Skip to main content

New Apple TV 4K launching this week with five big upgrades

Avatar for Ryan Christoffel  | Oct 12 2026 - 6:47 am PT
13 Comments

A new Apple TV 4K will be unveiled tomorrow as part of Apple’s ‘Welcome home’ event. Here are five upgrades it’s rumored to bring.

Here’s every rumored upgrade the new Apple TV 4K will bring

This Tuesday, October 13 Apple is holding its ‘Welcome home’ event where it will unveil several long-awaited Home products.

One of those is a new Apple TV 4K, the first update to the device since 2022.

Here are five new features reportedly coming:

  1. A19 chip, up from the current A15 Bionic
  2. Siri AI
  3. Microphone built into Apple TV box for Siri
  4. Updated Siri Remote with built-in speaker
  5. N1 wireless chip

The A19 chip should make the Apple TV 4K run smoother than current hardware, and offer a significant upgrade over the A15 in the 2022 model. It will importantly also add support for Siri AI.

As is clear from the list of features above, Siri AI is a central focus of the new Apple TV.

Siri won’t merely get a software improvement. It will also be easier to interact with thanks to the built-in microphone in the Apple TV 4K box.

Top comment by RDW

Liked by 5 people

Asking for a friend...So why would they build the mic into the box itself instead of the remote? A lot of people (including myself) have their boxes in a cabinet and use the remote to communicate with the unit.

View all comments

Similar to a HomePod, this will enable interacting with Siri entirely by voice, with no need to hit the button on the Siri Remote. I suspect you’ll even be able to ask Siri to find the remote, and it will play a noise on the new Siri Remote so you can find where you left it.

The N1 wireless chip is expected to enable improved reliability with features like AirDrop, and could tie into other Apple Home-related feature improvements.

Beyond these five upgrades, Apple could always surprise us with new features that haven’t yet been rumored. We’ll keep you posted on all the announcements as they unfold this week.

Are you planning to upgrade your Apple TV 4K to the new model? Let us know in the comments.

Best Apple TV 4K accessories

Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Comments

Guides

Apple TV

Apple TV

Apple TV is Apple's streaming device that access…
Apple TV 4K

Apple TV 4K

Author

Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.