Sky’s Smart TV has arrived: how it’s made and how much it costs

A good price-performance ratio, an above-average audio system and a great feature: the ability to watch Sky without a dish

The rumors circulating in recent weeks have turned out to be correct: the Sky group was working on a Smart TV, which has now arrived. At least in the United Kingdom, where Sky UK has already presented the new model, called "Sky Glass" and available in three sizes: 43, 55 and 65 inches. You won't have to buy it: Sky Glass will also be provided on a monthly subscription basis, along with Sky packages.

Sky hasn't revealed who's producing the hardware, but as far as the design is concerned, it's clear that this is an extremely customized project: from an aesthetic point of view, in fact, these TVs are far from the market average. Unlike a normal modern Smart TV, which usually has a very thin panel to which a thicker area is added, at the back, to contain the electronics, Sky Glass is a uniform parallelepiped, just under 5 centimeters thick in all its parts. The appearance, impossible not to notice, is very reminiscent of the latest Apple iMacs. Finally, it should be noted that with Sky Glass you can watch Sky programs without a satellite dish: the signal is transmitted via the Internet.

Sky Glass: technical features

In practice, Sky Glass is a Smart TV with a Sky TV box inside, equipped with proprietary operating system Comcast (the parent company of Sky). The screen is a Quantum Dot LCD, Full Array type with Local Dimming, 60 Hz refresh rate and 4K resolution. The TV is compatible with Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HLG.

This technical choice is a good compromise between price and quality, but to see 4K content streaming will need a very fast and stable connection: Sky Glass in 4K will "consume" alone 25 Mbps.

Preinstalled in Sky Glass the user will find the apps of Sky, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Disney+, ITV Hub, All4, Spotify, Peloton and PlayWorks, whose content will all be available in streaming.

Very interesting is the audio part of this TV, which justifies the design choices: thanks to a uniform and average thickness, Sky Glass has the necessary space inside to integrate a 3.1.2 system composed of three speakers that project the sound forward, a central subwoofer and two speakers pointing upwards to increase the feeling of three-dimensionality. La potenza complessiva è di 215 Watt.

Discreta la connettività: tre porte HDMI 2.1 con eARC, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, WiFi e una USB-C.

Sky Glass: quanto costa

Come già accennato, Sky Glass si potrà comprare o avere inclusa nell’abbonamento Sky. I prezzi di vendita, per i tre modelli, sono:

  • Sky Glass 43": 649 sterline
    Sky Glass 55": 849 sterline
    Sky Glass 65": 1.049 sterline

In alternativa è possibile pagare la TV a rate, insieme all’abbonamento. Questi i canoni mensili, a 24 o 48 mesi:

  • Sky Glass 43": 26 o 13 sterline
    Sky Glass 55": 34 o 17 sterline
    Sky Glass 65": 42 o 21 sterline

Sky Glass: quando arriva in Italia

Al momento Sky Glass è disponibile solo nel Regno Unito, ma a partire dal 2022 sarà portata anche su altri mercati. Sky non ha dichiarato su quali, ma il mercato italiano è storicamente uno dei più importanti per Sky, quindi è lecito aspettarsi l’arrivo di Sky Glass nel nostro Paese entro l’anno prossimo.