Apple TV 4K 2026 vs 2022: Is the US$299 Model Worth the Upgrade?

The Apple TV 4K 2026 vs 2022 question comes down to this: if you own the 2022 box, the headline feature, Siri AI, is coming to it free, so most people should keep it. The new fourth-generation model costs US$299 (CA$429), comes only with 128GB, opened for pre-order on Oct. 13 and reaches stores Nov. 13, and what that money buys over the old box is hands-free voice, faster gaming and better networking rather than a better picture.

That price is the first shock. Apple launched the third-generation Apple TV 4K on Oct. 18, 2022, starting at US$129, and iPhone in Canada puts its Canadian launch price at CA$179. The new box costs US$170 more in the US and CA$250 more here. (Our Oct. 13 launch report covers HomeView and the rest of Apple’s home lineup.)

Apple TV 4K 2026 vs 2022: specs and price side by side

The new specs come from Apple’s tech specs page; the 2022 figures come from Apple’s support spec sheet for the third-generation model. Two things in that table matter more than the chip.

The first is the bottom line of the video row, which doesn’t change. Both boxes top out at 4K and 60 frames per second over HDMI 2.1 with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. If your only question is whether movies will look better, they won’t, though the new box adds Dolby Vision Profile 8.1 alongside Profile 5 on its spec sheet. What it does add is a dedicated AV1 decoder, which Apple pitches as efficient streaming at lower bandwidth. That helps most on a weak or busy connection.

The second is the storage line. The cheapest 2022 model had 64GB and no Ethernet port or Thread radio, so the jump to 128GB, Gigabit Ethernet and Thread on every unit is real if you’re coming from that version. 9to5Mac’s comparison makes the same point.

Siri AI comes to the 2022 Apple TV too

This is the fact that should stop most upgrades. In a footnote to its Canadian announcement, Apple says Siri AI “is available in beta in tvOS 27.2” and that “Access to Siri AI is also available on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) or later.” That covers the 2022 box and the one before it. MacRumors reports that setup requires the home owner in the Home app to have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad on current software, and that it launches in English in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa. Apple’s announcement does not give a release date for tvOS 27.2.

“With Siri AI, finding something to watch becomes a full-screen, conversational experience,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Borchers was speaking about the new box, but nothing in Apple’s footnote reserves that full-screen search for it. Will it run as well on an A15? Probably not quite. 9to5Mac’s Ryan Christoffel wrote that “Siri AI will almost certainly perform better on the latest-generation hardware,” and that is a reasonable guess rather than a measured result; nobody has published tests yet. For more on what leaves your living room when you talk to it, see our explainer on where Siri and Apple Intelligence requests go.

What the 2022 box can’t do is listen. It has no microphones of its own, so you still press the button on the remote. The new model’s three-microphone array handles hands-free requests, though Apple says far-field support varies by region and language.

The US$59 Siri Remote: the cheap upgrade

The new Siri Remote ships in the box with the fourth-generation model and adds Find My with Precision Finding and a sound you can play to locate it. Apple says it is compatible with Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K, and is also available for purchase separately, and 9to5Mac lists it at US$59, the same price Apple charged for the remote in 2022. Precision Finding needs an iPhone Air, iPhone Duo or iPhone 17 or later, excluding the 17e, according to Apple.

If your complaint about the 2022 box is that the remote lives in the couch, this fixes that for a fifth of the price of a new box.

Should you buy the Apple TV 4K 2026 or keep the 2022 model?

• Keep the 2022 model if you mostly stream. Picture quality is the same and Siri AI is on the way. iPhone in Canada reaches the same verdict: “For most people who already own the 2022 Apple TV 4K, we’d recommend keeping it.”
• Upgrade if you want hands-free Siri, play Apple Arcade games where the A19’s claimed doubling of GPU performance shows, or plan to build Apple’s four-speaker surround setup, which requires the fourth-generation box plus matching pairs of HomePod mini 2 or HomePod (2nd generation) speakers.
• Upgrade from the 64GB 2022 model if you need Ethernet or a Thread border router for Matter gear and don’t already have a HomePod doing that job.
• Buying your first Apple TV? The 2022 box is no longer on Apple’s own shelf: as of Oct. 14 Apple’s US store lists only the new model. Retailers may still have stock, and a clearance unit at well under US$299 is the value pick for streaming. We haven’t seen confirmed clearance prices, so check that it’s the 2022 (A15) model before you pay.

All performance figures here are Apple’s own: up to 50% faster CPU and up to twice the GPU performance, measured against the third-generation box, per Apple’s product page footnotes. We haven’t tested the new unit, which MacRumors notes is already on pre-order at Amazon, Best Buy and B&H. More Apple hardware coverage lives in our gadgets section.

One number to hold onto: US$129 bought you the 2022 box. US$59 now buys the newest remote for it.