Upcoming Apple TV Device Could Support 120Hz Refresh Rates

• The next generation of the Apple TV may support refresh rates of up to 120 Hz through HDMI 2.1.
• The media streaming device has proven particularly elusive, not atypical to other Apple product lines.
• We could see it launch in the next couple of weeks, but the only indication lies in the beta tvOS code.

It’s been almost a full year since we told you that the new Apple TV device is “right around the corner,” and the fact that we’re yet to see it proves that rumors are just that. However, new leaks coming from people who dig deep into tvOS 14.5 beta code suggest that the long-awaited device shouldn’t be far from seeing the light now, as there are snippets in there concerning it.

Most importantly, there are multiple references to “120Hz”, so the next-gen Apple TV will almost certainly support refresh rates of this level. The current Apple TV device is limited to 60Hz 4K, as it’s using an HDMI 2.0 port that can’t go any further than that. So, the new device should use an HDMI 2.1 port, achieving 120Hz at 4K resolutions.

One thing that is confirmed by this “detail” is the fact that the new device will have a gaming side, too, featuring a powerful A12X chip, combined with either 64 GB or 128 GB of internal storage. These "beefy" internals should allow the introduction of Apple Arcade on 4k TV sets, opening up a whole new world of home-based entertainment as well as amazing revenue opportunities for the company.

At this point, though, we should warn you that this is just something based on code indications and nothing more. References about a next-gen Apple TV have been around since tvOS 13.4 beta, released in 2019, so seeing these snippets in the code doesn’t mean much for Apple products. If, however, there’s indeed a launch planned soon, it should be something we expect to see this month.

Leakers have placed the event date to last month, but that prediction proved to be off, so we got a postpone for April 6, 2021. This was a fail too, and so the date was pushed for later in the month. Apple hasn’t announced anything yet, but we’re still hoping. When a product launch event is held eventually, we expect to see the new Apple TV, AirPods 3, the new iPad Pro, and the AirTags.