TV 4K

Buy a television now and you are really buying two things: a good panel, and the second-rate software bolted on top of it. The panel is what the maker is proud of. The software is what they rent to advertisers, and it shows, in home screens that pause before they open and banners shoving the menu into a corner.

An Apple TV 4K quietly retires all of that. What got me the first week was how little it ever makes me wait. Apps appear the moment I reach for them, video starts before I have settled into the sofa, and the home screen is mine rather than a billboard. The A15 chip is far more than a stack of menus needs, and you feel the headroom in every press.

What keeps it here is how it behaves over years. Most gadgets get slower as their software outgrows the hardware, and this one does the opposite. Three years in it is still instant, still smooth, still collecting new tvOS features, while the television’s own apps have turned to treacle. I have simply stopped thinking about it, which is the best thing I can say for a gadget.

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