Sky Glass review

Sky Glass is a complete new strategy to watch Sky TV. There’s no dish required, the whole lot is delivered by way of your broadband connection. Sky Glass is each a service and the TV itself – particularly a 4K QLED mannequin, with Dolby Imaginative and prescient HDR and a formidable six-speaker sound system.

The UI seems superficially just like Sky Q, but it surely’s essentially totally different to make use of, not least as a result of there’s no native storage. You don’t ‘report’ exhibits to observe later, you merely stream them from a cloud DVR or catch-up service as and when.

There’s clearly quite a bit to contemplate, so let’s break it down.

Be aware: This overview has been up to date with 2023 pricing.

Design & Construct

Sky has pushed the boat out in the case of design. Barely chunkier than the typical flatscreen,
Sky Glass is refreshingly stylish and is available in a alternative of 5 color finishes: Ocean Blue, Ceramic White, Racing Inexperienced, Dusky Pink and Anthracite Black.

It’s properly constructed too. The body is aluminium, its forward-facing speaker array hidden by a customisable fascia overlaying. You may improve the fascia cowl to higher match your inside decor, or present designer distinction.

Up prime, a rooftop mesh grille protects its top audio system. Sky has made some extent of not branding the set – there’s no brand on the body. The agency additionally says it’s the world’s first TV to be licensed CarbonNeutral.

The set has three HDMI inputs, one with eARC. They’re model 2.1 however there’s no 4K/120fps excessive body charge video playback, or VRR or ALLM assist, because the display is restricted to 60Hz. The set doesn’t even listing a low enter Sport mode amongst its presets.

Console homeowners are clearly not a key Sky Glass demographic then. I measured enter lag at 115.4ms (1080/60), which is hardly conducive to eSports. For Animal Crossing and informal video games although, it’ll do.

There’s an Ethernet port, when you’d favor that to streaming over Wi-Fi. Sky Glass is Wi-Fi 6 compliant, which is sweet information when you have a suitable router. The system is kind of demanding on bandwidth, significantly when you go for UHD and multiroom.

Sky Glass works with any ISP (web service supplier). The minimal requirement is 10Mbps, for SD, and 25Mbps for UHD so that you may need to
check the velocity of your connection earlier than ordering Glass.

There’s a terrestrial Freeview aerial enter, but it surely’s solely offered for back-up, ought to your broadband go down.

Weirdly, there’s no headphone jack, and no choice to attach wi-fi cans over Bluetooth both. The trendy distant management is color matched to the TV and is backlit, and has a devoted microphone. There’s additionally a far-field mic within the set itself for voice instructions.

Specs & Options

For Sky Glass to work, the interface must be stable, and for essentially the most half, it’s – though inevitably it’s a piece in progress. This isn’t simply, as you might need been considering, the identical as Sky Q.

With no native recording performance, you ‘+’ content material onto a Playlist to observe when time permits. This provides exhibits to the Playlist rail; these play again from both Sky’s Cloud DVR, or a mainstream catch-up participant akin to BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub.

This Playlist system is each extraordinarily intelligent, however often irritating to make use of – at the very least till you come to phrases with it.

There’s no restrict to what number of exhibits you possibly can add, and there are not any channel conflicts both. The Cloud DVR system performs your Sky channel episodes and films instantly.

It’s good too. If you happen to Playlist a present, however the rights lapse and it strikes from a broadcast channel to a streaming service, the Playlist will theoretically monitor it from one to the opposite.

However when you’re a PVR consumer who parks exhibits on their exhausting drive for years (arms up), you’ll want to drag your finger out.

Playlisted exhibits can disappear quick. A Halloween film marathon I ‘plused’ from the Horror Channel disappeared after only a week, earlier than I might watch them.

There are additionally channels which have but to signal any Cloud DVR rights settlement, most clearly BT Sport, so you possibly can’t stream any of its content material after broadcast.

App assist is sweet, with Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+, BBC iPlayer, ITVhub, YouTube, discovery+ and STV participant main the pack. There are additionally sports activities and music apps, plus informal video games.

Sky Glass responds properly to voice management. You may wake the set from standby with ‘Howdy Sky’ and use the identical wake phrase to pick channels or seek for content material.

Efficiency

Relating to image efficiency, I charge the Sky Glass panel a mid-range 4K QLED providing, with ‘Clever Zonal’ native dimming. It presents sharp, colour-rich pictures when left to its personal units.

Whereas there are numerous picture presets (Film, Leisure, Sport, and so forth), it’s evident that the set is designed to be left on Auto.

When it encounters Dolby Imaginative and prescient content material, it goes into both Shiny and Darkish modes (set within the menu). Shiny is healthier when not viewing in a totally darkish room. There’s additionally assist for HDR10 and HLG.

Sky Glass has Auto Backlight Adjustment, which manages settings primarily based on ambient room lighting, however for the simplest HDR efficiency, I’d recommend switching this off.

Common Image Stage is sweet, though the set isn’t the brightest HDR performer. I measured peak HDR brightness simply over 425 nits, with a ten per cent measurement window, and Auto Backlight Adjustment off.

This doesn’t inform the entire story although. Throughout testing, Sky dropped an replace which particularly lifts the set’s efficiency with HLG, to assist make its Sky Sports activities protection pop somewhat higher.

Audio is finest in school. The six-speaker 3.1.2 Dolby Atmos array presents an enormous wall of sound. Whereas most comparable flatscreens sound woefully skinny, this technique has towering clout. Complete energy output is rated at 215W and you are able to do with no devoted
soundbar right here.

Value

Sky Glass is available in three display sizes, 43-, 55- and 65in (small, medium and enormous) and you should buy the Sky Glass outright like every other TV. In early 2023, Sky bumped the costs up by between £50 and £150 so it used to start out at £649 however now prices £699, £949, £1,199 for the three sizes.

Similar to a cell phone, the value you pay will depend on your chosen TV, viewing bundle and size of contract with costs from £14, £19 and £24 per thirty days for the three totally different display sizes, when you take out a 48-month contract. There’s additionally a £10 upfront price.

With a 24-month contract, this rises to £28, £38 and £48 month-to-month with a £20 upfront charge. That’s double so the whole price over the course of the contract is identical aside from the upfront price.

You’ll then want so as to add in your subscription bundle price (Sky Final TV with Netflix is £24 per thirty days), with further premiums for Extremely HDR and Dolby Atmos sound and multiroom – the latter comes by way of a Sky Stream puck with an upfront price of £50 per unit. In contrast to the Sky Mini containers which associate Sky Q, this runs autonomously.

You may solely buy Sky Glass from Sky direct. Sky’s set up group will ship direct and assemble the set, and if you would like, eliminate all of the packaging.

Discover out extra particulars on tips on how to purchase Sky Glass as Diamond & Platinum tier clients who’ve been with Sky for over eight years get precedence.

Take a look at extra TV choices in our greatest TV and finest finances TV charts. You can too learn up on the rival leisure bundle Virgin TV 360. 

Verdict

Sky Glass is exclusive, which makes it a problem to evaluate. For a lot of viewers, it’ll tick the appropriate containers: a classy premium TV streaming platform, distinctive design, colour-rich 4K photos and a contract cost plan.

The QLED display performs a lot as I’d count on a mid-range LED to do, however the sound system is a magnitude higher than anything in its vary. The shortage of correct gaming assist, to not point out that AWOL headphone jack, may very well be a deal-breaker for some although.

The all-streaming setting takes some getting used to, but it surely’s really fairly cool. A lot of its present inconsistencies are right down to licensing (cloud streaming rights, Watch from Begin rights, you title it), which is able to probably be resolved in time.

Our verdict? Sky Glass is one to observe.