4 days ago
Sky Glass Air Makes TV Streaming Cheap
The new Sky Glass Air TV, which comes in 3 sizes.
Earlier this year, British satellite broadcasting specialist Sky took the covers off of the 2nd-gen Glass TV, and teased that a cheaper 'Air' version would be following soon.
That soon is now, as Sky Glass Air is now official, and undercuts the cost of its pricier brethren by around 50% across the board.
Those savings obviously mean some compromises compared to the higher-end Glass 2, and it's on the physical attributes where that's most notable.
Like Glass 2, Glass Air features 4K Quantum Dot HDR screens, but doesn't have local dimming; instead the TVs in the range offer a global dimming system, but there is still support for HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision HDR formats.
On the audio front, they don't have the built-in 3.1.2-channel built-in Dolby Atmos speaker system, instead it's a more standard Dolby Audio system; so you will probably want to invest in a soundbar to go with the Air.
That does mean though that Air (the clue is in the name) is a lot more svelte than Glass 2. I had a chance to get eyes-on with the new models at a recent briefing and they are, in my opinion at least, a lot better looking.
Coming in Sea Green, Carbon Grey, and Cotton White, the new TVs are super stylish, with the remotes color-matched to the TV, as well.
Sky Glass Air, like the original Glass and Glass 2, is a TV and set-top box all in one, that not only gives you access to Sky's channels, catch-up and live programming, but also an array of the most popular streaming apps, including the likes of Apple TV, Netflix, iPlayer, Prime and Discovery+.
The new Sky Glass Air TV homescreen
Running on the newly renamed Sky OS, with an improved interface that provides 30 more genre rails on the homepage, personalised on watch history, the idea is basically a huge aggregation of all the native and third-party content on offer, much like you'd find on a Fire TV, but without the need for extra set-top boxes or dongles.
Like Sky Glass Gen 2, Glass Air comes in three size options of 43-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch.
Whatever size you choose, you'll get a trio of HDMI ports on the back (one of which is eARC) and a 60Hz refresh rate panel.
Sky Glass Air works in sync with any existing Glass TVs (or indeed Stream pucks) in a household, so you can carry on watching something in one room that you started in another, and all of your playlists will work across multiple devices.
You can choose to pay for Glass Air up-front: £309 for the 43-inch model, £509 for the 55-inch, or £649 for the 65-inch. Or you can pay in interest-free monthly instalments, with both 24 and 48 month contracts on offer.
That means, with a £20 up-front fee, you could get a Sky Glass Air TV for as little as £6 per month.
You will, of course, need a Sky TV package to go with it, with plans starting from £15.
Sky Glass Air will officially be available to order next week, starting June 10th.
