It’s experiential. My advice. Buy one. Use it for a week. If you are not convinced that every other streaming device is garbage in comparison, return it.

I will say that it truly becomes amazing if you are in the apple ecosystem (iPhone, MacBook, iPad, Apple Watch. Your iPhone and watch become an amazing remotes for the Apple TV. You can set up apple home to turn off your TV when you leave your house. You can write scripts to do very cool things in Home.

It’s $129. Buy it on credit and return it if it doesn’t fundamentally change what a streaming device is for you.

Fast, can quickly toggle video apps without closing them, Apple Music app.

The default apps on my tv started to go slowly and not all of them support live tv (in the uk); I looked at the other options like fire stick and Roku but I’d probably have to replace them in a couple of years and they have so many ads

Felt worth it to me to get the Apple TV that should last longer and all of the uk tv apps let you watch live tv

It just makes life nice and easy that’s all

For me it’s just the ease of use, casting something from your phone to your television, if you’re an iPhone user of course. Also certain cable companies have apps that allow your Apple TV to function as your cable box, so that will eliminate the need for one.

If you only use legal streaming services and don’t watch plan to use HIDIVE if you are an anime watcher, AppleTV is great. It is fast, the UI is polished, apps work as they should (except HIDIVE), and Dolby Atmos and Vision content work correctly. You can even match color space and frame rate to avoid 3:2 pulldown and SDR->HDR tonemap issues.

If you plan to use “free” streaming services, get a AndroidTV device. Most of those sites work via the web browser or have an app. AppleTV has no web browser so only a native app or AirPlay is how you play videos.

If you are into the more “mature” content, getting a Roku or AndroidTV is the way to go as those work correctly there and have native apps for some websites.

Unless it’s changed in recent years, Smart TV apps aren’t updated after a couple of years and eventually stop working. Smart TV apps are also notoriously slow compared to good quality streaming boxes.

It’s a nice user experience and the ability to easily use Airpods is nice it you use it. AirPlay, too, although some smart TVs now have this. Apple Arcade is relatively ok if you would use it (though it is a subscription)

To be honest, if you have a smart tv that does what you need, you’re not going to get a lot more out of the Apple TV to justify the cost, as long as your TV supports the services you use

Honestly there’s no comparison with a Smart TV and an Apple TV. In function and reliability it’s comparing apples to oranges. Smart TV apps tend to be much spottier and the availability of apps is much more limited. Yes it will have the main five to ten well known streaming apps but after that it’s a shot in the dark at best.

If you’re already in the Apple ecosystem then you already understand seamlessness. Overall it’s also just much smoother. The Apple TV is way overpowered compared to any streaming box on the market. So it’s not going to stutter or struggle like other options do. Personally I have a high end Samsung smart tv and the Apple TV is what I watch everything on.

2 AirPods pairing at the same time. Having a new born this really allowed my wife and I to continue watching our shows at night and have our private time without blasting the tv sound.

Because every developer in the world targets Apple’s platforms to make their very best apps. Everything else is an afterthought

I have smart tv with all streaming apps but also have apple tv but the experience with apple tv is its super fast and smooth and everything loads faster and if you want rewind or something its much smoother to control with apple tv remote than tv remote (even though my apple tv is from 2020) and new remote is much better than old one…

Also if you want to add homekit enabled accessories like door bell or lights you can control through tv but i know this is mot the case for many people 😄

Most standalone devices are already an upgrade vs the built in smart tv apps. AppleTV is well liked because they’re fast, have a clean UI with no ads, are well supported by app developers, and have some nice synergy with your phone and other Apple products (using it as a backup remote/easy AirPods connections).

It has an attractive, familiar, easy to use interface. I like that it keeps everything I’m currently watching in the Up Next row. I can search and add shows from my phone and they will be waiting on the TV then next time I turn it on. I can set my HomePods to be the default speakers. I can use the AppleTV box without connecting my actual TV to the internet, so Samsung can’t spy on my viewing habits or show me any advertising since I never use their menus or the TV interface at all.

There are a few biggies for me:

1. It’s just so smooth and fast. I’ve tried other streaming devices but none of them match the polish.
2. Smart home integration, from setting scenes and querying status to getting a live feed of my cameras
3. AirPods as an output source, if me or my partner are sleeping the other can just use their AirPods seamlessly. And in the event we have a guest who’s sleeping we can both use AirPods to make sure we’re not being loud if the guest is sleeping.
4. Games- I know it’s not the best gaming platform but you can literally steam link to your Apple TV and play games from your PC- not to mention decent support for a variety of games from the App Store as well.

It’s not that the Apple TV will remake your entire life in some magical way, it’s just so many things it can do are just polished really nicely.