Although the Apple TV 4K is my favorite streaming box, I’m not sure that I could recommend it to anybody looking for a new streamer today. Recent price hikes have taken it up to $200 and $250, depending on what model you’re looking at. To put that into perspective, this is about a four-year-old model, so it’s a tough sell.

Even before the price bump, there was a $30 difference between the two models. The cheaper model is strictly Wi-Fi with 64 GB of storage, while the more expensive model bumps the storage up to 128 GB and adds an Ethernet port. For some people, that’s well worth the price difference, but I can’t say I’m one of them. I haven’t come close to filling up the hard drive of an Apple TV, mainly because I use it only for streaming apps, so there’s not much of a difference between 64 and 128 to me. If you’re somebody who likes to do other things with their Apple TV, like turning it into an emulation device, then I could see the vision.

While I think it’s easier to justify charging more for the storage space, I don’t understand charging more for an Ethernet port. My first-gen model has an Ethernet port, but I don’t use it at all. I was more shocked to learn it’s a Gigabit Ethernet port, so it’s speedier than the likes of the far newer Roku Ultra. Despite that, I don’t use the port at all, and I’m glad Apple doesn’t force me to have it.

Brand

Apple

Bluetooth codecs

5.0

Wi-Fi

6

Ethernet

Gigabit (128GB model only)

Storage and RAM

64GB, 128GB

The Ethernet port serves no purpose

I don’t need it at all

If this were 10 years ago, I’d be all for Ethernet ports being included on things. Back then, my internet wasn’t nearly as good, and I valued having a stable connection. Fast-forward to today, and I have Fiber internet and next to no drops in speeds. The only thing I have plugged into Ethernet is my PC, and that’s because it has no other way of connecting to the internet. I don’t deal with buffering anymore, and I don’t need Gigabit speeds running through my Apple TV 4K. I could see how that’d be beneficial for somebody with a Plex or Jellyfin server, but that’s not something I have at the moment.

The real elephant in the room is the fact that my Apple TV 4K is in my living room. This means my Ethernet cable would have to run from my home office upstairs to my living room downstairs. That’s not something I’m willing to do, and I don’t want to drill a hole in my wall and run it through there either. If I were dealing with connection problems, it’s probably something I’d consider, but it’s not on the radar at the moment. It’s the same reason I don’t plug in game consoles or my TV — it just doesn’t make any logical sense for me.

A lot of people swear by plugging their devices into Ethernet ports, but I’m just not there with them. I don’t see much of a need for it with how good Wi-Fi has gotten these days. I won’t fault anybody who plugs in their Apple TV 4K, and I can certainly see the appeal of it, since it’s not one of those cases where my Wi-Fi would perform better, as it does on the Roku Ultra. There’s nothing wrong with having a stable connection, and it’s not like your streaming apps would perform worse while plugged into an Ethernet port. All I’m saying is that they don’t make a lot of sense to me.

This is why I think it’s nice that Apple gives me the choice of picking between having a port or not. It’s always nice to save some money on something if I have no intention of ever using it. I wish everything gave me the freedom of choice like that, especially if the price of everything is just going to keep rising. Now it feels like the only choice I have is to pay an inflated price or buy nothing at all.

I’m not sure if I want a new Apple TV anymore

A new frontier

With these massive price hikes, I’m not sure if a new Apple TV 4K is even in my future anymore. I can’t really justify buying a new one right now, especially since I have numerous ways of watching my favorite movies and shows. I have a Roku Ultra, a first-gen Apple TV 4K, a Roku Streaming Stick, and more Fire TV Sticks than I’m willing to admit. Yes, my first-gen Apple TV 4K is still my favorite, and I’ve been holding on as long as I can, and now it’s looking like I have to do it for even longer.

The good news is that my Apple TV 4K is still in good condition, and I’m sure it has a lot more life ahead of it. Unfortunately, each tvOS update that comes pushes me closer to pulling the trigger on an update. I haven’t seen any meaningful changes from one of these in a while, and I don’t even have the Snoopy backgrounds. This isn’t a huge deal since I mainly need my Apple TV to run apps, and it still does that just fine. Sure, I have to give it a nice restart more often than I’d like, but it certainly beats having to spend $200 or $250 on a new model.

If the fourth-gen model comes out and costs even more than this, there’s just no way I could justify paying that price. I’d rather take the 2024 Roku Ultra out of my bedroom and move it into my living room before spending $300 on a streaming box. It’s a tough situation to be in, and it doesn’t seem like things are going to get better any time soon. It’s a bummer that something I’ve been looking forward to for so long might be dead on arrival before it’s even officially announced. I guess I’ll just need to make sure my current Apple TV doesn’t die on me, because there’s a solid chance that it’ll be the only Apple TV I ever own, whether I get to save money on an Ethernet port or not.

Of course, other companies could fall victim to these price hikes. I don’t see why Amazon or Roku would be immune to these issues, but those two companies haven’t announced a price hike yet. Meanwhile, Apple raised the price on everything but the iPhones, so maybe the writing is on the wall. I certainly hope this isn’t the case, because I really don’t want to have to rely on aging technology.