via video. The remote additionally now consists of power and mute buttons whilst moving the Siri button to the side of the remote.
The new Apple TV 4K comes in 32GB for $179 and $199 for 64GB. It’s available for pre-order on April 30th and will be available in the 2d half of May.