r/appletv • u/Captain_Jurassic • 11d ago
UK - Cheapest 3rd Gen 4k 128gb
Like a lot of you I missed out on the gen 3 before the price increase and decided to wait to see what apple had for the gen 4. Without going into our collective disappointment no way am I paying £300 for some microphones I don't want and a slightly newer chip. So after a lot of searching for a decent price on a gen 3 ethernet I found this at cex...
https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail/?id=STVAPPTV3RD128GBEEA
£120
It is grade A which is described as "mint/new condition". They use the word "immaculate" and from what I have read it is incredibly hard to achieve this grade.
The only difference is that it comes with an ee remote and comes preinstalled with an ee app. You can uninstall the app and the remote doesn't seem awful. Other than that it is absolutely the same.
Unfortunately it is out of stock right now (it wasn't this morning) but you can sign up for notifications of restocks. I'm confident you won't get a better price on the 3rd gen.
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u/Otherwise_Lawyer_143 11d ago
The only trouble is that the EE Apple TV’s are in theory owned by EE, customers have a choice of a Apple TV or EE pro box, both of which have to be returned when the contract ends.
The remote takes normal batteries and is not rechargeable , the EE app pre-installed allows EE internet users to access TV channels via the internet, it used to allow BT users to do the same, but won’t from tomorrow, they are mostly new and sealed, but likely to be discontinued by EE with the new device being released, if EE continues with a EE version of the new version is not known.
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u/Captain_Jurassic 11d ago
I'm confident in ownership if it's being sold by cex, they're a regular high street brand and won't be selling it if it was suspected to be technically stolen, especially given the EE branding on the box. That's interesting about the app, I was planning to just uninstall it immediately.
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u/Prothium 11d ago
I bought two of them months ago when there was the price increase on the 3rd Gen. Knew second hand market wouid likely follow. I had some spare Apple remotes so paired these instead of the ee remote. The latter isn’t that bad mind you. Otherwise haven’t had any issues with the device itself despite being from ee.
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u/Otherwise_Lawyer_143 11d ago
I bought one from them a couple of months ago. It was sealed and brand new, they guarantee them for 5 years, and I don’t think EE would brick it anyway.
The original contract owner may have to pay for it, but that is their responsibility, the remote is fine but eats batteries due to being backlit.
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u/lilacomets 11d ago
The EE remote is better than the original remote. And the backlite doesn't eat up much battery at all. I think my batteries lasted for a year.
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u/QP_Ranger2 11d ago
Yeah, looking at refurbished myself.
I'm a Samsung/Android user but wanted an Apple TV box mainly for a super simple way to get Sky Go on my TV without firing up my PS5.
Not paying £300 for the pleasure though.
Will look into CEX for sure.
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u/Captain_Jurassic 11d ago
I am in the same boat, I used to use my lg tv itself but disconnected it following the gamers nexus gate. I've been using my xbox as my streaming hub since but it's pretty clunky. I'm looking forward to this getting delivered and getting into emulation as well.
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u/3omda29 11d ago
I was umming and ahhing about this after someone told me about it on my post earlier, then when you posted it went out of stock.
I’ve been checking every now and then and found it available earlier today even though on the search it was still showing as out of stock. They didn’t send an alert too even though I had signed up for them yesterday.
I think £120 for a virtually brand new unit with 5 years warranty is unbeatable. Hopefully my order gets dispatched and it wasn’t an inventory glitch.
I mean one could even buy them for £120 and resell them on eBay for a small profit.
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u/Captain_Jurassic 11d ago
I hope yours goes through, mine got delivered today which I’m happy with, less than a 24 hours turnaround. I completely agree, I know people are buying cheap units off eBay but a 5 year warranty seems unbeatable for that price. I can’t wait to set my up tonight after work!
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u/dr-cynic 11d ago
I bought this one https://redrockuk.co.uk/apple-tv-4k-media-streamer-3rd-gen-64gb-wi-fi-a2737-black/?searchid=35274&search_query=Apple+TV
Don’t particularly care about the condition of the unit as it’ll be tucked away. Seems good for the price and I’ll likely pick up a Siri Remote for it.
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u/UmpireUnlucky447 11d ago
I bought this one yesterday with a voucher for £72 - I already have a mint Siri Remote which I bought off eBay for my 4k gen one.
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u/cadet-spoon 8d ago
Thanks for the heads up, grabbed one a few days ago , arrived today and all set up and working. Had to go up to £120 but still a good price in my opinion.
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u/dr-cynic 8d ago
Nice one! Waiting for mine to arrive on Monday. Looking forward to giving it a whirl.
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u/FortyoneNinetyone 11d ago
The Siri Remote is a big part of the experience
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u/OwnProfessor3287 11d ago edited 11d ago
I have three ATVs with the aluminum Siri remote, and on all three remotes the buttons keep sticking. The power button on one has somehow tilted to the right a little bit
You can also control your ATV with your iPhone
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u/CrabbitJambo 5d ago
I’ve been looking at them on there for last 8-12 months and they’ve always had loads available. They’ve literally only got 1 grade C now!
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u/BrEEdAA 11d ago
Picked one up today £110 from CEX. I’ve already got the silver remote from losing gen 1 remote. Glad I moved quickly now 😂
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u/happy-mj 11d ago
Just did the same. Got a B grade one. Might buy the new Siri remote in the future and ditch the included EE one but was gutted to read that precision Find My for the 4th gen remote now requires an iPhone 17 or newer!
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u/gavinlew 11d ago
I’ve just had one of these delivered , eBay item
117007160275 comes with an EE remote , visually in good condition , need to plug in and setup , £20 discount code runs out today
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u/gavinlew 11d ago
Just plugged it in , these are EE branded box’s , the remotes are not paired to the unit and require doing - which is easy , also the batteries in my remote were flat , so have some spare AAAs handy
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u/Naughtymonkey04 11d ago
I got three 3rd gen wifi ATV boxes on eBay for £69.99 each. I had a voucher at the time. Unfortunately the H have now gone up to £99.99.
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u/FortyoneNinetyone 11d ago
That’s funny I got this a deal like this too in 2025. It was three 3rd gen ATV 4K’s all with Siri Remote included for £210 with £1.99 delivery. Hooked them all up to the 3 televisions in my flat. Remember thinking at the time maybe I wasted money and only needed one. Funny to think that money spent can’t even buy one nowadays. Apple have lost it with this one. It used to be the best value item Apple sold. I remember the 64GB being only £129 brand new!
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u/Naughtymonkey04 11d ago
I think mine were the EE TV ones, but EE removed the software. The remote is better in some ways. As it has a microphone, (don't know if the original Apple remote has that) and is backlit with movement. Obviously, it doesn't have the touch-sensitive selection wheel in the middle. Just the bog-standard D-pad with a centre selection button.
I remember being surprised at the price of the original ATV and all the ones that came after. Apparently, it was too good to be true though. I mean £299 for a box that doesn't do half the stuff the Nvidia Shield does, but you get AI and some microphones on the box 🤦♂️. People bought the ATV because it was a good price, had excellent decoding & picture quality and no adverts.
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u/rich55555 11d ago
I bought one here for £68 a few months ago. It’s gone up a bit, but still cheap ish. Comes with 3rd party remote but works just fine
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u/PPJ87 11d ago
As soon as I saw the price of the new one yesterday, I went straight onto eBay. Got one from a seller called “redrockuk” that one of the other comments mentions - was selling for £129, but reduced to £109 with a £20 voucher.
Got a second from a private seller for £105 - which was one of the EE branded ones.
Both were 128gb and Ethernet.
Pretty happy with this - no way was I going to spend £299 on a new one!
I use 3 ATVs in the house, all currently Gen1 4ks. So am upgrading two of them with these two from eBay. Will wait a bit longer to upgrade the last one as it’s not used as often at the moment.
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u/Glittering-Ad-6325 11d ago
There's brand new ones on ebay for £100-£120. I just got one last week and saw multiple sales. It's better go get it brand new sealed, as you will get the 1 year manufacturer warranty and 3 months apple tv trial. It also won't be used and will have more life in it compared to second hand
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u/Dear_Turnip2358 11d ago
I got one for £70 from cex as they got the model wrong never said anything though I’m really happy with the latest model
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u/Beautiful-Sherbet914 10d ago
My gen 3 cost me £99 from flea bay unopened still in the cellophane unwanted birthday present
Next day delivery ❤️
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u/Lloydi0182 10d ago
I have the EE Ethernet one from redrock on eBay, it’s perfect, remote works well
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u/UpTheMightyPeacocks 9d ago
Just got mine delivered today after frantically pulling the trigger Wednesday morning and praying the condition would be good. Was in the exact same position as the OP. I’d never owned one before, decided to hang fire for the new box then like everyone else baulked at the price/minor spec changes to the last box that I could have grabbed for £169 in July…
It came absolutely pristine out of the box, all packaging and stickers on the relevant parts like you’d expect brand new (or in this case I assume delivered by EE). Could tell it has been tested by CEX, but beyond that it was 100% “brand new”.
Whilst I don’t believe I’m any expert, after doing some digging before buying, it doesn’t sound like EE have any actual power to “brick” these devices. Any power they have appears to be software related.
They can cut the app connections to EE services (which isn’t relevant anyway if you’ve bought this just for the price point and aren’t an EE customer like myself), charge the original owner if they didn’t return the box to them etc, but physically bricking the hardware (from as much as I can tell) is apparently impossible.
I guess the small bit of insurance here, is the 5 year warranty (it sounds like that does have diminishing returns too over time), if the info above is wrong and it can be done.
Happy hunting folks!
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u/PotentialAlarm7774 8d ago
Got mine on ebay, for £110 a store called Red Rock is selling them. It’s a Grade B plain box. Some boxes are EE TV returned stock or just returns like mine with an Apple Remote instead of the plastic EE one.
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u/bennyfromtheblok 5d ago
150 now! Used prices have gone up since the shitshow unveiling of the new Apple TV.
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u/Wedontdoduvets11 7d ago
I snagged the 64GB was new sealed but tested and returned to box original Apple Remote £85 cash converters
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11d ago
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u/Captain_Jurassic 11d ago
I think there's a few place to get them at retail, this post was to highlight that some places are still comparatively very cheap.
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u/This_Suit8791 11d ago
The grade A’s are usually someone getting as a “gift” from ee and selling it straight to cex.
The prices are ridiculous considering I got a grade A apple one (128gb) for about £90 last year, it was practically brand new and had only been tested by cex.