Here's all you need to know about the Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch Series 3

Before Apple unveiled the all new iPhone X, there were two other products that took the stage at the Steve Jobs Theatre on September 12 — the Apple TV 4K and the Apple Watch Series 3. Both these products have new internals, new features and new price tags as well. Here’s a detailed rundown on these two.

Apple TV 4K:

In an age of growing smart TV platforms, Apple has revamped its good old Apple TV box, with extensive modifications to the insides. As the name suggests, Apple TV will now host 4K content, which is something that the competition hasn’t managed to offer. Also, Apple TV viewers will now be able to enjoy High Dynamic Range (HDR) content, which will bring life-like colours to their TV screens (provided that the TV panel supports HDR rendering).

Apple is using the A10X Fusion chip from this year’s iPad Pro to power the TV box. This means that the Apple TV 4K won’t bother its users with performance issues at least for a couple of years. To recall, the A10X is a Hexa core processor that was developed keeping in mind the multimedia-specific requirements of the iPad Pro.

Apart from that, Apple has also redesigned the interface to make use of the 4K compatibility right from the home screen. To make its users enjoy the benefits of 4K HDR content, the company has partnered with several Hollywood studios to bring some of the renowned movie titles in the 4K HDR format, at prices similar to present Full HD titles. As usual, Siri remains on the remote controller, with an expansion of her searching abilities.

Apple has said that it will bring the Apple TV 4K to India for Rs 15,900 for the 32GB variant and Rs 17,900 for the 64GB variant, along with the Apple TV fourth generation for Rs 12,900. However, India launch dates for these haven’t been announced yet.

Apple Watch Series 3:

Rumours of an Apple Watch with LTE connection had been on the web for the past few months and all of them have become reality. The Apple Watch Series 3 does sport LTE connectivity, which means you don’t need your iPhone in the vicinity for the watch to work.

The Apple Watch 3 uses an e-SIM (to know how it works, read here) to provide cellular connectivity on your wrists. With this, you can make calls on the move and stream Apple Music directly, even when you don’t have your fancy iPhone bouncing around in your pocket. Apparently, Apple hasn’t mentioned anything about texting or sending emojis to your contacts.

The Watch Series 3 is built on a faster dual-core chip along with a W2 wireless chip that Apple claims can let the Watch Series 3 run a full day on a single charge. The presence of a faster chipset means that Siri is now on your wrist, helping you out with activities that you may need your Apple watch to do.  

Apart from the red-coloured crown, the new Apple Watch will ship with WatchOS 4, which brings in improved algorithms for tracking activities and redesigned workout apps. The sad part, however, is that the Apple Watch Series 3 will come to India without the cellular option, which means that Watch Series 3 GPS variant with a  sports band will start from Rs 29,990, replacing the Watch Series 2. Also, the Apple Watch Series 1 will get a slashed price tag of Rs 21,900.

(Also published on Deccan Chronicle)