Apple TV 5 (4K First Generation) Long-Term Review

[AudiTTFan]

A fantastic little streaming box with a disgraceful stupid awful piece of shit remote.

 

Photo by JY-LIVE - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124588157

 

Just over 2 years ago the 3^rd generation Apple TV lost support for some major streaming apps like YouTube and Crave TV, leaving us unsure of whether we should get a new Apple TV for more money than a used Kia, or go for a more sensible option like a Roku or whatever other options are out there. Unfortunately my family consists of the kind of people who’d build a shrine dedicated to Steve Jobs and pray to Tim Apple every morning before breakfast, so of course they chose the former.

 

First impressions

I ended up being the one who unboxed it, and there’s not really a whole lot to say. It felt a lot like unboxing my used iPhone XS for the first time in 2020, just with more plastic wrap, and as a result, more guilt about the sea turtles that were about to die eating all this plastic.

 

Powering it on for the first time I have to say the setup is pretty easy, my iPhone just showed a setup box and the entire process took about 4-5 minutes. I’m not sure what happens if you have an Android phone though. There’s probably a dialog box that says “Go Fuck Yourself” if that’s the case.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the remote from our previous Apple TV worked perfectly with the new box, no setup required. I messed around with a few settings, installed a few apps, and then decided to try out the new remote.

 

The worst remote ever made

I can’t stress how bad the remote is. This thing made me long for the days of my grandparents who always say stuff like “Back in my day, we had to walk uphill both ways to change the TV channel!” or something. This remote made me long for the days when the only way to see any form of video was to go to the theatre and see Buster Keaton nearly get crushed by the side of a house, with no audio because the technology didn’t exist yet. It made me long for the days when people went to vaudeville shows instead of watching movies or TV. It really is that bad..

 

Let’s start with what a good TV remote should be:

 

1. Durable: Let’s face it. TV remotes get dropped by little kids all the time, because little kids are idiots who don’t know how to hold something for more than five seconds. The Apple TV remote fails at this, as the back is made of that aluminum they used from the iPhone 6 until the iPad 9, and the front is made of glass. Yes, that’s right. A glass TV remote. Unsurprisingly, ours didn’t last 6 months before it hit the corner of a table and cracked.

2. Intuitive: TV remotes tend to get used by people as they’re staring at the TV, so most remotes have distinctive button patterns or placement so you don’t have to take your eyes off the screen. For this one, Apple decided out of sheer spite for their loyal customers, to put all the buttons in the middle of the remote. Oh, and the D-pad from the 2010-2015 remote is gone, replaced with a touchpad that also doubles as a giant button. This is really handy if you want to find something new to watch on Netflix; you click the letter K, only for the remote to think you actually swiped over and clicked the letter F. Unfortunately, This isn’t intended to be a feature as far as I can tell.

3. Comfortable: if you have to hold the remote pretty often, it better not feel like it was designed with the sole intent of giving you carpal tunnel syndrome. The Apple TV remote is way too thin and narrow to hold tightly, and the untextured aluminum back means you’ll be dropping it a lot more than the old remote.

4. Good: The Apple TV remote is not good.

 

So there you go. The Apple TV 5 is worth it if you can find a used one without a remote on a sketchy eBay listing, just not brand new. Use an old remote from a 2nd or 3rd gen Apple TV instead because they're dirt cheap and extremely durable. If you want something newer, Apple now makes a new remote with an all-aluminum design and a D-pad, just like the 2010-15 remote. I’ll be sure to review it, because I’m definitely switching to that soon.

Edited April 24, 2023 by AudiTTFan

[johnt]

The Siri button on the latest remotes sucks donkey bollocks. It's so easy to press and ALWAYS triggers when the remote gets jammed against something, like a pillow... it's such a light button. That's my main gripe with it. Let me be clear that I've disabled the touch controls. Those were utter garbage for the one day I tried them.

 

The new remote also doesn't seem very durable as the "up" button on my d-pad gets "stuck" and requires a bit extra effort for the first press. But then it works fine. I guess I've had it for two years now with every day use... time flies.

 

The streaming box itself is a BEAST though! I can never go back to a Fire tv. I'm ruined.

[BondiBlue]

I own both the original Apple TV 4K (there's not an Apple TV 5) and the Apple TV 4K second generation. I like them both, and they both perform very well, but I much prefer the design of the older Siri remote (the one you seem to despise). It's always worked well for me, and it's been very durable. Mine has survived multiple falls onto a hard floor without so much as a scratch, let alone being cracked. 

 

The newer remote isn't bad, but I'm not a fan of the touch-sensitive d-pad design. I'd rather it be one or the other, preferably the glass touchpad. It just works for me. 

[AudiTTFan]

14 hours ago, johnt said:

The Siri button on the latest remotes sucks donkey bollocks. It's so easy to press and ALWAYS triggers when the remote gets jammed against something, like a pillow... it's such a light button.

Yeah, I've heard quite a few complaints about the Siri button on the new remote, especially regarding the placement. It's almost like using a design element from a cell phone on a TV remote is a horrible idea!

 

In all seriousness I think Apple's focus on design parity across all product lines like what they did w/ the Siri button was definitely the wrong move. The more I research the new remote before buying it, the more I'm starting to wonder about just using my old Xbox controller with a jammed trigger. I really wouldn't be surprised if the joysticks provide an infinitely better navigation experience than the stupid touchpad.

 

Completely agree about the box. It's pricey, but well worth it, especially given how good the OS is. TV OS is a massive improvement from the OS that powered the 3rd generation box, all while retaining almost the exact same home screen. I'm also impressed with how lightweight it is, despite having 3rd party apps unlike the old software, it's just as zippy throughout all of them.

 

I only have three complaints: the beeps and boops that TV OS makes while navigating are really annoying compared to the nice clicks and pops from the legacy Apple TV software, (thank god you can disable those...) the box is about twice as thick and doesn't fit the spot we used to keep the old one, (this is about as first-world problem as it gets lol) and the linear keyboard is such a massive step back from the standard on-screen keyboard layout used in the legacy OS.

[AudiTTFan]

15 hours ago, BondiBlue said:

I own both the original Apple TV 4K (there's not an Apple TV 5) and the Apple TV 4K second generation. I like them both, and they both perform very well, but I much prefer the design of the older Siri remote (the one you seem to despise). It's always worked well for me, and it's been very durable. Mine has survived multiple falls onto a hard floor without so much as a scratch, let alone being cracked. 

 

The newer remote isn't bad, but I'm not a fan of the touch-sensitive d-pad design. I'd rather it be one or the other, preferably the glass touchpad. It just works for me. 

I've heard quite a few bad things about the newer remote as well. I'm not one to immediately dismiss things as bad without first trying them though, so I'll just share some of my thoughts:

• The touchpad is presumably smaller, which seems like it could be somewhat annoying for those occasional moments where the touchpad actually ends up being a good navigation method. I may just turn the touchpad completely off.
• Putting the Siri button on the right side is a HORRIBLE idea. Most people are right handed and have fat palms, so accidental presses seem inevitable.
• The dedicated power button for the TV seems like it'd be nice, as long as it actually works. While the glass remote lets you power the TV and box on at the same time if you press the home button, that doesn't work every time, despite CEC being enabled on my TV.

I still reach for the old aluminum (non-Siri) remote when I feel like streaming something. Until I try the new one, that remains the gold standard in my eyes.

[DrMacintosh]

Having used the newer all aluminum remote since the first iteration came out, I have never accidentally activated the Siri button because of how it sits in my hand. 

 

It's a great remote as long as you don't drop it on tile. The tile will win and dent the edges, but for hardwood floors things should be fine. Cases exist but you have to be sure you don't get one that slimes up your remote. I go naked because I'm really good at not dropping anything.

[AudiTTFan]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

Having used the newer all aluminum remote since the first iteration came out, I have never accidentally activated the Siri button because of how it sits in my hand. 

 

It's a great remote as long as you don't drop it on tile. The tile will win and dent the edges, but for hardwood floors things should be fine. Cases exist but you have to be sure you don't get one that slimes up your remote. I go naked because I'm really good at not dropping anything.

Didn't realize the button was that far up on the remote, guess that pretty much stops it from always getting accidentally pressed. I wouldn't be bothered by the potential for dents, I grew up in a household full of dented stuff because it seems like my parents are both physically incapable of holding tech products for more than one minute...