The long wait for a new Apple TV 4K might finally be almost over.
For years now, rumors and reports have suggested that Apple is working on a new Apple TV 4K, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting just last month that a new model is “nearly ready to launch” and that sources he spoke to at Apple said it “will be ready this fall.”
While Apple didn’t reveal it at its big “Surprise and shine” event earlier this month, where the company announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, there’s plenty of speculation that Apple could launch its new Apple TV 4K this October. That would make sense, given that the last Apple TV 4K (third-generation) launched four years ago, in October 2022.
And with October now just around the corner, we’re starting to get our first clues that the new Apple TV 4K could indeed be on the way. MacRumors recently uncovered an image file for an unreleased Apple TV 4K (fourth-generation) buried in Apple’s own code, giving us our first major glimpse at what it could look like. You can check out the leaked image below.
Based on this image, the new fourth-gen Apple TV 4K appears to share the same design as the last-gen model: a small, black square box with rounded corners. This isn’t entirely surprising, as many of the new Apple TV 4K’s upgrades have long been suspected to be internal rather than external. Personally, I’m totally cool with this design choice, as I quite like the Apple TV 4K’s simple, compact design. As the saying goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
That said, with the fourth-gen Apple TV 4K’s design now leaked, here are all the under-the-hood upgrades the device is expected to have.
What upgrades will the new Apple TV 4K have?
More power and AI
The biggest under-the-hood upgrade the new fourth-gen Apple TV 4K is expected to have is a new chipset. For a while, rumors suggested it would be powered by the A17 Pro, which would be a decent upgrade over the A15 Bionic in the current third-gen Apple TV 4K.
However, earlier this month, MacRumors reported that it could instead use the A19 or A19 Pro after finding evidence of this in Apple’s code. The A19 is much newer and more powerful than the A17 Pro, so if this proves accurate, the new Apple TV 4K could pack some serious power.
As for what all that power might be used for, the new Apple TV 4K is expected to support Siri AI, Apple’s AI-enhanced version of Siri that launched this month with iOS 27. This likely means it will also have its own dedicated Siri app, which you could use to ask virtually any question, such as asking for movie recommendations or checking what time the next football game is.
The new Apple TV 4K is also rumored to get two other upgrades. The first is a revised Siri Remote, while the second is an upgraded networking chip, rumored to be Apple’s N1 chip, which would bring support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
The new Apple TV 4K might cost a pretty penny
Its launch could be only weeks away
One of the biggest question marks surrounding the new fourth-gen Apple TV 4K is how much it could cost.
Back in June, Apple raised the price of the third-gen Apple TV 4K from $130 to $200, and it’s unclear whether the new model will stick to that price or go even higher.
There’s also no word yet on whether Apple will offer two models or just one. The third-gen Apple TV 4K launched with a Wi-Fi model with 32GB of storage and an Ethernet model with 64GB of storage. I’d love to see Apple do the same with the fourth-gen model, as I much prefer connecting via Ethernet when streaming.
All in all, despite the uncertainty around the price, I’m quite excited about the new Apple TV 4K, and seeing this image leak has given me even more hope that it could actually launch soon. With October just around the corner, Apple could pull the curtain back on its new Apple TV 4K at any time.
