A powerful new Apple TV 4K is in the works
New information suggests that 2017's Apple TV 4K is going to be replaced
The Apple TV 4K launched in September 2017, which in industry terms is a lifetime. If, like us, you’ve been waiting impatiently for a sequel, we have good news: a new round of developer betas for various Apple operating systems has revealed that there’s a fresh streaming box in the works.
The existence of a new Apple TV 4K was discovered within the Apple tvOS version 13.4 beta code. According to 9to5Mac, the code references Apple TV 4K model T1125 – the “T” apparently suggests that this is a prototype model. The current Apple TV 4K model number is J105a, and the regular HD version, J42d.
Obviously, that’s not the interesting bit. The interesting bit, says 9to5Mac, is that T1125 has been built around the arm64e architecture. This is the same architecture upon which the Apple A12 and A13 Bionic chips are based – the same processors you’ll find inside the iPhone X series and iPhone 11 series.
For reference, the current Apple TV 4K uses the A10X Fusion processor, which is a faster variant of the regular A10. The hope is therefore that the new Apple TV 4K will operate a similar processor based on newer technology – the A12X or even A13X – and will as a result be a stonkingly powerful bit of kit. Currently, only the A12X chip exists, and can be found running the 11in iPad Pro.
To cut a long story short, it’s looking likely that the new Apple TV 4K will be substantially more powerful than its predecessor. We reckon this is to accommodate Apple Arcade; after all, a more powerful streaming device opens the door to games of a more complex and graphically demanding nature.
The only other thing we know so far about this new Apple TV 4K is that the maximum resolution will still be 4K, with HDR support – no 8K support as of yet. That said, the current Apple TV 4K doesn’t support the new HDR10+ standard, and cannot stream YouTube in 4K; moreover, Apple Arcade games have yet to widely adopt 4K resolutions. There’s certainly room for improvement.
There’s obviously no word on a release date just yet, but with an Apple Spring event supposedly just around the corner, it might not be long before we learn more about the new Apple TV 4K.