The Manhattan T4-R – currently the best Freeview recorder you can buy (and, let’s face it, pretty much the only one left) – has gone up in price this week, with new prices now live at major retailers.
The increase affects all three storage variants, and it’s driven by the same industry-wide issue that recently pushed up the price of the Manhattan Aero Freely box.
If you’ve been sitting on the fence about picking one up, here’s what you need to know.
Why Has The Price Gone Up?
Manhattan has been refreshingly upfront about the reason, and it has nothing to do with the T4-R itself.
The global boom in AI data centre construction has created fierce demand for the memory chips and chipsets that go into consumer electronics devices – including Freeview recorders.
The companies building those data centres are consuming components at a scale that’s pushed prices up sharply and made supply harder to predict across the entire tech industry.
This is a genuine industry-wide problem affecting consumer electronics manufacturers across the board – not something specific to Manhattan.
Manhattan says that getting the increases as low as possible has taken real effort, and that lower-capacity storage has been hit hardest by the component squeeze – which is reflected in the numbers below.
The New T4-R Prices
The updated prices, which came into effect this week, are:
- T4-R 500GB – £199.99 (up from £169.99)
- T4-R 1TB – £219.99 (up from £199.99)
- T4-R 2TB – £239.99 (up from £229.99)
The increases range from £10 to £30 depending on the model, with the smaller-capacity versions hit hardest. The 2TB model has absorbed the rise most gracefully, with just a £10 increase.
Worth noting: the T4 Freeview Play box – the non-recording version – has not changed in price for now, and remains at £69.99.
- Get Manhattan T4-R 500GB Freeview Recorder
- Get Manhattan T4-R 1TB Freeview Recorder
- Get Manhattan T4-R 2TB Freeview Recorder
What Is The Manhattan T4-R?
The T4-R launched in June 2024 as the successor to Manhattan’s long-running T3-R, and it’s been Manhattan’s flagship Freeview recorder ever since. We reviewed it shortly after launch and gave it 4.5 out of 5 – an Editor’s Choice.
It’s a dedicated Freeview Play recorder: connect it to an aerial, and you get over 100 live Freeview channels, the ability to record two channels simultaneously while watching a third, and up to 1,200 hours of recording capacity on the 2TB model.
The interface is fast and well thought-out, with a redesigned electronic programme guide that includes genre and channel views for easier content browsing, a global search function that works across live TV, recordings, and catch-up apps, and smart recording features that feel familiar to anyone who’s used a modern streaming service.
It’s not a streaming device in the Netflix sense – there are no apps for the major paid streaming services, though a YouTube app was added via a software update in February 2025.
Its strength is squarely in Freeview recording, and at that, it does an excellent job.
It also doesn’t (and won’t) support Freely – Everyone TV’s streaming platform that’s designed to eventually replace Freeview.
If Freely is what you’re after, the Manhattan Aero or the Netgem Pleio are the ones to look at. The T4-R is a different product for a different use case.
Manhattan Keeps Updating It
One thing worth acknowledging when assessing the T4-R’s value at any price is that Manhattan hasn’t abandoned it since launch. Far from it.
Since June 2024, the T4-R has received multiple significant software updates – fixing early bugs around standby modes and missed recordings, adding a web browser remote control, improving subtitle handling, fixing various recording and playback issues, and eventually adding YouTube.
That’s a meaningful track record of ongoing support for a device that, unlike a streaming box, doesn’t have a subscription model subsidising development. You pay once, and Manhattan keeps improving it.
The Only Real Freeview Recorder Left Standing
The T4-R’s price rise comes in a market that has shrunk considerably over the past year.
The Humax Aura – for years the T4-R’s main rival as a Freeview recorder with modern streaming capabilities – was discontinued in January 2026.
It had been a hybrid box running Android TV alongside Freeview Play, offering recording plus access to streaming apps including Disney+ and YouTube.
It was never quite as reliable as its ambitions suggested, and the major software overhaul Humax hinted at for years never materialised. But its absence leaves a real gap.
Humax’s replacement is the Aura EZ – but as we found in our review, it’s not ready to fill that gap yet. At £249, it combines aerial recording with Freely streaming, but it’s plagued by bugs, and has no third-party streaming apps whatsoever (no Netflix, Disney+, or Prime Video).
We gave it 2.5 out of 5, and in its current state, it’s hard to recommend to anyone who relies on their recorder.
That leaves the T4-R in a curious position: it’s the only Freeview recorder on the market that actually works reliably, day in and day out.
There are a few devices that can record to a USB stick, but for viewers who record regularly, skip adverts, build content libraries, or simply want to watch on their own schedule rather than relying on catch-up windows, it remains the clear choice.
Is It Still Worth Buying?
At the new prices, the T4-R is still a good recorder – just a slightly less immediately compelling one than it was at launch. The 500GB model at £199.99 has taken the biggest hit, and at that price, it’s worth asking whether the extra £20 to the 1TB model at £219.99 makes more sense for most buyers.
For anyone planning to record regularly, the extra storage gives considerably more breathing room and better long-term value. The 2TB model at £239.99 remains the best option for heavy recorders – and with only a £10 increase from its previous price, it’s the most manageable of the three rises.
There is, though, a bigger question hanging over any Freeview recorder purchase right now – and it’s worth being honest about it.
Freeview isn’t going anywhere imminently. The aerial transmitter network has years of life left in it, and millions of households still rely on it daily.
But the direction of travel is clear: Freely is designed to eventually replace Freeview entirely, streaming is where the broadcasters are investing, and the government has been pushing for an IP switchover by the early 2030s.
In that context, buying a Freeview recorder in 2026 is a bit like buying a very good CD player in the early 2000s – still perfectly sensible for now, but with a built-in expiry date somewhere on the horizon.
That doesn’t make the T4-R a bad buy. If you record regularly, rely on your recorder, and aren’t ready to trust catch-up services to always have what you want when you want it – the T4-R does that job better than anything else currently available.
Just go in with realistic expectations: this is a device for the Freeview years that remain, not for the decade beyond them.
- Get Manhattan T4-R 500GB Freeview Recorder
- Get Manhattan T4-R 1TB Freeview Recorder
- Get Manhattan T4-R 2TB Freeview Recorder
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