The Manhattan Aero Freely box has been in and out of stock since its launch in February, and it's been revealed that when it once again returns to retailers, it'll come with a price increase.
Thanks to the global RAM and storage shortages, Manhattan is having to raise the price by £20, but even at £89.99 it represents excellent value for money.
When I exclusively reviewed the Manhattan Aero 4K TV Streamer with Freely earlier this year little did I realise just how popular it would prove to be. Each time stock arrives at Currys, Amazon or John Lewis, it flies back off the shelves in record time.
In many ways, I shouldn't have been surprised – I gave the TiVo-powered box five stars in my review, after all. The rise of Freely as a bone fide free rival to Sky and Virgin Media is a highly attractive proposition, especially during a cost of living crisis, and the Aero's £69.99 price point was almost too good to be true.
Indeed, the latter aspect has proved to be the case. While the Manhattan Aero box should be back in stock soon, it'll be returning at a higher price point.
It will be priced £20 higher – at £89.99 – when retailers offer it once more. And yep, you can blame RAMageddon.
What is RAMageddon and why are tech prices rising?
The global RAM shortages are seeing technology prices rise across multiple categories, including smartphones, TVs, laptops, and games consoles. It stands to reason that streaming devices are affected too.
As revealed by Manhattan's chief operating officer, Alex Arbab-Zadeh, the crisis has been impossible to ignore: "The cost of the memory components and chipsets that go into a device like the Aero has risen sharply and rapidly," he said in a statement received by T3.
"This is an industry-wide structural issue, not something unique to Manhattan, and it is affecting pricing and availability right across consumer technology. Getting the new price to £89.99, rather than something considerably higher, has taken real effort on our part."
Basically, anything that relies on built-in memory and storage will inevitably be touched by the issue. RAM is in short supply thanks to the rapid expansion of AI data centres, and that means manufacturers have no option than to pass on the cost to customers – especially smaller companies like the British brand Manhattan.
Still, it has managed to mitigate costs enough to keep the price down to a still reasonable level. It continues to be cheaper than its major rival – the Netgem Pleio – which is currently priced at £99 with a discount.
And considering you don't have to pay for a monthly subscription to access the biggest TV channels in the UK and their respective on demand services, plus more than 400 extra FAST channels through the TiVo UI, it continues to represent great value for money.
At least you should be able to buy one when it returns in May and June. We'll update you when new stock has arrived.
