Don’t buy the new Apple TV 4K until Apple does these 3 things

I’m a huge fan of Apple’s digital media player, the Apple TV 4K. I’ve owned every version of the Apple TV for over a decade now, and have used Apple’s Movies store to purchase hundreds of films.

The diminutive Apple TV 4K is my sole portal to my television, and it easily beats other media streamers—including those from Roku, Amazon, and Google—when it comes to ease of use and user interface.

Like many, I had been eagerly waiting for a new Apple TV 4K, ready to upgrade. Apple’s last version came out back in 2022, and though it still works perfectly fine, I was excited to see what new modern features and improvements the 2026 model would have.

But the 2026 model, which went on sale on Friday, November 13—it kills me to say—is a letdown. The hardware is fantastic, but the device is failed by its software. And its price is double that of its predecessor. For the first time since I began buying Apple TVs more than a decade ago, I’ll be sitting this model out—and you probably should, too—until Apple does these three things.

Fixes its TV app

The worst thing about the Apple TV, ironically, has always been its TV app. That’s the app you use to access the Apple TV streaming service, as well as all the movies and TV shows you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store.

I’ve written in detail about the TV app before, and unfortunately its weakness remains, even in tvOS 27, the operating system that powers the new Apple TV 4K. It’s so barebones that it feels like the development team behind it created it as an afterthought.

The actual video playback of the TV app is fine. It’s got a nice Liquid Glass sheen and is pretty fluid. But it’s also, ostensibly, designed to be the home for all your digital entertainment—how you access all the movies and series you’ve purchased through the iTunes Store. And it’s horrible at that.

The most egregious failure (and there are many) of the TV app is that it still doesn’t offer the basic functionality of letting users organize their purchased movies and series into collections for easy categorization on the Apple TV 4K. And this is sorely needed, because the built-in Genre categories the app does offer so often misclassify or outright omit movies that it seems like a sin against cinema itself.

Adds missing apps

A second frustration with the Apple TV 4K is that it is still lacking two apps all other Apple devices support—and these apps are perfect for a television.

One is a dedicated Home app, as you have on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even the Apple Watch. Apple positions the Apple TV 4K as one of the central hubs of your smart home, so it’s baffling that the company hasn’t ported its Home app to it, which would let you monitor and control your security feeds and smart devices from the comfort of your couch.

Then there is the Weather app. Apple’s Weather app is the most beautiful out there, thanks to rich graphics that visually represent local conditions. And, you know, for some 70 years now, people have been conditioned to tune into their TVs to get their local weather forecast. So why does the Apple TV, after all these years, still not have a dedicated Weather app that you can access with a click of the Siri Remote?

Expands its gaming capabilities

In advance of the new Apple TV 4K announcement, many people, including myself, speculated (and indeed, hoped) that Apple would finally turn the Apple TV 4K into a true gaming console. But when Apple released the new unit, with the powerful A19 chip inside, the company didn’t announce any new gaming capabilities to go with it.

This was surprising, since the new A19 chip is more than capable of running AAA console games, unlike the A15 chip in the prior-generation Apple TV 4K. I mean, even the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro, which is inferior to the A19, can run AAA titles like the Resident Evil 2 remake, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Red Dead Redemption, Control: Ultimate Edition, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and more.

Of all these gripes, the new Apple TV 4K’s lack of gaming enhancements is the most disappointing, considering that it costs $299, twice the price of the previous model with 128GB of storage, and now nearly as much as a Nintendo Switch.

Apple should have compensated users for that massive price hike—which, admittedly, was likely due to increased memory costs that were outside the company’s control—with the software enhancements above, which are entirely within Apple’s control.

At $149, these historic omissions were annoying but tolerable. At $299, they’re deal-breakers. And if you’ve got an existing Apple TV 4K, there’s no compelling reason to upgrade until Apple changes course.

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