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This second Apple TV 4K was bought for a pretty stupid reason: Apple Fitness+ and Apple's unwillingness to let us AirPlay Fitness+ to even HomeKit enabled TVs.
This wasn't a purchase I was going to make when I bought the 4K TV in my bedroom; it is $180 so I bought a $50 Fire Stick for streaming for the bedroom TV.
But as I lose weight and get into better shape by monitoring what I eat, going into a caloric deficit, and exercising with Fitness+, the lack of AirPlay for that service meant I needed to get another Apple TV 4K.
Could I have just used the Apple TV in my living room? Sure, but the hardwood and floor level blinds make me leery of doing so. Exercising in my bedroom is my preferred way to do things as there is carpet.
Now, how does it perform? How does it stack up to my (now no longer owned) Fire Stick 4K?
The interface is buttery smooth on this box. It was smooth on the Fire Stick as well, but I had more internet connection errors on the Fire Stick. I have a mesh wifi system with one beacon outside in the utility closet, which is close to my bedroom, and one in my office. For whatever reason, sometimes the Fire Stick would tell me I didn't have an internet connection but my Apple TV in the living room did.
The interface on the Apple TV is just better. Full stop. It's clean, the UX is better even if it isn't the greatest it's still decent and easier to navigate than the Fire Stick.
Voice control with Siri is hit or miss for most people. Depending on what I am asking for, Siri will either find it or give me some convoluted nonsense. The Fire Stick was a bit better but not by much. Where Apple pulls ahead in the voice assistant feature of the streaming box wars is being able to search across multiple apps and services, something I sorely missed when when using Alexa on my Fire Stick.
The resolution is great; I have two 4K TVs from LG, with HDR and HomeKit, one 49" in the living room and a 43" in the bedroom mounted to the wall. The picture may vary from TV to TV but I find it incredibly sharp. One thing to note is with this box you need an HDMI 2.0 cable that is able to handle 4K data streaming to actually get the best picture.
I use mainly streaming services and keep my TV provider for sports and ID channel (yeah I am one of those women haha) and this means I can, and do, use my HomePods for stereo sound, now coming with Dolby Atmos.
I recently bought a HomePod Mini for the bedroom Apple TV which sounds great. In order to use HomePods as default speakers for your Apple TV, you need two in a pair. If not, you can always press and hold the TV button on the remote to bring up AirPlay menu and select your HomePod.
The biggest, and I mean BIGGEST flaw of this box is the remote. OH. GOD. It's terrible. You accidentally touch the touch surface and you scrub through a video by accident. Scrolling down long lists of YouTube channels takes FOREVER whereas on my Fire Stick remote it was BANG BANG, down the list, as that remote has physical buttons. A big miss here by Apple.
All in all, as someone with an ENORMOUS cadre of Apple gear, this is another win from Apple.
