What is the upgrade in Apple TV Siri Remote 2nd Generation? It is easier to find compared to the tiny black first generation remote that tended to become easily hidden in couches and recliner crevices. The clickpad ring on the second generation remote makes navigation a lot easier. The Mute button on the remote is very handy. It is less likely to be lost in couch cushions. The new remote is a little heavier, bigger and colder. Know details in Apple TV Siri Remote 2nd Generation review. How to pair Apple TV Remote 3rd generation?
In the box
- Siri Remote
- Lightning to USB Cable
- User guide
Pros & Cons – Apple TV Siri Remote
Pros
- Sleek but ergonomic design
- Intuitive clickpad
- Includes power, volume, and mute buttons
- Better button placement
- Physical navigation pad is easier to use
Cons
- Still with the Lightning connector
- Touch surface can be finicky
- Overpriced
Apple TV Siri Remote compatibility
Siri Remote (2nd generation)
Description: Aluminum silver casing with a clickpad
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 and IR transmitter
Battery: Rechargeable internal battery (not user replaceable)
Compatibility: Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD with tvOS 14.5 or later.
Siri Remote (1st generation)
Description: Black aluminum casing and glass Touch surface
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0 and IR transmitter
Battery: Rechargeable internal battery (not user replaceable)
Compatibility: Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD
Apple Remote (white)
Description: White casing
Connectivity: IR transmitter
Battery: Replaceable CR2032 lithium 3V coin battery
Serial number: Located on the back
Compatibility: Any Apple TV
Apple Remote (aluminum)
Description: Aluminum silver casing
Connectivity: IR transmitter
Battery: Replaceable CR2032 or BR2032 lithium 3V coin battery
Serial number: Located inside the battery compartment
Compatibility: Any Apple TV
Specs – Apple TV Remote 3rd generation
- Width: 1.4 inches (35 mm)
- Height: 5.4 inches (136 mm)
- Weight: 2.2 ounces (63 g)²
- Depth: 0.36 inch (9.25 mm)
- Operating altitude: tested up to 10,000 feet (3000 m)
- Wireless: Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology
- IR transmitter
- Microphone for Siri
- Lightning connector for charging
- Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
- Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
- Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
- Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter (sold separately)
- Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Apple TV Remote 3rd generation Price
Replacing your existing Siri Remote will cost you $59. You can also get one with a new Apple TV HD (which no one should buy anymore at $149) and the updated Apple TV 4K, starting at $179.
If you own an Apple TV 4K, $59 is absolutely worth it to make your Apple TV experience vastly more enjoyable. If you’re happily using an Apple TV HD, you’ll appreciate the second-generation Siri Remote, but you might instead consider making the jump to an Apple TV 4K for $120 more.
Compare Apple TV Siri Remote 2nd Gen vs Apple TV Remote 1st Gen
Apple TV Remote 3rd generation Review
Build
The entire body of the remote is aluminum, instead of just the back like the first-generation model. This makes for an attractive matte silver all around, which feels nicely cool and solid in the hand. Most of the buttons are still black plastic, as is the tip of the remote (for the infrared emitter).
Design
The second-generation Siri Remote is a 5.4-by-1.4-inch (HW) shim, measuring less than half an inch thick. The previous Siri Remote has a square, clickable touchpad covering the entire top third of its body. Here’s it’s replaced with a circular physical navigation control that doubles as a touchpad. A large black circle functions as a touchpad for swiping around, and clicks to confirm your choice. A ring around the circle is clickable in four directions, functioning as a standard direction pad.
Thicker
It’s much thicker (0.36 inches / 9.25 mm) and heavier (2.2 ounces / 64 g) than either of its forebears. It’s slightly narrower than the black remote but still feels larger on the whole — and that’s a positive. The previous Siri remote was so thin that it was easily lost to the deepest reaches of the couch. I don’t see that being as much of a problem with the new, chunkier hardware.
Buttons
The Siri Remote now features a power button. If you have an HDMI-CEC-compatible television, the power button can also turn your TV on and off. Even more welcome for some is the new Mute button, which you can use with HDMI-CEC or by programming the volume buttons to control your TV or soundbar volume (in Settings > Remotes and Devices > Volume Control). Finally, Apple moved the Siri button to the side, reducing accidental invocations.
The new remote has two columns of buttons below the navigation pad, like the previous model, though their functions have changed. The buttons on the left column include Back, Play/Pause, and Mute (as opposed to Menu, Siri, and Play/Pause).
Touch pad
Within that circular D-pad is a touch-sensitive center button that still lets you swipe around content or move in any direction just like you could before. (And yes, you can still play with the subtle movement of app icons on the home screen by gently nudging your thumb around.) But some streaming apps didn’t work perfectly with that input method, so Apple is now including the far more precise D-pad. That said, the simple direction buttons here are much easier to use with the Apple TV’s menus and apps, so having them makes for a notable improvement.
Navigation Ring
The bottom of the navigation ring is also very close to the Back and Apple TV buttons, and I found myself accidentally pressing them with my big thumb when I meant to press the down direction.
Apple TV Remote 3rd generation App
The TV button jumps to the Up Next screen of the Apple TV app by default. The app is already at the top of the Apple TV home screen, and without any changes, the button means you can’t simply jump to the home screen with a single press; you need to hold the Back button for a second. Luckily, you can set the TV button to jump straight to the home screen through the Apple TV’s settings.
Microphone
The pinhole microphone for using Siri is still near the tip. A TV power button has been added to the top right corner of the remote, also aluminum.
Charging
The Siri Remote still charges with Apple’s Lightning connector — despite now being thick enough to house a USB-C jack. USB seems more natural for this type of scenario, but what do I know? I’m just one man who’s elated to have a reliable, sensibly designed remote control again. Apple is going to keep doing Apple things.
AirTags and Smart feature
“Hey Siri, where’s my remote?” seems like such an easy thing to make happen, but that voice query won’t do you any good or make the remote beep. And unlike Apple’s recently introduced AirTags, there’s no ultra-wideband chip in the remote to help pinpoint its position in a room. If you’re finding that the remote goes MIA constantly, you might just have to settle for a case that combines an AirTag with the Siri Remote. But having a simple, straightforward remote locator feature is one area where Roku objectively beats out Apple.
Apple TV Remote 3rd generation Performance review
The buttons themselves all have a satisfying click and don’t feel the least bit mushy. The clickpad is quieter when pressed than the buttons below it, which are each significantly noisier than any other remotes I had to compare against, be it for a Roku, Chromecast, or otherwise. Again, it’s not a problem unless you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, but you’ll absolutely hear the volume rocker when you’re turning up a certain scene in a movie or show. The Siri button on the side is whisper quiet; you still have to press and hold it down whenever you’re doing a voice command.
I had no problem engaging it in any content streamed from the TV app, Hulu, or Netflix, but apps with their own playback interfaces such as Peacock or YouTube don’t work with it yet.
Apple TV Remote 3rd generation customer review
Awesome upgrade for and older Apple TV 4K
Good solid replacement for the black swipe only model. The unit is a bit slippery with the silver finish but still more comfortable to hold and use. The addition of the power button is great. Given you have a fairly modern system, you can hold down the power button for 6 seconds and turn off your tv, receiver and ATV.
By Dave at Best Buy
How to pair Apple TV Remote 3rd generation?
The third-generation Apple TV packs an aluminum Apple Remote with a non-rechargeable coin-cell battery. Try replacing this battery if your pairing steps have failed and your battery information consistently shows a dead battery.
Step 1: Flip the remote over. Use a coin to turn the battery compartment’s lid counterclockwise until it opens. Remove the old battery.
Step 2: Place the new battery within the compartment, printed side (positive) facing up. Replace the compartment lid.
Step 3: You can now try pairing the remote again. Check to see if your Apple TV has power.
You should see a small, white LED illuminated on the front. If not, unplug the power cable, wait 6 seconds, and then plug it back in. You should now see a shining, white LED.
Make sure your TV is turned on, set to the correct HDMI port, and displaying the Apple TV home screen.
Step 4: Point the remote toward the Apple TV unit and press and hold the Menu and Left buttons for 6 seconds. You should see an on-screen confirmation that the remote has been unlinked.
Step 5: To link the Apple Remote, press and hold the Menu and Right buttons for 6 seconds.
You should see an on-screen confirmation that the remote has been linked. If you don’t, and if the Apple TV still doesn’t respond to button presses on the remote, continue to the next step.
Step 6: Unplug the Apple TV, wait 6 seconds, and plug it back in.
Repeat steps 2 to 4.
Again, if none of these steps help, your Apple remote might be defective. A new one can be ordered online or purchased at an Apple Store.
Apple TV Siri Remote how to use?
The 1st generation generation Siri remote only has a touch surface, which responds to both taps and swipes. The 2nd generation remote has both a clickpad, which responds to touch/swipes, as well as a clickpad ring that you can press or click.
- To move around on Apple TV: Press up, down, left, or right on the clickpad ring; or swipe up, down, left, or right on the clickpad.
- To select an app or item: Press the clickpad center.
- To scroll through lists of options and indexes: Press and hold up or down on the clickpad ring; or swipe up or down on the clickpad a few times to scroll quickly.
- Go to the previous screen: Press the Back button (<)
- Go to the home screen: Press and hold the Back (<) button
- Rewind or fast-forward:
- For 10-second rewind or fast-foward: Press left or right on the clickpad ring to rewind or fast-forward respectively.
- Continuously rewind or fast-forward: Press and hold left or right on the clickpad ring
- Get 2x, 3x, 4x speed options for rewind and fast-forward: Press left or right repeatedly to cycle through rewind or fast-forward speed options.
- Press the Play/Pause button to resume playback.
To turn on subtitles: Click the down button on the clickpad ring or swipe down on the clickpad. An information pane will appear at the top of the screen. Navigate via swipe gestures on the touch surface and select by clicking at the center of the touch surface.
Scrub video forward or backward: First, pause the video by pressing the Play/Pause button or clicking on the center of the clickpad. A preview thumbnail will appear above the playback timeline at the bottom of the screen. Swipe left or right to scrub backward or forward in time. For more precise control, rest your finger on the outer edge of the clickpad ring until a ring icon appears onscreen, then circle your finger counterclockwise or clockwise around the clickpad ring. To start playback at the new position, press the clickpad center again. To cancel and resume at the original position, press the Back (<) button.
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