Is Apple’s connected box still useful in the age of the latest Smart TVs?

Fifteen years after its first version, the new Apple TV comes out of the woodwork. 4K, this small multi-purpose box that “20 Minutes” was able to test wants to offer a complete experience to its users in front of the TV in the living room. Its lower price can also be an incentive. But while operators’ TV boxes and smart TVs are in every living room, what could be the reason for the small box from the Apple firm?

Apple lowers its prices!

Let’s start with some good news. Apple’s new 2022 Apple TV 4K box is sold 20 euros cheaper than its previous version: 169 euros for the Wifi model (64 GB) and 189 euros for the model equipped with an Internet socket (128 GB). It’s quite rare (not to say unheard of!) that the Apple firm lowers its prices on new products to point it out! This prerequisite being posed, what does the new small box to connect to your television bring?

Let it be said bluntly: nothing that can completely seduce you, if the classic TV box of your Internet operator and your smart TV already give you full satisfaction. A lot, if you are looking for a complete entertainment experience, and even more if you are in the galaxy of Apple products and in particular have an iPhone or an iMac.

The iPhone as a remote control

The iPhone will first allow you to configure your Apple TV or to calibrate its image quality, brightness and colors according to your environment. Even more, the smartphone will then help you connect your accounts (premium video, Disney+, etc.) without having to find and enter your codes with the remote control provided. Your already saved passwords will be transferred automatically. One hell of a convenience! Finally, your iPhone can also serve as a remote control (like an Apple Watch) to control the small box.

The whole Apple universe in a box

From then on, the new Apple TV OS interface will accompany you. Good point: simplicity is in order (with greater fluidity now, thanks to the A15 Bionic chip). On the screen, neither more nor less than all of your applications (the 64 GB of memory of the Apple TV Wifi allowing you to load tons of them), without fuss or excessive recommendations. We are far from the cluttered interfaces of Google Chromecast boxes, or Smart TVs, like those of Samsung, which make it possible to get a little lost…

On the screen, large icons provide access to all of your applications, but also to all the “home” Apple applications which, with this Apple TV 4K, offers a real hub to invest in its universe. From AppleTV+ to Apple Music, to the service of gaming Apple Arcade, your photo albums stored on iCloud, Apple Home to control your connected home, and Apple Fitness +, if you want to do sports in front of your TV. Don’t throw any more! Yes, we are very Apple on Apple TV…

Limited interaction for competitors

And if this universe remains open to other platforms, through applications, such as Prime Video, the box of the apple firm is obviously only optimized for its own services. If we can ask the SIRI assistant (accessible from a button on the remote control) to tell us the names of the actors when we watch a series or a film on Apple TV +, the assistant remains silent when we wonder if we are glued to Prime Video, Netflix or Disney +. Let’s do justice: the fireTV cube boxes or the fire TV stick from Amazon only offer this function on Prime Video programs… from Amazon!

Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos in the ears

But what real use? Apple. The idea is not simply to isolate oneself. Thanks to them, you can also enjoy Spatial Audio sound which, for a mastered piece of music or a film in Dolby Atmos, considerably enhances the listening experience. Another nice new feature: the ability to display the lyrics when listening to a title on Apple Music. Karaoke counter-evenings in perspective, during the World Cup…

And hey, the remote control swaps its Lightning port for a USB-C port to be recharged. It looks like Apple is starting to prepare for the USB-C socket which will be imposed on all manufacturers by Europe as a standard by the end of 2024. The integration in this remote control of Apple’s M1 chip, which would have made it possible to locate it remotely, as with an AirTag, would have been welcome.

But what real use?

There remains the question of the usefulness of an Apple TV in 2022. While Amazon draws parallel are new stream multimedia fire TV Cube (sold for 159 euros), the French, historically very advanced in their TV box equipment provided by Internet operators, may not necessarily rush to the small box. Unless you are Apple addict. Very useful throughout its various evolutions since its launch 15 years ago, Apple TV can only provide the greatest number of people with an experience close to that of a TV box or a recent Smart TV. Unless you connect it to an extra TV, or even to upgrade a somewhat old 4K TV, rather than changing it.

Doomed the Apple TV? Probably not. Apple, still very discreet (not to say erased) in the world of speakers with its HomePod and its HomePod mini, could be well advised to integrate the functions of its small box into one of its audio solutions. And, why not, in a sound bar.