Sky Glass 2 review: things look brighter for Sky's second TV

Telegraph

28-03-2025

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What is Sky Glass 2?
In 2021, Sky launched its own television called Sky Glass. In 2025, it unveiled the second-generation, which many people call Sky Glass 2. The idea behind Sky Glass is that you have a television designed by Sky, for Sky content. There are no boxes to connect, you don't need a satellite dish, you just unpack it, plug it in and you're into the world of Sky. It even has a built-in soundbar.
Sky Glass comes in three sizes and there are different ways to buy it, which is where it gets complicated. Sky Glass can be bought outright as a TV, but Sky's intention is to get you on a monthly payment plan where you're paying for the TV and the content. Sky Glass 2 monthly pricing starts at £29 a month on a 48-month contract for the 43-inch TV model, split into £14 for the television and £15 for the Sky Essential TV package. There are options for 24- or 48-month loans for the TV, so it might suit those who want a smart TV and Sky, but have a tight monthly budget.
Considering that you can get Sky Stream – Sky's streaming box – for £15 a month and connect it to any TV you like, is Sky Glass 2 worth the money, or should you buy a separate TV elsewhere?
How we test televisions
Every TV is tested at home for a minimum of two weeks. We play a variety of content in standard, high and ultra-high definition, from movies and nature programmes, to sport and daytime viewing.
We evaluate the picture and sound quality, assess how easy the TV is to set up and operate, and we check how well the TV performs with gaming consoles and other peripherals. We're looking for everyday usability as well as the wow factor.
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Design and technology: 7/10
Sky Glass is designed with a squared industrial look. It's more robust than many TVs and it's 45mm thick through the entire width. There's no sculpting to make it look thinner and with the soundbar on the bottom, it certainly looks quite chunky. I had the 55-inch model for testing.
The soundbar running across the bottom is fully integrated, so there's one metal bezel running around the whole thing, while the rear of the TV is finished in coloured plastic to match. Sky Glass 2 comes in Volcanic Grey, Arctic Silver and Atlantic Blue colours – I had the Arctic Silver and I think the lighter colour has something of a slimming effect compared to the Volcanic Grey (which is basically black).
There's a colour-matched stand in the box, which attaches with no tools. This is convenient: you take the heavy bass plate, slide in two legs and the TV then drops over those so overall, Sky Glass installation is quick and easy. The downside is that there's some wobble in this stand and if you knock the TV, it will rock back and forth a little on the unsecured mountings.
This change to the stand compared to the first-generation Sky Glass also means that the wall mount is no longer included – you'll have to add that to your order at the time of purchase and it costs an additional £2 a month, or you can buy it outright for £99.
Sky Glass 2 features a 4K HDR Quantum Dot display. Sky doesn't go into detail about the technologies in this panel, but we know it's a brighter LCD panel with more dimming control than was used on the original Sky Glass model. That means better picture quality, which I'll move onto now.
Picture quality: 7/10
The most common complaint about the original Sky Glass was that the picture quality wasn't that good. That's one of the drivers behind the second-gen Sky Glass. On paper, things are much the same – it's a 4K TV with a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution quantum dot display, supporting HDR (high dynamic range) formats including Dolby Vision, HDR 10 and HLG. However, there's been a Sky Glass 2 picture quality upgrade with better dimming control – to make dark scenes and blacks look better – and increased screen brightness.
On top of this, Sky has revamped its picture modes and expanded them, aiming to have the TV adjust to the type of content you're watching. I found these to generally work as expected in 'auto' mode, although you can also manually change the modes to suit your preference with most types of content.
The exception is with Dolby Vision content, where changing the viewing mode makes no difference at all. That makes sense: Dolby Vision is designed to be more closely controlled so you're viewing the intended picture that came out of the studio. When you play Dolby Vision content you'll notice the brightness increase quite a bit and this is where Sky Glass looks its best.
I mention these modes because there's one thing that Sky Glass doesn't have a lot of and that's settings. You can tweak a few things, but there are nowhere near as many options for picture tuning as you'll find on a typical TV – and that could be a problem if you're the sort of person who likes to take control and tweak the settings.
Colours are good thanks to the quantum dot display, with the additional brightness welcomed for increasing the impact of HDR content. I watched Glass Onion on Netflix and found it rich and colourful, the intensity of Greek summer pouring off the screen.
As this is an LCD panel, it doesn't deliver dark scenes as well as the best OLED TVs and some dark scenes get a little muddy, while blooming – where you see brightness spreading from a light area into something dark – does still happen. The viewing angles are better, but there's still some loss in picture quality when viewing from an angle.
The best TVs will disperse reflections like ceiling lights with barely a shimmer, but on Sky Glass, reflections can look a little milky which isn't great for the picture quality if you're next to a window for example. Turning off the 'auto backlight' option can help, allowing the TV to reach a higher brightness and I think this generally looks better.
From the time I've been watching Sky Glass 2, I've found it to be perfectly entertaining: the opening scenes of Casino Royale on Blu-ray were contrasty and full of grain as I'd expect; while Game of Thrones streamed from Sky was rich with detail, even if some of the dark scenes get a little muddled. Watching Dune on Ultra HD Blu-ray looked fantastic, but not quite as fantastic as it does on a higher quality display.
Sound: 8/10
With the soundbar offering seven speakers, Sky Glass 2 is better than many TVs straight out of the box. Three speakers project sound towards you, while two Dolby Atmos speakers in the top of the frame provide additional 'height'. Finally there are two subwoofers to supply bass.
The Sky Glass sound system results in a rich soundscape and movies that are encoded in Dolby Atmos make for the best listening experience. It won't compete with the best soundbars, but as a single-box solution, it's pretty good.
Again, there aren't many sound settings, but there is a bass booster (which I think you should turn on) and a speech enhancer, designed to pick out voices. There's also a night mode to reduce volume and bass so you don't disturb others in the evening.
The sound is linked to the viewing modes I mentioned earlier. Most sound is much the same, but Sport is slightly different to give a more immersive experience, while Music sounds like it's configured for stereo delivery, making it slightly flatter.
So far all this is good, but I found that you could hear the difference between content that was presented in surround sound and that which wasn't. The result is that some daytime TV viewing doesn't sound great. Many soundbars will boost the sound in these situations to make it richer and Sky Glass doesn't seem to be doing this.
Operating system and usability: 7/10
If you've used Sky previously, the user interface will be familiar to you. It's popular with a lot of people, but it's very Sky centric. On the home page, you're presented with various content suggestions, which are often from Sky channels. You then have a row of content categories (including Playlist which is basically your favourites list), after which you hit TV channels, continue watching and the top 10 before you arrive at the other apps and services. In short, if you fancy opening Disney+ to watch Daredevil: Born Again, it's a lot of scrolling.
Beneath that, there's another seven rows of recommendations before you hit the settings and search at the bottom of the page. Rather than scrolling, Sky would like you to use voice searching, by pressing the microphone button on the remote and speaking or saying 'Hello Sky' to the TV itself. Both are a faster way to get to the settings – but so often when doing that, I end up on the page for the film 'Set'. As I've previously said, there aren't a huge number of settings to change anyway, so that might not be a huge problem.
Voice control on Sky isn't as good as Alexa on Fire TV: it's just not accurate enough. The saving grace is that scrolling to the left on the home screen takes you to the last app you used. If you plan to mostly watch content from Sky on Sky Glass then it feels seamless; if you're a heavy streamer with lots of subscriptions, it's a little more work to navigate.
Gaming and peripherals: 6/10
Sky Glass 2 is equipped with a 60Hz panel, meaning it doesn't support the higher 120Hz refresh rates that modern games consoles offer and it's nowhere near the 144Hz that a PC gamer might be seeking. While you'll be able to connect your console and play these games, you won't get the best experience.
Sky Glass 2 is equipped with three HDMI ports for accessories and they all support the 2.1 standard. For gamers, this sees support for ALLM, so when you connect a compatible device you'll get a low latency mode for a faster response – but there's no indicator on the TV that this has actually happened. There's no support for VRR (variable refresh rate), which is a common display feature that gamers look for.
There's also no source button on the remote, which again takes me back to some of my complaints about usability. To manually switch to devices you've connected to the TV, you have to scroll down to that row of apps, where you'll find the option to switch sources. Otherwise, you'll just have to turn on whatever you've connected and as soon as it's powered on, it will switch over. It's less flexible than most other TVs when dealing with connected devices.
Technical specifications
The appeal of Sky Glass is that you get everything from one box, you don't need a dish or even an aerial and it's loaded with apps. Sky unlocks access to lots of content, but ultimately this is a mid-range TV. If we put Sky's content to one side and think about this in terms of performance, streaming and price, then you might want to compare Sky Glass to Amazon's Fire TV Omni Mini-LED. Amazon's TV is good value, surprisingly well specified and a solid choice for a mid-range set.
Telegraph verdict: 8/10
Sky Glass offers a good all-in-one experience for someone who wants access to Sky's content with minimal fuss. The greatest appeal is for those who want the convenience of paying monthly for their TV, knowing that they're getting access to lots of content and a TV that's capable in most areas, including sound.
However, Sky Glass 2 isn't that cheap. You can buy better TVs for the same or less money and connect a Sky Stream box to get the same content experience. If you have more advanced requirements – you're a big gamer, you want to tweak the settings, are looking for the best picture quality, or plan to spend more time in streaming apps than in Sky's own content – then Sky Glass might not be for you.
If you don't want any complication, you just want to plug in your TV, fire up Sky Sports or Sky Atlantic and enjoy Sky's great content, then Sky Glass 2 is worth investigating.
FAQs
What are the new features of Sky Glass 2?
Sky Glass 2 adds more dimming zones and greater brightness to the panel, while also adding an additional subwoofer to the soundbar to increase the sound performance. There's a new easy-assemble stand, as well as new colours for the TV.
Is Sky Glass 2 better for watching sports and movies?
Sky Glass 2 offers better picture quality than the original Sky Glass thanks to the improved panel. That means better contrast and darker blacks in movies. There are viewing modes to optimise the picture for different content types, including sport.
What sound system does Sky Glass 2 have?
Sky Glass 2 has a built-in subwoofer, providing a 3.1.2 channel system. This supports Dolby Atmos for immersive surround sound, with three front speakers, two speakers in the frame for height and two subwoofers for bass. It has a total 250W output.
How much does Sky Glass 2 cost?
Sky Glass 2 can be bought a number of ways. It can be bought outright from £699 (43-inch), or it can be bought on a 48-month plan from £14 a month with £20 upfront. The TV is yours to keep once the payments are finished. Additional channels, services, or the wall mount, cost extra.
Does Sky Glass work without a Sky subscription?
Yes, you can use Sky Glass without a Sky subscription. If you buy the TV outright you don't have to subscribe, or when you reach the end of the payments you could use it as a normal TV. You won't have access to Sky's services or the channel guide, but you will be able to connect external devices, use subscription apps and use the built-in Freeview tuner.