New Apple TV hardware is rumored for later this year. Here are the rumors, what we expect to see, and what we hope to get now or in the future.

First the rumors: Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in May that new Apple TV hardware will launch later this year and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in June that it will be equipped with an A14 chip and 4GB of RAM (up from 3GB).

The potential in Apple TV is much greater so here is what we look for.


Upgraded hardware
Apple TV 4K is quite powerful and good enough for most video tasks but Apple is in a good position to push the video industry forward and make its little black puck double as a gaming box. For this to happen, it needs more power, more RAM, more storage capacity, more everything.

What we do not want is a cheaper Apple TV dongle. Apple should stick to its strategy and not engage in the race to the bottom like Roku. Do not pee your pants to keep warm. In the long run, it would ruin tvOS with more ads and more monetization. If a company does not make money on the hardware, it has to make money somewhere else. So stick to the price point, make the hardware as capable as possible, let the profits fund continuous hardware development, and let the old hardware drop in price once new hardware launches.


Improved gaming support
Game consoles: Graphical performance

Apple TV HD
0.1 TFlops
PlayStation 3
0.23 TFlops
Xbox 360
0.24 TFlops
Nintendo Switch (in dock)
0.38
Apple TV 4K
0.5 TFlops
Nvidia Shield (2019)
0.5 TFlops
Apple TV 4K (2nd gen)
0.7 TFlops
Apple TV 2022 (A14)?
≈1 TFlops
Xbox One
1.3 TFlops
Xbox One S
1.4 TFlops
PS4
1.8 TFlops
A14 is fine but it is not an M-series chip and it is clear that Apple is not yet ready to go head to head with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in the gaming console space. If we know Apple, it will have a unique approach and you can already see its plans for multi-platform gaming start to emerge with Apple Arcade.

If you look even closer, Apple has spent years laying the foundation for TV gaming. Apple TV now supports PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox and many other game controllers. It has Game Center and achievements. It has a Buddy Controller system. It has system-level user profile support to let everyone have their own game progress. It even has a function to match Xbox's 'Quick Resume'.

What we really want is a custom-designed TV SoC from Apple, maybe call it T2, and for Apple to persuade AAA game developers to get onboard. Throw a killer Apple-designed game controller in there, enable HDR and Dolby Atmos (Spatial Audio already works) for gaming, and it starts to add up. It is OK if an M-based Apple TV with 512GB of storage costs more.


High Frame Rate (HFR) and HDMI 2.1
Back in 2021, 9to5Mac found code references to 120Hz support in a tvOS beta release. Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) supports up to 4K 60Hz Dolby Vision. The jump to 4K 120Hz would require an HDMI 2.1 output – a real HDMI 2.1 output, that is.

At the same time, the hardware would need to be beefed up in order to be capable of decoding video in 4K 120fps. Can A14 do it? Maybe, but it is worth noting that Apple did not make the switch to 120Hz on iPhone until A15. 

Some might question if 120fps video support is really needed as most movies are still shot in 24fps. However, we are starting to see experiments with HFR in various forms –just imagine a nature documentary in 120fps. There is gaming too, but Apple's hardware is not fit for 4K 120fps gaming yet.

In addition, we would love to get other HDMI 2.1 features such as VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), QMS (Quick Media Switching), and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode).

8K? It's too early.


Improved video support
Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) already supports MPEG4 and HEVC, even Google's VP9 which is required for YouTube HDR. It is also the only TV platform to offer system-level frame rate matching for both integer and fractional frame rate.

Besides HFR, we hope to see AV1 video decoding. Apple is a founding member of the Alliance for Open Media together with Amazon, Google, Netflix and others. These company have committed to using AV1, which delivers more efficient video streaming for improved picture quality and/or reduced bandwidth.

The company has yet to add support in any device but is seemingly preparing to embrace AV1.


AirPlay TV audio
Apple TV 4K is already capable of outputting stereo TV audio wirelessly to AirPlay-compatible speakers but only HomePods can be set to the default wireless Apple TV speakers and work with Dolby Atmos. AirPlay 2 speakers may soon function in much the same way as HomePods, according to code references found in the iOS 16.1 beta.

This would allow you to use AirPlay 2-enabled speakers from Bang & Olufsen, Bluesound, Bose, LG, Harman, JBL, Samsung, Sony, Sonos or even Roku. Hopefully Apple will also enable the system to work with more than two front speakers, which is the current limitation with HomePods. For example, rear speakers, up-firing units and a subwoofer.

In addition, Apple is rumored to be working on a new HomePod speaker designed specifically for Apple TV but it will not be ready until 2023, according to Bloomberg.


Improved audio support
Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) has the coolest eARC implementation we have seen and the box supports Dolby audio up to Dolby Atmos wired (HDMI) or wireless (AirPods, HomePods). The exception is Dolby TrueHD which requires the purchase of a license (in Infuse, for example). Some people have ripped their Blu-ray collections to a network hard drive and long for a solution to Atmos in TrueHD. It does not necessarily have to be bit-streaming – it would present challenges on Apple TV – but Apple should add native decoding support for Dolby TrueHD with and without Atmos. We would also like to see Dolby Atmos support for gaming.

DTS? Well, that would be nice too for local media playback but so far irrelevant for streaming where DTS is completely absent.

Apple's Spatial Audio system already works well but it would be nice if more than one pair of AirPods could be connected with Spatial Audio. This probably requires a newer Bluetooth version than 5.0.


Connectivity & HomeKit
Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) added WiFi 6 (ax) and Thread. The latter will make it a Matter hub after a tvOS update later this year. It would be nice to get WiFi 6E or even WiFi 7 (probably too early for that). It would also be nice if Apple TV actions could trigger Matter / HomeKit scenes. For example, starting a movie during day time could automatically lower the living room blinds. Lastly, give the remote control a small speaker for 'Find My' support.

 Also read: Apple tvOS 16 released: Here are all the new features – updated

What do you hope to see in a new Apple TV?