Gruber: Apple TV 4K and HomePod Mini 2 Price Hikes Outshine the New Features

Apple’s new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2 are better in small ways, but their prices are the bigger story, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber argues in his first impressions of the devices announced at Apple’s October 13 event.

The fourth-generation Apple TV 4K comes in one 128GB model at $299, and the HomePod mini 2 costs $149, MacRumors notes. Before Apple’s late-June price increases, the cheapest Apple TV 4K was $129 and the HomePod mini was $99. Gruber’s math: a 128GB Apple TV and a pair of HomePod minis cost about $350 before June and about $600 with today’s models. “That price difference is much more striking than any of the new and improved features in the products,” he writes.

The June 25 increases had already hit the Apple TV harder than anything else Apple sells on a percentage basis, Gruber says. The 64GB model went from $129 to $199 and the 128GB model with Ethernet from $149 to $249, figures Engadget also reports. Apple is not keeping those third-generation boxes around as cheaper options. MacRumors points out that against the old 128GB model’s post-June price, the new one is technically only $50 more, but the minimum you can spend on an Apple TV 4K is now $299.

For that money, Engadget says, buyers get an A19 chip in place of the A15, double the RAM, a dedicated AV1 decoder, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and three built-in far-field microphones. Apple’s announcement claims up to 50 percent faster CPU and up to 2x faster GPU performance than the previous generation. Owners of older boxes get some of the new features anyway: Siri AI is available in beta on second-generation and later Apple TV 4K models, and the new Siri Remote works with older Apple TVs and is sold separately.

Gruber is mixed on the upgrades. Find My support for the Siri Remote is his favorite addition, while he doubts the A19 chip does much for basic TV navigation and says the far-field microphones add little if you already pair the box with HomePods. Gruber still says the Apple TV is “worth it” to him and calls $149 “reasonable” for the HomePod mini 2, but he doesn’t see the new features winning over buyers who already found the old $129 box too pricey. He adds that $149 is a 50 percent jump from the $99 the original HomePod mini cost from November 2020 until June, and that losing the two-digit price matters: $99 was a “let’s get another one” price, he writes, while $149 makes buyers ask whether they really need another.

The HomePod mini 2, which uses Apple’s S10 chip and gets Siri AI in a future software update, is available October 30 in five colors, Apple says. The new Apple TV 4K arrives November 13.

Sources: Daring Fireball, MacRumors, Engadget, Apple Newsroom (Apple TV 4K), Apple Newsroom (HomePod mini 2)