ZDNet has gotten and reviewed the new Apple TV 4K device that was recently introduced by Apple a few weeks ago. What did they think?
The new Apple TV 4K uses an A12 Bionic processor and, thankfully, comes with a brand new Siri Remote. A remote that’s more difficult to lose, even though it lacks support for the company’s Find My network.
I’ve been using the new Apple TV 4K for the past week, in place of my personal first-generation Apple TV 4K. I’ve noticed subtle speed improvements in common tasks like switching between apps or browsing a service’s show catalog, but the real star of the show is the new Siri Remote.
The remote no longer has a large touchpad that’s used for navigation and making selections. Instead, there’s a circular clickpad that has touch-controls integrated into it. It’s reminiscent of the wheel on Apple’s beloved iPod.
Under the clickpad, there’s now a dedicated back button, a TV button, play/pause button, a dedicated mute button and volume controls. You can still trigger Siri on the remote, but the button to talk to the digital assistant is now found on the right edge of the remote.
The new clickpad with touch controls [is] far more accurate to use when scrolling through a content library. You can swipe across the entire pad and outer edges to use it much like the old touchpad worked, but when you need finer control, you can press on the outer ring of the pad. One click means your selection moves over one spot. Then press in the middle circle to make your selection.
The idea of the touchpad being familiar on the last Apple TV Siri Remote made sense, but something got lost in the translation of finer movements on the remote being relayed to the Apple TV. This was never more apparent than when trying to fast forward or rewind a show.
With the new remote, you can press on the left or right side of the outer ring to jump ahead or back in 10-second increments. On the old remote, you could do this but you had to press at the very edge of the touchpad, and if you weren’t in just the right spot you’d pause the show instead.
But what if you want to jump ahead to the middle of the show? With the new Siri remote you can press pause (either with the play/pause button, or by pressing on the center of the clickpad), then place your thumb on the outer ring of the clickpad. Slowly move it along the edge of the pad, and you’ll see a circle display on the scrubber on your TV. Once you see that, you can move your thumb in a circle around the edge of the clickpad to go forwards or back. It’s a much more intuitive and more reliable method for moving around in a movie.
The best part about the new Siri Remote? It will work with the Apple TV HD and the 2017 Apple TV 4K, not just the most recent model. Apple is selling the remote on its own for $59.
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