Sky Q

TIME ON TEST: 1.5 years REVIEWER: Mark Craven

- Mark Craven

WHEN SKY Q was launched at the beginning of 2016, it was the first hardware refresh from the satcaster in some years. This gained it plenty of attention, as did its unrivalled number of tuners, potential support for 4K content, wireless multi room functionality and promise of slick usability. Eighteen months down the line, how successful has it been?

What's good about it?

In a word, 4K. Sky Q may have arrived in advance of any Ultra HD programming from the company, but it didn't take long to come good on its promise (4K material debuted in August 2016) and the content catalogue has been generally impressive. Sports – a key part of Sky's USP – has seen Premier League football joined by Test cricket and F1, while various US and Sky original dramas (Jamestown, The Blacklist, The Young Pope et al) are available to feast upon. Image quality is excellent, particularly the live sports coverage which can feel a world apart from its HD brethren.

Additionally, there are 4K movies, and the selection is solid, with a welcome tranche of back-catalogue titles, many of which are unavailable on UHD Blu-ray. Quality here varies depending on the state of the master, but most are surprisingly robust. If you fancy watching RoboCop of The Guns of Navarone with real pixel sharpness and can't wait for their respective studios to get their physical disc act together, Sky Q is your saviour. Note that all Sky's 4K material is delivered in SDR, until HLG HDR is adopted at some point in the future.