For those who have been integrated into the Apple ecosystem, Apple TV is effortless. But even if you aren’t, Apple TV is for everyone. This is the best streamer we’ve tested, easy to set, lightning fast speeds and, most importantly, a completely ad-free home screen. Plus, if you want to own your own movie, Apple has a video on demand library that makes it easy to buy movies.
While almost all other streaming devices on this list are suppressed by the home screen of ad playback, Apple’s TVOS keeps the experience clean and ad-free (beyond the spin list of Apple TV+ Originals that occasionally rotate, hovering over the app). The home screen is neatly organized, but can also be adjusted so that all your preferred apps are nearby.
You can’t beat Apple TV. After testing many streaming devices, at the end of the day, I was always relieved to go back to the Apple TV I owned. Through all my tests, no streaming device can outpace Apple TV’s speeds. It can zip between applications and start the show with little to no buffering time.
It has the best homepage layout – a series of organized rectangles showing the user-downloaded apps. But most importantly, it has no ads. As an Apple TV user, I didn’t realize how I performed until I started testing other streaming media and found that Apple TV was a streaming group in a display with ad-free. Not only does this lead to a more pleasing navigation experience, it feels like it helps with speed and the device doesn’t reduce the pressure on the device due to the ongoing loading of ads.
The streaming quality of Apple TV is impressive. Before my actual TV was 4K, I had a 4K Apple TV, but once I did it sent out gorgeous high resolution pictures without any buffering time. Plus, it comes with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmosphere for dramatic quality.
Apple went through a different cycle of Apple TV remote control and eventually landed on a sleek silver model with intuitive controls. Plus, it comes with Siri voice commands, which makes it easy to search when you don’t want to type manually.
The Apple TV 4K is the best streaming device with excellent processing, ease of use, and excellent display and sound.
