Apple pie-in-the-sky – this is our home cinema wish list for the tech giant
A home cinema lover can dream
by Robyn Quick · What Hi-Fi?
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Apple has officially refreshed its ranks, and while the headliners are impressive, we can’t help but notice some glaring omissions in the home cinema department.
But first, what did we get? There was the iPhone 17e, a more affordable variant of the Product of the Year-winning iPhone 17. It boasts a 6.1-inch OLED display, which uses Apple's Super Retina XDR technology for rich, vivid colours, as well as the same 1200 nits of claimed peak brightness.
A new iPad Air was also announced, featuring the M4 chip, an upgrade over its predecessor's M3 version. Apple claims the new model is up to 30 per cent faster than the iPad Air with M3, and up to 2.3 times faster than the iPad Air with M1.
However, the event was notably silent on the products we really wanted to see. Where on earth is the new Apple TV 4K? And with the current HomePod getting long in the tooth, we were primed for a third-generation smart speaker or even the long-rumored "HomePad" with a built-in display.
It might be wishful thinking, but we’ve spent the afternoon dreaming of what could have been.
The much-discussed Apple TV
Bear with me, here. Considering Apple has released a huge range of products featuring OLED screens at different sizes, it's not too much of a stretch to hope for Apple's own TV range featuring the same technology.
After all, we've seen firsthand its success with OLED in its iPhone and iPad range. The newest iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17e, for instance, feature OLED screens. We tested the iPhone 17 with a selection of movies and TV shows, and said: "It’s natural where required, yet it’s not afraid to introduce some punch and pop, all without straying into looking overcooked."
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And since Apple already has one of the best video streamers we've tested under its belt, in the form of Apple TV 4K, surely the brand is in a prime position to combine the two to create its own TV screen?
Brands such as Roku have combined the success of their hardware and operating system software to build its streaming platform directly into TVs.
Based on the excellent picture performance from Apple's OLED screens in smaller models and its top-performing video streaming platform offerings, it would be great to see how it would fare on a larger scale. A longstanding rumour, but I still want to believe...
Apple's own Dolby Atmos soundbar?
Apple's offerings when it comes to sound have also been fruitful, with the Apple HomePod 2 snagging multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards since its release.
When we put it through its paces in our test room, we were impressed by its solid yet natural-sounding audio as well as the compact, stylish design.
If you have the budget for it, you can combine two HomePod 2's with an Apple TV 4K to create a home cinema sound system.
As we noted in our review: "A stereo pair of HomePods is particularly beneficial with Dolby Atmos tracks, which sound even more open and three-dimensional, with very impressive spatial placement of voices and instruments."
But Apple could go one step further and create its own dedicated Dolby Atmos soundbar, taking the top-quality audio from the HomePod 2 while sprinkling in the streaming capabilities and the HDMI eARC functionality of the Apple TV 4K.
Setting up the HomePods and the Apple TV 4K separately is a bit of a faff (mainly as HomePods are not particularly suited to wall-mounting), so combining them into a single product would be a big win for functionality.
This might be pie-in-the-sky thinking, but a home cinema lover can dream, right?
MORE:
Here is our review of the Apple HomePod 2
And these are our thoughts on the Apple TV 4K