Sky Glass Gen 2 Review: Brighter and better

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Introduction

It’s been almost four years since Sky launched its first TV, so we’ve been waiting a long time (as far as TVs are concerned) for the sequel. And now we have – Sky Glass Gen 2.

Most will probably call it Sky Glass 2, and like every Hollywood sequel it promises to be better than the original. The original Sky Glass took flak (deservedly so) for not offering picture quality in line with the hype that surrounded it.

I was at 180 Strand in London to see what Sky has been cooking for the last few years. Everything I’ve seen so far of indicates that Sky has taken on the complaints from the original and focused on delivering improvements with Sky Glass 2

Availability

Sky Glass Gen 2 goes on sale February 12^th and it’ll be available at the same price as the current model.

What that means is prices starting at £14/month for the smallest screen, £19/month for the middle size and £24/month for the largest screen. You can choose the length of the contract with a 24-month contract offering the best value according to Sky, or pay off in rolling 31-day contracts.

Paying for the TV upfront remains another option if you want Sky Glass 2. That’ll cost £699 / £949 / £1199 for small, medium and big respectively. It’s available direct from Sky and later in the year It’ll go on sale in Currys too.

Design

• Same look as before
• Weight has been reduced
• Three sizes available

I had been hoping that Sky Glass 2 would a) be slimmer than the original and b) weigh less as it was genuinely one of the heaviest TVs I’ve had the misfortune to carry. Unfortunately, we’re only one for two on that count.

Sky Glass 2 is much less heavier than the first model, weighing the scales at 21kg for the 55-inch screen compared to 28kg for the original. But in terms of the overall design, it’s almost identical in terms of dimensions, so it’s still a relatively chunky 47.7mm for a TV.

What has changed to remove all that weight is that the stand is both simpler in design and doesn’t feature that whopping stanchion on the back of the screen either. The TV now easily slots onto the stand’s perch and clips in, and the rear panel is completely flat which should help with wall-mounting the screen but also gives a boost to the sound, with it possible to have an ‘air gap’ to the wall behind it to give that bass some feeling.

Annoying though, the TV is still set flush to whatever surface it’s on. While it’s lighter it doesn’t seem any easier to carry, since there’s no gap at the bottom to get a proper grip at the bottom of the screen.

Sizes come in 43-, 55-, and 65-inches – surprisingly Sky isn’t joining in the trend of launching big-sized TV screens that are all the rage currently. There are three updated colours in Volcanic Grey, Arctic Silver and Atlantic Blue. The remote looks to be the same as before, which means its battery powered. I have to say, I was hoping this model would ditch the batteries altogether and opt for USB-C charging.

Interface

The interface of Sky’s products is a big reason why it’s successful. Having all the major apps and being able to search easily makes them much more digestible for the average person.

With Sky Glass 2’s launch, the Sky Entertainment OS will now just be called Sky OS. Given how Sky’s putting an emphasis on simplicity that change seems rather, well, obvious and simple. And it’s constantly upgrading – over 500 updates big and small since the first TV launch in 2021.

The look of the interface itself doesn’t seem to have changed much. You still have the rails and the non-partisan approach to aggregating the apps that Sky supports. Sky didn’t announce any new additions to its current roster of apps, but it did let slip that Warner Bros. Max will be on the service in 2026 and integrated into one of its TV packages. What version of the app will be available remains unknown.

Both the ‘Continue Watching’ rail and Playlist have proven popular, but aside from some visual retouching for the former, I didn’t catch any improvements being made to these section. Sky is still going with the ‘recording’ line for Playlist, though this ‘recording’ happens in the cloud rather than on a hard-drive on the TV.

The interface did seem faster and more responsive in the demos provided, with Sky Glass 2’s new processing giving it some more horsepower. And the benefit of Sky OS’ Continue Watching compared to, say, Google TV, is that it has access to UK catch-up apps such as iPlayer, Channel 4 and others, so you can continue where you left off with those apps too.

And let’s not forget voice control as a means of navigating the interface or even turning the TV on and off. Like the original, there’s voice control through the remote along with hands-free operation. There is no Google or Alexa voice control included with this TV, in case you were wondering.

Features

• Enhanced sound system
• 60Hz panel
• ALLM for gamers

The appeal of Sky Glass has always been that it’s a TV for the mass market. That’s not going to change with Sky Glass 2.

If you were hoping for 4K/120Hz gaming support, that’s not coming. Same with VRR or any other version of it. The screen is 60Hz in any case, and despite some debate behind the scenes about going for a 120Hz panel, most people watch and game at 60Hz. ALLM is supported from the get-go to put the TV into its lowest latency mode.

Disappointingly there remain only three HDMI inputs, which seems a bit stingy but again, this is a TV positioned at the mass market, and a TV with a focus on streaming over the Wi-Fi. HDMI 2 is the eARC input if you want to connect an external sound system to Sky Glass 2. DTT DBV-T/T2 antennae is provided as a backup in case your Wi-Fi goes down.

There are two USB inputs (one for power, another for power and Common Interface+), plus an Ethernet port for a hardwired connection to your home hub. Wi-Fi (obviously), Bluetooth 5.2 Low Energy and Apple AirPlay 2 are supported on the wireless side. I don’t remember AirPlay being a feature on the original but I stand to be corrected.

HDR support includes HDR10, HLG (for TV broadcasts) and Dolby Vision, which means HDR10+ is disqualified yet again. On the audio side is Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital+. The sound system had a boost with the power output pushed up to 250W from 215W. Hopefully there’s more grunt under the hood with the TV’s built-in 3.1.2 Atmos supporting speaker system.

Sky Live is compatible with this new model but is available separately.

Performance

• Brighter, sharper picture
• More dimming zones
• Clearer sound quality
• New Extra-Vivid picture mode

The least impressive aspect of the original Sky Glass was its picture quality. That seems to be an area where Sky has made the most gains with Sky Glass 2. You might say they were stung by the criticism of the first screen, which now looks aged compared to newer models from other brands, but it’s spurred them into action.

When I was previewed Sky Glass 2 in the middle of last year, there was speculation that it was a Mini-LED screen but Sky’s not mentioning much about the tech literally behind its new TV. I seem to recall it being confirmed that it was a Mini-LED at that event but all Sky will mention now is that it features dimming zones.

And there are more LEDs in the screen than there was with Sky Glass, and more dimming zones too, though again Sky’s being coy about how many to keep the focus on the picture rather than zonal counts. Fair enough. From the brief demos I saw, Sky Glass 2 did look sharper and brighter, with a wider range of colours on show than the original.

Blooming (light bleeding into darker parts of the image) wasn’t obvious at all. Though I’d have to get a review sample to really confirm that.

Viewing angles also seemed stronger though the venue wasn’t the brightest so it was hard to tell. Black levels looked better, but again, it wasn’t the best environment to look at that aspect of the TV in. Contrast also looked improved (Sky Glass looked incredibly flat compared to the best 4K TVs), but whatever the peak brightness the TV is capable of, this didn’t feel like it was to the same levels of premium Mini-LED TVs or to the precision OLED offers with contrast.

The screen is still reflective but doesn’t look quite as reflective as before.

Sky Glass 2 boasts a new picture mode in Extra-Vivid to give colours that added punch and saturation and it did look quite good. In fact all the picture modes I saw were relatively handsome, with higher levels of fine detail, sharpness all adding to a much more convincing image.

When it comes to the built-in audio system, that was harder to hear the improvements. Granted, the setting wasn’t perfect but if you were to ask me if the bass was better then I’d struggle to answer that question in any emphatic way. It did sound clearer and sharper – especially with dialogue – and picked up more detail than I remember the warmer sound system on Glass being able to.

The highs were much sharper, the soundstage felt more spacious and detail but I didn’t feel the Atmos effect of sound above and to the sides of the TV. It didn’t sound too dynamic to my ears, or weighty and energetic. There’s a consistency to its sound across TV, movies and sports but nothing on the audio front jumped out to me with the demos I heard.

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