Sky Glass Air is an absolute steal – but here’s why it’s not for your living room

Having given us a preview a few months back at the Sky Glass Gen 2 event, Sky UK has now revealed pricing and a launch date for its cheaper Glass Air streaming 4K TV and it’s great value on subscription.

Sky Glass Air will cost between £6 and £13 per month depending on size on a 48 month deal, though it’s also available on a shorter term offer, too (check out the full pricing below).

Available from Tuesday 10 June, it doesn’t have the upgraded screen from the Gen 2 and it also trades in the excellent Dolby Atmos soundbar, too, replacing it with much more standard Dolby Audio-enhanced speakers.Sky Glass Air is available in three colours – Sea Green, Carbon Grey, and Cotton White – and three sizes, 43, 55, and 65in. 

In my opinion, it’s a Sky Glass for a second room – like a bedroom or playroom – rather than a main living room TV, It seems very well designed and put together, but I haven’t been that impressed by the 4K HDR Quantum Dot display both times I’ve seen it in the flesh including at Sky’s HQ a few weeks ago. Sky Glass Gen 2 is much brighter and with far greater contrast (check out my Sky Glass Gen 2 review).

But there is a big price difference between Glass Air and Glass Gen 2. After all, Sky’s more upmarket streaming TV costs over double a month what the Sky Glass Air does, starting at £14 per month.

Sky Glass Air does a bright display, but the contrast isn’t that great. The audio quality is also only just about OK. Sky said at the Sky Glass Gen 2 launch that 80% of TV buyers don’t pair new TVs with an additional sound system.

Although I feel quite confident in making the points about the display having seen various sizes twice in different locations, I’ll reserve full judgement until I’ve had the chance to review it.

Sky has repeatedly said it is targeting people who want a value QLED option over and above those who want to go and buy a premium Mini LED or OLED TV (and pair it with Sky Stream or Sky Q).

So Sky Glass Air is unashamedly designed to be a much cheaper way to get Sky Glass – though you need to add a TV subscription on top of that from £15 a month for Sky Essential including Netflix and Discovery+ (so from £21 a month in total).

As with all Sky deals, adding extra channels like Sky Sports, TNT Sports or Sky Cinema will cost more on top. Sky Glass Air offers all the same software features as Sky Glass Gen 2 and Sky Stream, including the voice remote.

Buying Sky Glass Air outright isn’t the best value you can get, but you’re buying the Sky experience of course, with its easy-to-use operating system and ability to stream all your TV via Wi-Fi and add your programmes to a playlist for easy recall. For example, competitors for the £509 55in model include Amazon’s Omni QLED TV and various TCL’s QLED options from the last couple of years. There are a lot of competitors around this price.

Sky has now also added 30 new rows of content to the Sky OS homescreen, learning what you like to watch and curating collections of the best entertainment based on your viewing habits. Plus there are new ‘rails’ (as Sky calls them) for genres, too.

Sky Glass Air full pricing