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There’s No Quicker TV Streaming Experience Than the Apple TV 4K—Full Stop

Apple’s streaming box is stupid-fast, polished to hell, and deeply locked into its own ecosystem.

By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan

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What you see before you is the third-generation Apple TV 4K. Apple released it in 2022 and, well, it’s still here. But this Apple has a long shelf life, a lot longer than their organic, real-life counterparts that seem to go bad between the time I buy the groceries and the time when I unpack them, because the Apple TV 4K (3rd gen) hasn’t gone rotten in the three and a half years that it’s been on the market.

In fact it’s nearly as fresh as the day it fell off the Apple tree. The Apple TV 4K is still the fastest streaming device on the market, bar none.

Cough, fastest at emptying your wallet…

Apple TV 4K: What you need to know if you don’t want to read this full review

The Apple TV 4K is blisteringly fast. Of all the streaming devices I’ve ever used, it’s the fastest. It’s downright telepathic. Actions on screen seem to happen at the very instant I’d press a button on the Apple TV 4K’s beautifully sculpted bare aluminum remote. And it’s a slickly designed interface, if a bit clinically soulless and more obtuse to navigate than Roku’s. It’s a very expensive device, though, at twice what the nearly-as-fast Roku Ultra 4K costs. So how much do you love that Apple design and speed? Enough to pay over a hundred bucks for it?

Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen) (opens in a new window)

Like I did with all streaming devices I tested, I hooked the Apple TV 4K up to a TCL QM7, a 55-inch 4K TV with support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision; it’s the immediate predecessor of the TCL QM7K.........

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