RAMageddon is real, as we've seen tech prices rise because of the global RAM and component crises. While it hasn't hit TV prices yet, Samsung has warned that price hikes can't be ruled out because of the ongoing memory chip shortage.

• Shop Best Buy's full Labor Day sale

Now, enough bad news; the good news is that TV costs haven't been affected yet, and thanks to Best Buy's Labor Day sale, you can get our best-rated TV at its lowest price yet. The retailer has LG's 65-inch C6 OLED TV on sale for an incredible price of $1,499.99 (originally $2,699.99), thanks to a whopping $1,200 discount.

The LG C6 was released in March of this year and has already been crowned TechRadar's best TV of 2026. The LG C6 is the successor to the popular LG C5, and in our review it earned five out of five stars, and we said it was 'a notable upgrade over its predecessor.' The LG C6 includes a speedy Alpha 11 AI processor and delivers brighter, more accurate colors and powerful contrast. You also get impressive gaming features and sound, and LG's webOS 26 smart platform, which includes new AI features.

Save $1,200 on LG's C6 OLED TV

I've listed more of Best Buy's top Labor Day TV deals below, including record-low prices on a range of 4K, QLED, and OLED TVs.

Keep in mind that today's discount on LG's C6 OLED TV is a limited-time offer, and it's the lowest price we've ever seen for the 65-inch model. If you want to grab a premium display at an excellent price before potential RAM price hikes hit, then you should take advantage of this incredible deal at Best Buy.

Shop more of the top TV deals at Best Buy

See more of today's best Labor Day sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $99
• Appliances: up to $1,200 at Samsung
• Best Buy: 60% off appliances, TVs, laptops & more
• Casper: up to 30% off mattresses
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• DreamCloud: up to 60% off mattresses, 66% off bundles
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lowe's: $1,000 off appliances, patio & tools
• Nectar: up to 50% off mattresses, deals from $349
• Saatva: up to $625 off luxury mattresses
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off 4K, QLED & OLED TVs
• Target: 45% off clothing, tech & furniture
• Walmart: 58% off back-to-school, furniture, & clothing

• Samsung's flagship now comes with Canvas's audiophile soundbars
• 1,000 to 1,500W of Class D amplification
• From $7,999 (about £5,905 / AU$11,165)

Samsung's flagship S99H OLED TV (S95H in the US) is a phenomenal TV with a divisive design: as we said in our Samsung S99H review, "A new silver frame around the TV, called the FloatLayer Design, has been added and [we] found the frame to be distracting. While meant for wall-mounting, the extra width may cause space issues for some people, and the handsome central pedestal stand of its predecessor has been replaced by two plastic feet."

The good news: Samsung has made its flagship OLED beautiful by teaming up with Danish audiophile firm Canvas to create the Samsung HiFi S99H, which looks great and gives you a hugely powerful sound system too.

The bad news: prices start at $7,999.

Boom, shake the room: the HiFi S99H has a seriously powerful sound system

The Samsung HiFi S99H will debut at IFA 2026 in Berlin this week, and it'll be available in 55", 65", 77", and 83" sizes. It includes a fixed floor stand or wall mount as standard, and there's an optional rotating floor stand in aluminum or black.

As you can see, it's a good-looking thing — but there's sonic substance as well as Scandi style. You can choose between two versions of the Canvas soundbar: the standard Canvas or the larger, even louder Canvas L. With 1,000W or 1,500W of Class D amplification, both versions will make you very popular with your neighbors.

Canvas describes its soundbar as the world's first audiophile soundbar, and while other manufacturers might dispute that claim, there's no doubt that both Canvas models are serious sound systems: we were very impressed when we heard the Canvas in action. However, it's worth noting that while Canvas has just announced a full Dolby Atmos soundbar system, the two models in the HiFi S99H are stereo rather than surround systems — although they do include Baach's 3D sound processing to create a more immersive experience than standard stereo.

According to Samsung, the goal is "more than simply the combination of a TV and a sound system. The ambition is to create a new category in which true HiFi, picture quality and furniture design are developed as one integrated solution — developed for consumers who do not want to choose between performance and interior design."

The HiFi S99H will launch on September 4, 2026, at IFA Berlin and will be available in selected Canvas showrooms from October 2026. The Canvas L version will be available later this year.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

Epson LifeStudio Grand Projector: One-minute review

The new Epson LifeStudio Grand UST projector may not ring any bells. But its rebranding hides the fact that it’s little more than a minor update to the Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS650. That was a decent projector when it came out, but not an amazing one.

With the LifeStudio Grand, Epson has made some improvements. The Google TV operating system works well, and there’s an extra HDMI port where its predecessor offered just two. It also doesn’t have whiny fans. But the image is still a little soft and not as dazzlingly colorful as RGB laser projection. The projector’s motion interpolation also needs a lot of work. And Epson’s switch from Yamaha to Bose for sound tuning hasn’t made the audio better.

With competitors improving considerably over the past year, the LifeStudio Grand is in troubled waters. If you can’t see the DLP rainbow effect and don’t mind drawing the curtains from time to time, you can get a much better projector for your money by shopping elsewhere.

Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Price & release date

• Release date: October 2025
• Price: $2,699 / £1,749.99 / AU$4,399

The LifeStudio Grand launched in late 2025 with global rollout in Spring 2026. The project has a retail price of $2,699 / £1,749.99 / AU$4,399.

Given its newness and the fact that it’s coming from a big player like Epson, I wouldn’t expect any major discounts on the projector too soon, though Black Friday could roll around and see at least a minor deal.

Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Specs

Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Design & features

• Google TV and fast Wi-Fi work well together
• Bland looks, but functional design

As soon as I took out the LifeStudio Grand, I thought it looked familiar. Sure enough, down to the inch and pound, it’s just the Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS650 back again. There are just a few changes.

Epson added a third HDMI port on the back: nice. Epson swapped to Google TV and it actually runs quickly: nice. Epson included Wi-Fi 6E: nice. And Epson added some gaming features, like ALLM and a 1080p/120Hz mode: nice. But these are more making up for fumbles from that earlier model, rather than actually keeping pace with competitors like the Hisense PX3 Pro and its 1080p240Hz mode.

The LifeStudio Grand is a little plain to look at with its white plastic construction and gray-ish front grille — the result of a white grille dotted with black holes. Even the Epson branding looks unfortunate, like it was pasted on after having been forgotten in an earlier prototype (except we know it wasn’t because it was there on the predecessor).

One thing giving the LifeStudio Grand a bit of style is its little silver legs. These also play a crucial role in the projection, as they can adjust the tilt of the projector to ensure it lines up square with a wall or projection screen. The projector supports digital keystone adjustments, but those are best avoided when possible. The right side of the projector hides a hardware focus dial behind a small panel, which allows for quick focus adjustments while also protecting the setting once you’ve got it in place. Auto-focus would have been nice though.

While the LifeStudio Grand isn’t a large UST projector, it ends up feeling a little large because of its 15.7-inch depth. For comparison, the Hisense L9Q is just 12.5 inches deep and the PX3-Pro is just 11.7 inches. That sees the LifeStudio Grand stick out pretty far forward on a media console, and because of its 0.25:1 throw ratio, the console might have to stick out too if you want to get a huge picture. All of this also makes for tough placement for a soundbar.

The LifeStudio Grand’s remote is a cheap little plastic unit that doesn’t feel a good match for the price of the projector. It has typical Google TV controls, a dedicated input-selection button, four streaming app shortcuts (one for Free TV, which fires up Google TV Freeplay), and a dedicated brightness control and a shortcut to projection settings. While there are also volume controls on the remote, there’s no mute button — enjoy the sound of advertisements that you can’t quickly mute. The remote also lacks any illumination, which would be helpful in a dark home theater.

• Design & features score: 3/5

Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Picture quality & performance

• Bright projection
• Slightly soft picture and motion artifacts
• Speakers are no stand-in for actual sound system

Just like its predecessor, the star of the show for the LifeStudio Grand is its brightness. The projector offers a very respectable 3,600 lumens. This doesn’t make up for bright sunlight coming into the room and ruining dark scenes, but for bright content it can look decent. And the fans don’t overdo while running at full brightness either — an improvement over its prior model.

That’s about where the LifeStudio Grand’s benefits compared to its competitors end. The LifeStudio Grand uses Epson’s own 3LCD projection, which doesn’t prove as colorful compared to the crop of RGB laser projectors on the market. It does avoid issues with DLP rainbow effect, but if you’re not susceptible to that, it may be a non-issue. Contrast is decent, but not astounding. And though this is a 4K projector, Epson’s pixel shifting on this model doesn’t produce as stunningly sharp an image as its rivals.

Right out of the box, the projector’s Standard picture profile has some motion issues, and it’s not better on its other profiles. It smoothes out camera panning motion, but it introduces issues in just about all other types of motions. People moving around on screen look poor, especially with hand motions, which look almost AI generated and occasionally cause weird stuttering for the whole frame.

Animation looks even worse as motions are smeared chaotically. And even panning shots can suffer when the camera motion changes speed or slows to a stop, with the projector seeming to reduce the frame rate instead of interpolating. Although the interpolation can be turned off, when it is some camera pans stutter.

The speakers on the LifeStudio Grand are fine, but not dazzling — so much for that Bose collab. They don’t create a very wide soundstage, so they’re no replacement for a proper sound system. And while they can pump out enough volume for a 200-square-foot room, that’s about their limit. I find I’m regularly dialing them up above 60% just to listen in a quiet room. With guests over, it all but requires max volume, and has a slightly harsh quality when cranked.

Even with the projector’s new gaming features, it doesn’t prove a stunning option for gamers either. At a pinch, it’ll be good enough for most games, but I could still feel slight latency that made combat hard in fast-reflex action games.

• Picture quality & performance score: 3/5

Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Value

The LifeStudio Grand isn’t a terribly high-priced UST projector, undercutting the Hisense PX3-Pro by a good amount. And for the money, you’re getting a very bright projector. But that’s about the only specification that stands out.

The picture quality, sound, and design all leave plenty to be desired. That’s a bit too much disappointment for a product that’s still edging up toward $3,000 / £2,000 / AU$4,500.

Having seen the Hisense C2 Ultra — a 3,000 lumen triple laser projector — going for $2,000 (around £1,500 / AU$2,800) recently, it’s hard to see the LifeStudio Grand as a good option when you can grab the Hisense and a solid sound system for the same price.

• Value score: 3/5

Should I buy the Epson LifeStudio Grand?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Epson LifeStudio Grand review: also consider

How I tested the Epson LifeStudio Grand

• Tested at home in multiple, real-world viewing conditions
• Presented the display with a variety of media and formats
• I have tested numerous projectors and displays over the last half-decade

I tested the Epson LifeStudio Grand at home, in real-world conditions. This saw it faced with ambient light coming in from numerous windows, in-room lighting, as well as ambient noise that both the projector and speaker systems had to overcome. The projector was tested both against a bare, white wall and an Akia Screens CineWhite screen. It was presented with streamed content, HDR and non-HDR, and PC gameplay.

My testing evaluates the projector’s performance with respect to its price and competition from other models colleagues at TechRadar and I have tested.

I have been testing projectors since 2021 and displays for even longer.

• First reviewed: August 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

The Sony Bravia 7 II serves as the more affordable model in Sony’s RGB LED 2026 lineup, and while it may not deliver the OLED-rivaling performance RGB has been touted to offer, it’s probably one of the best examples I’ve seen of the new RGB tech in action. It won’t beat the very best TVs I’ve tested this year, but it’s certainly a great TV.

The Bravia 7 II’s picture quality is great overall. It demonstrates excellent backlight control that delivers OLED-level blacks when viewed straight on, with minimal signs of blooming. It also delivers spectacular colors that rival the best OLED TVs, as well as refined, realistic detail and textures that bring pictures to life. It also delivers excellent motion handling for fast-paced action on screen. While not perfect, due to its reflective screen and signs of backlight blooming and faded contrast when viewed off-center, the Bravia 7 II’s picture is still very good.

Sony’s TVs are often among the strongest for built-in sound, but while the Bravia 7 II shows promise, its built-in sound wasn’t quite as good as I hoped. Getting the settings right is key (check out the sound quality section for more info), and once set up, it does deliver a clear, detailed, and accurate sound profile with decent bass. Yet, the sound felt too contained for my liking. I’d recommend one of the best soundbars here if you’re a regular movie viewer.

Gaming is well supported on the Bravia 7 II, with 4K 120Hz, VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision all featured. The Bravia 7 II even produced a 10.4ms input lag time; one of the stronger times I’ve seen from a Sony TV. This translates well into real-life gaming, as I found performance smooth and responsive. While it has just two HDMI 2.1 ports and its picture can get muddy during fast-paced sequences, the Bravia 7 II still gives the best gaming TVs a run for their money.

Using Google TV as its smart TV platform, the Bravia 7 II has a good number of picture and audio settings, with fairly easy-to-navigate menus. Performance is strong overall, with only the occasional stutter, and while the large banner ads on the home menu can be distracting, Google TV is a decent smart TV platform.

The Bravia 7 II is solid value for money. While it is a premium-priced ‘mid-range’ TV, it delivers very good performance with a strong feature list and even goes toe-to-toe with rival OLEDs like the LG C6. The 65-inch launched at $2,599 / £2,299 / AU$3,299, with prices already dropping to $1,799 / £1,899 / AU$3,295. The Bravia 7 II may still be pricey, but it’s mostly in line with other RGB TVs and OLEDs for what it offers.

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Prices & release dates

• Release date: July 2026
• 50-inch price: N/A / £1,899 / AU$2,295
• 55-inch price: $2,099 / £1,999 / AU$2,499
• 65-inch price: $2,599 / £2,299 / AU$3,299
• 75-inch price: $3,099 / £2,999 / AU$4,499
• 85-inch price: $3,999 / £3,999 / AU$5,999

The Bravia 7 II is the more affordable model in Sony’s True RGB TV lineup, sitting below the flagship Sony Bravia 9 II. The 65-inch model I tested for my review launched at $2,599 / £2,299 / AU$3,299, putting it at a similar launch price to the LG C6 OLED.

Since its release, the Bravia 7 II has been on sale several times, with the same 65-inch model I tested dropping to $1,799 in the US and £1,999 in the UK. Prices remain unchanged in Australia at the time of writing.

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Specs

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Benchmark results

Previous

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Brightness Measurements

Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator. Click the test name for measurements and select the chosen test from the dropdown menu.

HDR FilmmakerHDR StandardSDR FilmmakerSDR Standard

Sony Bravia 7 II

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

1114

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

829

LG C6

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

1427

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

247

Samsung R95H

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

1977

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

612

05001,0001,5002,000

nits

HDR Filmmaker Data

Product	HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window) (nits)	HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Sony Bravia 7 II	1114	829
LG C6	1427	247
Samsung R95H	1977	612

Sony Bravia 7 II

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

1295

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

788

LG C6

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

1364

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

243

Samsung R95H

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

2066

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

647

07501,5002,2503,000

nits

HDR Standard Data

Product	HDR Standard Mode (10% window) (nits)	HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Sony Bravia 7 II	1295	788
LG C6	1364	243
Samsung R95H	2066	647

Sony Bravia 7 II

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

90

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

94

LG C6

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

333

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

237

Samsung R95H

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

115

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

185

0100200300400

nits

SDR Filmmaker Data

Product	SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window) (nits)	SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Sony Bravia 7 II	90	94
LG C6	333	237
Samsung R95H	115	185

Sony Bravia 7 II

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

608

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

476

LG C6

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

391

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

234

Samsung R95H

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

413

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

187

0200400600800

nits

SDR Standard Data

Product	SDR Standard Mode (10% window) (nits)	SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Sony Bravia 7 II	608	476
LG C6	391	234
Samsung R95H	413	187

HDR color gamut

Closer to 100% is better. Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator.

Sony Bravia 7 II

UHDA-P3

98.6

BT.2020

89.6

LG C6

UHDA-P3

99.7

BT.2020

75.9

Samsung R95H

UHDA-P3

148

BT.2020

94.1

037.575112.5150

HDR Filmmaker Data

Product	UHDA-P3 ()	BT.2020 ()
Sony Bravia 7 II	98.6	89.6
LG C6	99.7	75.9
Samsung R95H	148	94.1

Picture accuracy

A lower score is better. Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator.

SDR Delta-E

Sony Bravia 7 II

6.5

LG C6

1.3

Samsung R95H

3.7

01234567

SDR Delta-E Data

Product	Value
Sony Bravia 7 II	6.5
LG C6	1.3
Samsung R95H	3.7

Input lag

Lower is better. Taken using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Video Signal Lag Tester.

Sony Bravia 7 II

4K 60Hz

10.4

1080p 120Hz

5.7

LG C6

4K 60Hz

9.2

1080p 120Hz

4.7

Samsung R95H

4K 60Hz

11.7

1080p 120Hz

9.4

03.757.511.2515

ms

HDR Filmmaker Data

Product	4K 60Hz (ms)	1080p 120Hz (ms)
Sony Bravia 7 II	10.4	5.7
LG C6	9.2	4.7
Samsung R95H	11.7	9.4

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Features

• RGB mini-LED panel
• XR Processor
• Perfect for PS5 features

The Bravia 7 II is one of Sony’s True RGB TVs and features an RGB mini-LED backlight. This introduces red, green and blue LEDs instead of the normal white you’ll find in a standard LED/mini-LED panel for greater color volume and (generally) higher brightness. Along with the RGB backlight, there are numerous named RGB features, including RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro and RGB Triluminous Max

The Bravia 7 II is equipped with Sony’s own XR Processor, which supports picture features such as XR Clear Image (for better motion clarity), XR Motion Clarity (for smoother motion) and XR Contrast Booster (for enhanced contrast).

Dolby Vision HDR is supported but not HDR10+ (which isn’t unusual for Sony). There's also support for IMAX Enhanced content.

The Bravia 7 II supports an X-Wide Angle Pro feature for better viewing angles, something RGB TVs from most brands say is one of the advantages of the new technology, as standard mini-LED, when viewed from an angle, can often result in backlight blooming.

As for audio, the 65-, 75- and 85-inch models have a 40W speaker system consisting of two full-range speakers and two subwoofers. The 50- and 55-inch models use two full-range speakers and two tweeters. The Bravia 7 II supports AI Voice upscaling and room calibration audio features, and both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X (as well as DTS-HD) audio formats.

For gaming, the Bravia 7 II has two HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K 120Hz, ALLM and VRR gaming. The other two ports are standard HDMI 2.0. There are also Perfect for PS5 features, including Auto HDR Tone Mapping, Auto Genre Picture Mode (where the TV will automatically switch to game picture mode when a PS5 is detected), and support for the PS Remote Play app, where you can control your PS5, PS5 Pro or PS4 from another location via the TV.

The Bravia 7 II uses Google TV as its smart TV platform and supports the usual streaming apps such as Netflix and Prime Video, as well as Sony’s own Bravia Pictures Core streaming service. In the UK, there is support for BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 and Channel 5 streaming apps. In the US, the Bravia 7 II features an ATSC 3.0 tuner.

• Features score: 4.5/5

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Picture quality

• Brilliant color reproduction
• Excellent contrast
• Blooming when viewed off-center

Starting with brightness measurements, the 65-inch Bravia 7 II registered 1,114 nits peak HDR brightness in its Professional picture mode (its equivalent to Filmmaker), 1,295 nits in Standard mode, and 1,163 nits in Cinema mode. This makes it one of the dimmer RGB TVs I’ve tested out of the box, with the Hisense UR8 hitting 2,097 nits and the Samsung R95H hitting 1,977 nits, both in HDR Filmmaker Mode.

As for HDR fullscreen brightness, the Bravia 7 II registered 829 nits in Professional mode, a solid number that beats both the UR8, which hit 771 nits, and the R95H, which hit 612 nits: again, both in Filmmaker Mode.

The Bravia 7 II also registered promising peak SDR brightness in Standard mode, hitting 608 nits, and in Cinema mode, hitting 663 nits, making it a good TV for standard daytime and broadcast TV and other non-HDR sources.

One of the first things I noted about the Bravia 7 II while testing it in our lab is that it has a reflective screen. Any dark scenes viewed in bright lighting showed mirror-like reflections on the screen, especially when there was a lot of black. If you’re watching a darker movie or TV show, it’s definitely worth watching in ambient conditions.

Moving to 4K, HDR content, the Bravia showcases excellent color reproduction: some of the best I’ve seen on an RGB TV so far. Watching The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, colors really pop on-screen with superb vibrancy. As the Lumas all gather in the room for story time, the Lumas themselves are vibrant, showing off the Bravia 7 II’s fantastic color volume. Other bright colors throughout the movie, such as the green of Yoshi’s skin, are bold and rich, too.

In a real-world movie, namely Speed Racer, the Bravia 7 II renders the gaudy interior of the Racer home and their outfits with real accuracy and some impressive clarity. The purple of Royalton Industries is another highlight, where the Bravia 7 II shows excellent highlights and great color luminance.

It’s not surprising the Bravia 7 II delivered brilliant colors as it scored highly in the HDR color gamut coverage tests. It registered 87.7% of the BT.2020 color space and 99.2% of the UHDA-P3 color space: both excellent results that are up there with QD-OLED TVs. While other RGB TVs I’ve tested have broken the scale of the UHDA-P3 coverage, with both the Hisense UR8 and Samsung R95H hitting over 145%, this didn’t stop the Bravia 7 II colors from looking fantastic. In fact, in my Bravia 7 II vs R95H comparison, I often preferred the Bravia 7 II’s color profile. It even gave the C6 a run for its money in my LG C6 vs Bravia 7 II comparison.

The Bravia 7 II’s contrast is strong. In The Batman, the dark walls and floors of the Batcave balance well with the bright tones from the overhead lights and monitors Bruce uses when reviewing video footage. There’s also great shadow detail, where textures such as the back wall of a subway platform Batman stands on are legible while still maintaining rich dark tones.

In Dark City, blacks are deep and inky, and again there’s powerful contrast at work. I did notice some occasional black crush in some scenes. When John is talking to the hotel clerk, the texture of his curly hair isn’t as clear, but black tones are still rich. In my Bravia 7 II vs Samsung R95H comparison, the R95H proved to have better black detail in this scene.

The Bravia 7 II showed superb detail and crisp textures throughout my testing. In footage of a snow-covered deer from the Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray, the deer has a near-3D-like look, showing some nice depth that really made the image come to life. This is true in other reference scenes I used too, such as how people look in Speed Racer. Skin looks lifelike, and other textures, like the detail of the Mach 5 car, were delivered with gorgeous clarity.

It also demonstrates excellent motion handling, even with motion settings turned off. As cars glided around the track in the opening race of Speed Racer, there were very minimal signs of judder or blur. The Bravia 7 even effectively handled the commentators moving across the screen, something I’ve seen produce serious judder on other TVs.

While I did find that viewing angles of the Bravia 7 II were better than a standard mini-LED, I noted that when viewed from an extreme angle, some backlight blooming was visible, especially in dark scenes. As white text appears against a black background, there's a halo effect around the writing. This is an area where OLED, which RGB aims to rival, is still superior, as OLED has self-dimming pixels for better control. However, the Bravia 7 II did mostly deliver very good backlight control when viewed head-on.

• Picture quality score: 4.5/5

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Sound quality

• Good dynamics and detail
• Effective Acoustic Room Calibration
• Sound can still feel contained to screen

The 65-inch Bravia 7 II has a 40W speaker system, consisting of two full-range speakers and two subwoofers. Rather than the conventional sound modes of other TVs, it focuses on a much more manual approach, with an equalizer and processing settings for users to experiment with.

During the opening race of Speed Racer, the Bravia 7 II delivered accurate sound with clear dynamics. As cars swerved around the track, the sound was accurately mapped to the picture on screen. In one section, as Speed grinds his car on a rail, the subtle grinding noise was audible amongst the chaos of the race. There was some solid, punchy bass capturing the sound of the engines, but I couldn’t help but feel it lacked the ‘oomph’ I’ve come to expect from Sony’s TVs.

Activating Acoustic Room Calibration added some much-needed edge to the sound. The soundstage widened, creating a more immersive sound, and bass was heftier, rendering the roar of the engines more accurately. Voices were clear with and without the calibration, but they were clearer with the calibration active. Atmos effects such as cars flying overhead as they cleared the track’s jumps were also more audible.

Still, the sound could be harsh at times, especially when in the ‘compressed’ dynamic range. I opted for ‘standard’ for a quieter, warmer sound profile. The sound again felt artificial at times, and still felt contained to the rear of the TV. While the overall sound is decent, it won’t beat a good soundbar.

• Sound quality score: 4/5

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Design

• ‘Invisible’ stand
• Hefty build
• Bulkier than rivals

The Bravia 7 II has a central pedestal stand. Made of tough, sturdy metal, the Bravia 7 II feels secure on a tabletop stand, and against the right background (I use a dark-wood stand), the stand can blend in to create a more ‘floating’ look.

The Bravia 7 II itself is on the weightier side, mainly due to its bulkier frame. Compared to many other TVs in today’s market, the Bravia 7 II is much deeper and thicker, probably to handle its built-in speakers. The TV's bezel is trim, allowing plenty of room for the pictures on screen.

There are two remotes included with the Bravia 7 II (one mainly for UK users, as it has numbered buttons), but the main one is the Bravia Voice Remote. The button layout is functional and easy enough to understand, but it feels on the cheap side, being made of light plastic. For a TV at this price, I’d have liked a more premium remote.

• Design score: 4/5

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Smart TV & menus

• Google TV
• Good number of settings
• Ads and performance can frustrate

Like most Sony TVs, the Bravia 7 II uses Google TV as its smart TV platform. Once logged in with your Google account, there will be recommendations from various apps based on your viewing history, which is useful for finding new content. However, the home page is beset with large banner ads that sometimes fill half the screen, which can be very distracting. Google TV supports all major streaming apps, including UK-based platforms such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX.

In terms of settings, the Bravia 7 II has plenty of picture settings and modes for users to get stuck into. There are tons of ways to customize picture settings, with AI-based tools and more traditional brightness, color, contrast and motion settings. The aforementioned sound settings (in the Sound Quality section) also allow for some freedom, but can be daunting for those looking for easy set-up.

I did find that while navigating through some apps and menus, the Bravia 7 II’s performance could stutter at times. This was also true when using the UB-820 4K Blu-ray player, with some stutters here and there. Performance for the most part was solid; just not as slick as on LG’s TVs, say.

• Smart TV & menus score: 4/5

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Gaming

• 10.4ms input lag time
• 4K 120Hz and VRR supported
• Only two HDMI 2.1 ports

The Bravia 7 II supports 4K 120Hz, VRR, Dolby Vision gaming and ALLM, featured on two HDMI 2.1 ports. Using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Input Lag Tester, I measured the Bravia 7 II’s input lag at 10.4ms at 4K 60Hz, which is a big improvement over other Sony TVs we’ve tested at TechRadar, such as the Bravia 8 II OLED, which clocked in at 16.3ms (4K 60Hz). The Bravia 7 II also registered 5.7ms at 1080p 120Hz: a solid time compared to other TVs I’ve tested this year.

These strong input lag times translate to actual gaming. Playing Battlefield V on Xbox Series X, the Bravia 7 II demonstrated responsive performance, which felt smooth even during chaotic battle sequences with a lot of free-flowing movement. Locking onto targets felt snappy with almost no signs of judder.

The Bravia 7 II’s picture quality while gaming was strong for the most part, showing excellent detail with 3D-like textures, as well as bold brightness, rich contrast and punchy colors. I did notice that during faster-paced moments, a dirt screen effect could occur, where textures became a bit muddied, but this didn’t happen all the time.

• Gaming score: 4.5/5

Sony Bravia 7 II review: Value

• Solid value
• Very good performance and features
• Similar price bracket to LG OLED C6

The Bravia 7 II is a mid-range model, and while its 65-inch model, which currently costs $1,799 / £1,899 / AU$3,295, is a premium price tag for this price bracket, it performs well for the money, giving both the LG C6 and Samsung R95H (Samsung’s flagship RGB TV) a run for their money when I tested them side-by-side: and it’s cheaper than both.

The Bravia 7 II’s closest OLED competitor is the LG C6, which costs $1,799 / £2,099 / AU$3,295 for a 65-inch, meaning it’s the same price in both the US and Australia. While the Bravia 7 II doesn’t quite top the C6 in terms of value for money, as it's missing some features, like four HDMI 2.1 ports, which the C6 has, the Bravia 7 II is good overall value for money in the new RGB world.

• Value score: 4/5

Should I buy the Sony Bravia 7 II?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also Consider

How I tested the Sony Bravia 7 II

• Tested over several weeks in our testing lab
• Tested in both light and dark conditions
• Measurements taken using Portrait Displays' Calman Color Calibration software

Before conducting my full testing of the Sony Bravia 7 II, I first did some casual viewing to establish its best picture modes, opting for Professional mode in darker conditions and Cinema mode for brighter conditions and brighter movies.

I next moved on to critical viewing, using reference scenes from 4K Blu-ray to test color, contrast, detail, motion, upscaling and backlight performance. I also used SDR sources such as DVD, broadcast TV, and lower-resolution streaming.

I also used reference scenes from movies such as Speed Racer and The Batman to test the Bravia 7 II's built-in speakers.

Once these subjective tests were complete, I took testing measurements using Portrait Displays Calman Color Calibration software and specialized equipment, including a Murideo Six G 8K Metal test pattern generator and a Klein 10-A colorimeter, which was profiled with a Jeti Spectral 15VA spectroradiometer.

The first measurements I took were of the Bravia 7 II's brightness. Using 1-100% white window patterns, in both HDR and SDR, I focused primarily on the 10% (for peak brightness) and 100% (for full-screen brightness) window patterns, which are featured in the graphs above.

Next, I measured its HDR color gamut coverage, using both the UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 color spaces.

I also measured its grayscale and color accuracy in SDR using Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern signal and what the screen shows) to determine its accuracy, hoping for a score below 3.

Finally, I measured its input lag using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Input Lag Tester, measuring both 4K 60Hz and 1080p 120Hz in milliseconds.

Read our in-depth overview of how we test TVs at TechRadar.

• First reviewed: August 2026
• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

If you’re in the market for one of the best soundbars, then there’s a feature you might have come across already called HDMI passthrough, available in some soundbars that connect over HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC.

HDMI passthrough allows you to plug a source device, such as a games console or streaming stick, directly into your soundbar over HDMI, and the video will then be passed onto your TV.

It’s a useful feature because when a soundbar connects to your TV over HDMI, you obviously can't connect anything else to it over that port — and it's not uncommon these days to have more HDMI devices than you have open ports.

This means that HDMI passthrough gives you more flexibility about how all of your home entertainment tech works together, since you don't 'lose' the use of the HDMI port your soundbar is connected to — and some soundbars even have multiple HDMI inputs, so you actually gain ports.

You won’t find HDMI passthrough on every soundbar. And that’s okay, not everyone needs it — but it might be a factor in your buying decision, if it seems like it'll be useful to you.

This guide should help you better understand what HDMI passthrough is, how it works and if you really need it.

What is HDMI passthrough on soundbars?

To be clear, we’re talking here about how HDMI passthrough works on a soundbar. You might hear the term passthrough in other contexts. You also might see this referred to by some brands as just soundbar passthrough or video passthrough.

It might not be referred to as 'passthrough' at all, but it might just be mentioned that a soundbar has an HDMI input as well as an HDMI ARC connection — in this case, the HDMI ARC connection is the part that goes to the TV (here's our HDMI ARC explainer) and the HDMI input is the port you use for the extra device.

In a typical setup, you might expect to connect a source device, like a games console or Blu-ray player, directly to your TV. The TV then receives the video and audio, then sends the audio to the soundbar.

But, if your soundbar has HDMI passthrough, you can connect the source device directly to the soundbar, then connect the soundbar to the TV.

The soundbar takes the audio and plays it through its speakers, while passing the video through to the TV without losing video resolution. This can have some specific advantages outside of just meaning that you get an extra HDMI port, which we'll come to later.

What’s the difference between HDMI passthrough and ARC/eARC?

In this soundbar context, HDMI passthrough describes the route the video takes. The source connects to the soundbar, and the soundbar passes the video on to the TV.

HDMI ARC and eARC do something different. They let the TV send audio to the soundbar (the difference between those two terms is just that eARC is capable of higher-quality audio).

These two things exist in harmony. For example, you could connect a games console to your soundbar, then connect the soundbar to the TV. The soundbar could then handle the console’s audio and pass its video to the TV. While eARC would allow the TV to send audio from other sources, like its built-in streaming apps, to the soundbar.

Do you need HDMI passthrough on your soundbar?

If you’re buying a new soundbar and comparing the specs, it’s easy to assume that more features are always a good thing. But HDMI passthrough is only really useful for specific situations.

There are three main reasons you might want to make sure your soundbar has HDMI passthrough:

1. You've run out of HDMI ports on your TV
If your TV doesn't have enough HDMI inputs for all of your devices, then you can connect a device to the soundbar instead. This way the soundbar effectively gives you another HDMI input.

2. You've run out of the right kind of HDMI port on your TV
This is slightly complicated, but stick with me. The HDMI eARC port on your TV is nearly always an HDMI 2.1 port. This version of HDMI also enables you to connect 4K 120Hz / VRR devices, such as a games console or Apple TV 4K. But many TVs in people's homes today only shipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports (even though they have four HDMI ports in total), meaning that if you connect a soundbar you now only have one HDMI 2.1 port free for those devices, and it's not uncommon to have more than one of these. So if your soundbar has HDMI passthrough that supports HDMI 2.1 features, it can be exactly what you need if you've run out of HDMI 2.1 connections specifically. You'll have to make sure the soundbar supports these features, though, because not all do.

3. Your TV is limiting the audio that you can send to the soundbar
Modern audio formats need fancy decoding to get the full quality from them, which means that one of the parts in your system needs to have support to make the most of them. In most cases, this is easy — for example, it's very rare to buy a half-decent TV that can't do Dolby Atmos. However, in some cases, it's not so easy. For example, DTS is a rival to Dolby's tech, and isn't supported by major TV brands such as LG and Samsung in their TVs. But it is supported in the soundbars. So one option is to connect your source device that's playing DTS sound directly to the soundbar, meaning the full-quality sound is decoded and played, removing your TV from the equation. This is a rare need, but there are example — for example, using a PS5 as a Blu-ray player with an LG or Samsung TV, as mentioned above.

If none of these apply to you, then you probably don't need HDMI passthrough currently. There's always the argument that it's good to have for future-proofing, but certainly it's optional.

For many setups, the simplest option is to connect your consoles and other source devices directly to the TV, then connect the TV's eARC port to the soundbar with a single HDMI cable. Sticking with this approach reduces the number of things that could go wrong in your system — more tech means more possible glitches.

What you need to know before buying a soundbar with HDMI passthrough

Although several of the top picks in our best soundbars guide have HDMI passthrough, not all of them do.

If you want this feature, look for a soundbar with an HDMI input labelled “HDMI In” or “HDMI Input”. This is where you'll connect your source device.

You'll also usually see an HDMI output labelled “HDMI Out”, often with ARC or eARC. This is the connection that goes from the soundbar to your TV. A soundbar with only an HDMI ARC/eARC port and no HDMI input can't provide HDMI passthrough — if a soundbar only lists that it has one HDMI port, then it's always an ARC/eARC port only.

But having an HDMI input doesn't automatically mean the soundbar supports every video or audio format either. For example, if you want to connect a PS5, check whether the HDMI input supports the features you want to use, such as the 4K 120Hz, variable refresh rate and Dolby Vision HDR.

You’ll also need to check the soundbar's specifications for resolution and refresh rate, HDR, gaming features and audio formats specifically. Don't assume that 'HDMI 2.1' or '4K passthrough' tells you everything you need to know, because there's a lot of nuance in HDMI connections.

Which soundbars do we recommend with HDMI passthrough?

1. The Samsung HW-Q990H
Samsung flagship surround soundbar system has two HDMI inputs, as well as its HDMI eARC port, and it supports 4K 120Hz passthrough with Dolby Vision HDR and variable refresh rate. It's the ultimate in passthrough tech! Here's our five star Samsung HW-Q990H review.

2. Samsung HW-Q800F
Samsung's mid-range soundbar is an excellent option if don't want rear speakers, and supports all the same HDMI passthrough formats as the model above, though it only has one HDMI input instead of two. Here's our five-star Samsung HW-Q800F review.

3. Klipsch Flexus Core 300
This is our favorite all-in-one soundbar with HDMI passthrough — and all-in-one here means no subwoofer and no rear speakers, because a lot of people just want a simpler system. Here's our five-star Klipsch Flexus Core 300 review.

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Soundcore Nebula P1: One-minute review

The Soundcore Nebula P1 is a fun product. It takes some of the cool ideas the brand had with the Nebula X1 and boils them down into a much cheaper projector.

The result is a $799 / £699.99 / AU$1,299.99 1080p projector with a modest 650-lumen output. This makes it a bit limited, as you’ll need a dark space and can’t shine too big an image. But for pop-up movie nights and fun little setups in the backyard, it’s up to the task. It even has slight waterproofing to protect against unforeseen weather.

Its wireless satellite speakers are the Nebula P1’s big party trick, giving it a nice, wide soundstage that most of its competitors simply can’t match. That said, anyone who already owns a pair of Bluetooth speakers with a stereo mode probably can work something out themselves.

The Nebula P1 is a good package, but it relies on the whole package to drive home that value. It’s not far off from the Hisense M2 Pro, and the JMGO N1S Pro 4K has seen some sales that put it dangerously close in price to the P1, and both of those have far superior projection. But where portability and outdoor-worthiness count, the P1 still has an advantage.

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Price & release date

• Release date: October 2025
• Price: $799 / £699 / AU$1,299

The Soundcore Nebula P1 launched in late 2025 with an initial price of $799 / £699 / AU$1,299. Since then it has seen occasional discounts, which are fairly common for products in this category. These have lowered it to around $700 several times and gone as low as $639. Deals like these are worth watching out for, as they’ll save you a considerable amount and help the Nebula P1 stand clear of some of its tougher competition.

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Specs

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Design & features

• Integrated gimbal stand
• Detachable Bluetooth speakers
• USB-C power

The Soundcore Nebula P1 takes some of the lessons the company learned with the Nebula X1 and pairs it with some of the tricks designed for the Nebula X1 Pro. But it's shrunk all of this down and simplified it to fit in a smaller, more portable, and (chiefly) more affordable package.

The Nebula P1 weighs 5.3 lbs / 2.4kg compared to the Nebula X1 Pro $4,000+ behemoth, takes up less than 300 cubic inches / five liters of space, and still combines a projector with a wireless sound system, albeit only a 2.0-channel one.

It’s a funky little projector. The whole unit comes together in a little column just about five inches / 127mm wide and deep and under a foot / 300mm tall. The actual projection unit sits within a frame and swivels vertically to untuck, revealing its lens in the front and its HDMI, USB-A, and 3.5mm ports on the rear. It keeps power separate, coming through a USB-C port at the base of the frame via an included Anker power brick (it can also work with separate power adapters of high enough wattage).

The top of the projector holds two small speaker units. These are rather loosely secured with small clasps at each corner controlled by a small switch on the back of the unit. They haven’t fallen loose during testing, but they might if you tried to carry the projector by the speakers. Fortunately, with its built-in carrying strap, the Nebula P1 is easy to tote.

Once you've plunked the Nebula P1 down, you just aim the projection where you want it, and then grab the wireless speakers and set them in ideal positions for quality stereo audio — something that's sorely lacking in this kind of projector despite claims otherwise.

The projector has Google TV built in, so it doesn’t need to rely on an external HDMI source. And the 20-hour battery life of the speakers should get you through some epic binge watching. With IP33 protection on the projector and IP54 on the speakers, you can even set up outdoors without worrying about a few stray raindrops ruining the show, though you’ll still want to guard your power source.

When you’re done watching, the projector can fold back up. The speakers can plop back onto the top where they’ll charge via pogo pins, and you’re good to go. Also, as the speakers automatically sleep when the projector shuts down, they won't just die if you ever forget to put them back on the charging pad. They also have USB-C charging ports as a backup. And, yes, they still work if they’re on top of the projector.

Unfortunately, they do slowly drain over time and the pogo pins aren't perfectly reliable. After letting them sit for a longer time on top of the projector, I came back to watch something and found that one of the speakers had not recharged and was dead.

There are a few small gripes with the design of this system. For one, it makes a common mistake of gimbal-mounted projectors: ignoring other necessary corrections. It’s easy to aim the projector vertically, but if it’s sitting on a sideways slant, however subtle, there are no feet to adjust and correct this.

The frame also stands in the way of being able to point the projector straight up at ceilings. Putting the HDMI port on the back of the projection unit rather than the frame, while likely done to simplify internal circuitry, means the cable can push on the unit and shift its angle. The speakers also don’t clearly indicate when they’ve securely latched back into place.

Aside from the gimbal and focus, the Nebula P1 relies on digital image adjustments. That is to say, if you need to make corrections like keystone, zoom, or rotation, you’ll be forced to crop the projection.

The Nebula P1 supports fairly extensive adjustments, but since they reduce usable pixels, it’s best to find a setup that requires as little adjustment as possible. While a lot of projectors will try to do extensive correction and framing automatically with a front-facing camera, the Nebula P1 only does keystone and focus, relying on a user’s phone camera and app connection for any further automatic correction.

A compact little unit, the Nebula P1’s remote control offers standard Google TV controls and shortcuts to YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video. Conveniently, it has a motion sensor that illuminates many of its face buttons automatically, which really helps in the kind of dark environment you'll be using a projector.

• Design & features score: 3.5/5

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Picture quality & performance

• Decent picture with the right setting
• Intelligible audio with a (potentially) wide soundstage

The Soundcore Nebula P1 may not have the specs to compete with the movie theaters, but it serves up a respectable picture for some fun at-home watching or outdoor movie night setups.

It’s not super bright, so it really calls for dim or completely dark spaces for the best experience, but you can get by watching bright and colorful content even with some ambient light in the room. HDR content can even pop in a dark environment. The projector’s color is solid and most things look lifelike without oversaturation. It doesn’t match the range covered by triple-laser projectors, but it’s not altogether disappointing. For a projector of its price, the Nebula P1 performs pretty well.

Perhaps its biggest setback is its 1080p resolution, which is exceedingly common in projectors under $1,000. If you go too large, much past about a hundred-inch image, you can start to see the gaps between the pixels with a screen door effect that is all the more prominent on bright pictures. But as long as you don’t project too big an image or sit too close, that’s also a setback that’s easily avoided.

By default, the projector has a few regrettable behaviors, but these can be tamed. Firstly, almost every picture profile has poor-looking motion interpolation enabled. While this usually looks bad enough, it’s especially bad here because the processing isn’t quite up to the task of quality interpolation. Films and animation immediately look better with this disabled.

The projector also shows a tendency to over-sharpen to make up for its 1080p resolution. This isn’t always apparent, but when the projector displays scenes with lots of fine details — building textures, hair strands, and the like — there’s a lot of visible and distracting aliasing. Dialing down the sharpening to level ‘4’ thoroughly improved this without creating too soft a picture.

The NebulaMaster picture preset might seem like it should be the ideal one, but it has a knack for taking the issues I found and wrapping them all into one. The projector performs much better in the Movie setting.

Unfortunately, the contrast isn't stunning. Black levels don't sink to a pitch black or even close to it. You'll just see a hazy gray in large black areas, which makes dark, night scenes look a fair bit poorer than brighter ones. That’s not uncommon for budget projectors, and even premium models can struggle with black levels.

Gaming performance is also mixed. Using the projector’s special gaming picture mode, input latency is very low, making it easy enough to play fast-paced games like Hades without issue. That said, the game mode doesn’t allow for digital image correction, and thus undoes any keystone and zoom. In any other picture mode, correction is allowed, but input lag is plain as day and won’t make for a good experience outside of games that don’t require quick reaction.

Moving onto sound, the speakers focus highly on the mids, which helps ensure speech is intelligible. But explosive bass depth is off the cards, and music lacks fullness, while the sound profile can be a bit harsh sometimes with a little extra sibilance. On the plus side, thanks to the ability to spread the speakers out as much as you want, it’s possible to get a very wide soundstage. The speakers can also operate sitting atop the projector, but then you’ll miss out entirely on decent stereo.

• Picture quality & performance score: 4/5

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Value

While the Nebula P1 serves as something of a small analog to the Nebula X1 Pro, it doesn’t quite break the bank in the same way at just $799 / £699 / AU$1,299. This puts it on the affordable side of the market, and it does a fair bit for a model in this range. With serviceable brightness, a neat audio trick that avoids being gimmicky, and useful portability, it brings plenty to the table for the money.

Ultimately, the portability and sound are what help pull it away from other competitors that can do more in delivering a solid picture without costing much more.

JMGO has a fleet of projectors that have been enjoying steep discounts, making a projector with 4K visuals, the wide color gamut of RGB lasers, and substantial brightness all attainable for $1,000. But the easy portability, ability to run on USB power, and wide soundstage possible from wireless satellite speakers set the Nebula P1 apart.

• Value score: 4/5

Should I buy the Soundcore Nebula P1?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Soundcore Nebula P1 review: Also consider

How I tested the Soundcore Nebula P1

• Tested at home in multiple, real-world viewing conditions
• Presented the display with a variety of media and formats
• I have tested numerous projectors and displays over the last half-decade

I tested the Soundcore Nebula P1 at home, in real-world conditions. This saw it faced with ambient light coming in from numerous windows, in-room lighting, as well as ambient noise that both the projector and speaker systems had to overcome.

The projector was tested both against a bare, white wall and an Akia Screens CineWhite screen. It was presented with streamed content, HDR and non-HDR, and PC gameplay.

My testing evaluates the projector’s performance with respect to its price and competition from other models colleagues at TechRadar and I have tested.

I have been testing projectors since 2021 and displays for even longer.

• First reviewed: August 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

Since I started my monthly Blu-ray Bounty column in November 2024, I’ve tested more than 100 4K Blu-rays. In that time, as well as finding that a lot of highly anticipated discs — such as Fight Club — lived up to the hype, there have also been some pleasant surprises, including the reference-quality Speed Racer and the spectacularThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The latter two are now part of the selection of discs I use to test the best TVs and best soundbars.

While I haven’t managed to test every disc I’ve wanted to (and certainly not every 4K disc released), one has remained frustratingly elusive: Hard Boiled. One of John Woo’s most iconic films, it's a cornerstone of Hong Kong action cinema, and I'd been keen to get my hands on the 4K release.

After failing to snag the Limited Edition, released in March 2026 in the UK, and every subsequent restock, I was starting to wonder if a Hard Boiled was destined to stay on my testing wishlist. July saw the arrival of a standard edition — and it shot to the top of my July 2026 most anticipated 4K list. After yet more courier delays, Hard Boiled finally made it into our testing lab — so, at long last, I was able to give it a spin to see whether the 4K disc is worth all the hype.

Awesome Atmos audio

There are three soundtrack options on this disc: Cantonese Mono, Cantonese Dolby Atmos, and English Mono. I primarily used the Cantonese Dolby Atmos, to see how effective the upscaled audio track would be, although I was impressed by the clarity of the Cantonese Mono.

There're no shortage of action-packed scenes in Hard Boiled, in particular a number of gunfights, and the disc's Dolby Atmos soundtrack makes the most of them. During testing, I used a Samsung HW-Q990C 11.1.4 channel soundbar system, and the Atmos mix really came alive. As bullets tear through the room, ricocheting bullets can be heard bouncing off walls with impressive detail and precision. In the opening gunfight, as sprays of bullets from sub-machine guns fly, the trajectory of these bullets was precisely mapped to the rear channels, and as the camera moved around the room, the sound of the bullets moved with it.

While bullets generate impact, it’s the big explosions that deliver the meaty bass. While these explosions didn’t always resonate from the Q990C’s subwoofer (down to the older mix), there was still plenty of oomph to each one. The Atmos soundtrack also displays great balance and range. As Tequila and Ah Long are caught in a shootout with one another, the sound of bullet casings hitting the floor is audible in the loud gunfire, which is in turn well balanced with raised voices and the often-lively score.

4K picture wins again

Arrow Video’s 4K discs are among the strongest when it comes to restoration, and this remains true with Hard Boiled. Textures have been finely restored, with details such as skin taking on a remarkably natural, almost 3D quality. In some scenes, the movie looks like it could have been shot only a few years ago rather than in 1992. Close-up shots reveal an impressive level of refinement, too, from the texture of a gun to the tiny details of a bullet. Having recently visited Silver Salt Restoration, which occasionally works with Arrow Video, I know just how much hard work goes into restoring films to such a standard.

Elsewhere, this 4K disc showcases bold, vibrant colors that really pop off the screen. The neon signs of downtown Hong Kong have a gorgeous richness to them, while restaurant interiors benefit from punchy yet natural-looking hues – such as a vivid green door in the opening gunfight. And then there's the blood — of which there is plenty in Hard Boiled — that displays real vibrancy, but in some scenes, also appears deep, rich and convincingly realistic. It really highlights the disc’s color reproduction.

Throughout the movie, there are plenty of scenes that, displayed on the right TV, really highlight the 4K disc’s excellent contrast. In the dimly lit jazz club during the opening credits, the dim surroundings contrast well with the wall and stage lights. A later scene of a parade of motorcyclists escorting a car along the docks also show deep black tones, which balance nicely with the headlamps from the vehicles.

Finally, there are plenty of moments that can give a good TV a chance to shine, too. Throughout the movie, bright sparks fly from car collisions, showers of bullets and explosions, and on the LG G6 I used for testing, they really showed off the G6’s strong HDR highlights. The film grain has also been cleaned up. There’s still enough to satisfy cinephiles, but the clean-up job gives Hard Boiled a more contemporary look without stripping away any character.

My 4K Blu-ray love grows

I’ve written plenty about how much I love what 4K Blu-ray can do for more classic movies, with titles such as 1938’s Captain Blood, 1944’s Double Indemnity and 1950’s Sunset Boulevard from Hollywood’s Golden Age all given a new lease of life. Even "more recent" thrillers such as To Live and Die in L.A. — also from Arrow Video — have received stunning 4K makeovers, while remaining crucially faithful to the original, filmmaker-intended look.

Hard Boiled is just the latest in a series of titles I’ve tested that showcase just what 4K Blu-ray can do. It retains the movie’s iconic look, both of early-'90s Hong Kong cinema and John Woo’s distinctive style, while also giving the movie a new coat of paint. The superb new Atmos soundtrack adds another layer, bringing out a wealth of intricate detail and making the explosive action even more immersive. It's yet another fantastic 4K Blu-ray release that I’ll be adding to my now bursting 4K Blu-ray shelves.

• Sony unveils cheaper Bravia 6 OLED TV, available in sizes from 48 inches to 83 inches
• It has four HDMI 2.1 ports, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
• Prices start from $1,300 / AU$2,599 (about £957), putting it against Samsung and LG's mid-range model, but its unclear if performance will match

Sony has launched a new mid-range OLED TV, the Bravia 6. As the numbering suggests, it sits below the Bravia 8 and Bravia 8 II OLED TVs and the Bravia 7 II and Bravia 9 II RGB LED TVs in Sony's 2026 TV range.

The Bravia 6 comes in five sizes, ranging from 48 to 83 inches, and includes the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip, which means it has four HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K 120Hz and variable refresh rate — unlike Sony's higher-end TVs, which only have two HDMI 2.1 ports each due to a quirk of chip choices. The Bravia 6 also supports Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, auto low latency mode and HDMI eARC.

The strapline for Sony's marketing is "OLED essentials, now within reach", and with prices ranging from $1,300 to $4,000 in the US / AU$2,599 to AU$6,999 in Australia (UK pricing is coming soon) the Bravia 6 is priced to fight it out with the LG C6 and the Samsung S90H. So how do they compare?

Sony Bravia 6 vs LG C6 vs Samsung S90H: key features

As you'd expect from a new Sony, the Bravia 6 runs Google TV. LG has its webOS system, and the Samsung runs Tizen. There's essentially universal disagreement in the TV community over which of these is better, but they all support every major streaming service.

The Bravia 6 will come in five sizes: 48, 55, 65, 77 and 83 inches. The LG C6 and Samsung S90H are both available in six: 42, 48, 55, 65, 77 and 83 inches.

Samsung's model has HDR 10+ while the Sony and LG have HDR 10 and Dolby Vision; all three have Dolby Atmos audio but the Sony also has DTS:X.

For gamers, the Sony has variable refresh rate based on the standard HDMI 2.1 spec; the LG has HDMI-spec VRR, plus, Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium; and the Samsung has HDMI-spec VRR, G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro.

All three TVs support at least 120Hz 4K, but this is where it gets interesting. The Sony only supports 120Hz at 4K, while the LG and Samsung both support 4K 165Hz maximum.

This suggests that the Sony is using a different panel to the other models, despite being the same kind of price. We don't have official confirmation yet, but multiple outlets are have reported that the Bravia 6 uses the new, more affordable OLED SE panel, which is also used in the LG B6.

But what's odd is that the OLED SE panel is capable of hitting 144Hz, so the Sony being limited to 120Hz doesn't actually confirm anything about its panel either way.

If it is using the OLED SE panel, the LG C6 and Samsung S90H have a clear advantage in terms of the brightness and color reproduction of the panel itself. We loved the performance of the LG C6, and our first impressions of the Samsung S90H were that its display came very close to the C6, though our full review is coming soon.

TV enthusiasts will be very interested in Sony's processing, however, rather than just the panel. Sony's built a reputation for offering extremely good motion handling and upscaling, and producing fantastic levels of accuracy in its pictures. However, this often comes with a dimmer-looking picture than the competition even when using the same panel, and Sony might be using a dimmer panel to start with here…

At $1,300 / AU$2,599, the 48-inch Sony Bravia 6 is priced to compete with the LG C6, which has fallen to a regular price of $1,299 / AU$2,399, while the Samsung S90H is available for $1,199 / AU$1,799 at the time of writing.

The 48-inch version of the LG B6 is available for just $799 / AU$1,999 at the time of writing, and if the Sony TV does use the same panel, that's quite a start difference.

The mid-range OLED market is going to be a tough one for Sony to crack — the company is pretty cautious about discounting, but LG and Samsung are very aggressive with it. If the Bravia 6 has the performance to match the price, then it could be the cinephile's choice — but it could all depend on that panel.

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Best Buy is certainly no stranger to providing decent price cuts on TCL TVs, but I've just spotted a particularly good deal on one of our favorite models here at TechRadar.

Right now, you can get the excellent TCL QM6K for as little as $499 (was $799) at the retailer. That's the price for the smaller 55-inch variant, but similar discounts apply to the 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch models.

I've had my eye on the QM6K for a while now, and this is the lowest price I've seen yet on a model that we called 'a solid mini-LED TV that punches above its price class' in our review.

As already suggested, what makes the QM6K a particular favorite is that it balances a heap of features and excellent picture quality without the huge price tag. It's not an expensive TV, but you still get Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos support, as well as support for 144Hz refresh rates at 4K. In short, it's a good option for movie lovers and gamers alike.

Excellent TCL TV deal at Best Buy

• See more: check out all of today's TV deals at Best Buy

Note, if you're interested, I've also included a few more of Best Buy's excellent deals on TCL TVs this week. A few of the 'L' series models are on sale, which are the latest 2026 iterations of the brand's Mini-LED range. In short, they're a little more pricey than the QM6K (which remains the value option), but you do get a few more features or a higher-end display.

More of today's TCL TV deals at Best Buy

• BACCH 3D virtual surround up front, Dolby Surround/Atmos for rear channels
• New control box also provides additional connectivity
• An open system: use whatever speakers you like

When Canvas HiFi unveiled "the world's first audiophile soundbar" earlier this year, it came with a huge specification: 8-inch drivers pushing out 1,500W of power in a three-way setup. When we actually heard it, we were very impressed – we said it was "astounding" – and now it's even better with a Dolby Atmos upgrade.

The new setup uses the Canvas soundbar for the front soundstage, with additional active speakers for the surround, rear, and height channels. The soundbar itself uses BACCH 3D for audio positioning and supports Dolby Surround and Dolby Atmos for the additional speakers.

How does the Canvas soundbar handle surround sound?

The BACCH 3D system is a virtual surround system that Canvas says is "fundamentally different" from conventional virtual surround technologies. It controls the acoustic interaction between your left and right ears to deliver a larger, more precise soundstage, with the left, right, center, and bass channels sounding as if they're coming from physical speakers. The rear channels use Dolby Surround or Dolby Atmos as required.

The heart of the system is a new control box, developed in collaboration with the German electronics specialist Almando. This new box handles surround decoding and signal distribution to the Canvas soundbar and additional speakers. It also acts as a connectivity hub, enabling additional inputs and outputs and better integration with larger AV systems.

Canvas has deliberately made this an open system, so if you'd rather use another firm's speakers for your rear and height channels, you can. However, it would very much like you to check out its new collaboration with the Danish speaker firm System Audio, which will be adapting some of its Silverback active speakers to match the Canvas design universe and deliver a "visually coherent sound system". The Silverback speakers are the ones on the wall in the above photograph.

The new system will make its debut at IFA 2026 in Berlin, which runs from the 4th to the 8th of September 2026.

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The Best Buy 60th Anniversary sale includes a myriad of excellent TV discounts this week, but I don't think any touch the retailer's deals on the TCL brand specifically when it comes to outright value.

Right now, Best Buy's discounts range up to $2,000 off across a range of 2025 and 2026 TCL models — many of which we've reviewed highly here at TechRadar. A few of these displays were arguably already some of the best value TVs you could buy, but now, they're even more compelling.

A prime example is this 55-inch QM5K for just $549 (was $899). This is the brand's entry-level Mini LED, but it comes with all the various features you'd expect from a premium display. I'm talking about things like support for Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+ formats, which will help you get great picture quality.

One thing the QM5K lacks, however, is support for 120Hz at 4K. Gamers will most likely want to consider the 65-inch TCL QM6K for $699 (was $999) if they want to push refresh rates to over 60Hz. This display was one of our favorite mid-range options when we reviewed it last year, so it's definitely a great buy at this price.

You can read more about these displays, and a few other higher-end TCL options, just down below.

TCL TV deals at Best Buy

RGB TVs are the latest talk of the TV world, with multiple brands embracing the new technology. Known by different names depending on the brand, such as Micro RGB (Samsung and LG), True RGB (Sony), and RGB mini-LED (Hisense and TCL), RGB TVs use a layer of red, green and blue mini-LEDs in their backlight, where standard mini-LED just uses white LEDs. The aim is to produce bolder, richer colors and better backlight control compared to traditional mini-LED.

I’ve tested a few RGB TVs now, and the tech shows promising signs. One of those TVs, currently sitting in our testing lab, is the Samsung R95H, the brand’s flagship Micro RGB TV. I’ve compared the R95H to a rival True RGB TV from Sony, the Bravia 7 II, and both showed what RGB is capable of.

But, given that RGB is aiming to take OLED’s spot at the top of the best TVs pile, I thought I’d compare the R95H to a rival OLED, using reference scenes from 4K Blu-rays I use in my AV testing. The OLED I’ve chosen is the LG G6, one of the best OLED TVs I’ve tested so far in 2026.

So, let’s find out how a flagship OLED compares to a flagship RGB TV.

A quick note on the photos below: the R95H has a red tint due to the camera interacting with the glare-free matte screen. This red tint is not visible when viewing with the naked eye.

Brightness

Traditionally, mini-LED would take the brightness crown easily, as mini-LED in recent years has easily exceeded 3,000 nits, even in budget models, while OLED has struggled to break the 2,000-nit mark. However, that’s changed in the last couple of years, with OLED now delivering real brightness improvements.

Measuring both TV’s brightness, the LG G6 initially hit 2,471 nits peak HDR brightness in my first tests in March 2026. Since then, the G6 has received a few firmware updates, and in my most recent measurements, taken in July 2026, it hit 3,004 nits (both measurements were taken in Filmmaker Mode). These are huge results for OLED. As for the Samsung R95H, it measured 1,977 nits peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode, while in its ‘brighter’ movie mode it hit 1,960 nits. So, the G6 easily takes the peak HDR win.

As for fullscreen brightness, where mini-LED often succeeds, the G6 hit 451 nits fullscreen HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode, while the R95H hit 612 nits. So here, the RGB TV takes the win, but the gap isn’t as big as it used to be. Flagship OLEDs would often struggle to break 300 nits two years ago, but that’s changed now.

What does this mean for real-world scenes though? For the most part, I've found that these measurements have translated to in-person viewing. Watching Speed Racer, the G6 shows much punchier HDR highlights, such as the headlamps of the Mach 5 or the bright, blue sky above the city as the Racer family fly to Royalton Industries. Watching footage of snow from the Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray, the whites of the snow have more impact on the G6, though there’s still some nice brightness in the R95H.

Bright-room viewing and mirror-like reflections have often been OLED’s kryptonite, due to the very glossy screens of these TVs. However, when I tested the G6 next to the Samsung S95H/S99H, the latter of which has a glare-free matte screen, I found that the G6’s anti-reflective screen was very effective at reducing reflections while maintaining strong black tones. The same is true here with the G6 and the R95H, though in terms of eliminating mirror-like reflections, the R95H, which is also equipped with the glare-free matte screen, does a better job. The G6 still impresses for an OLED, though.

Colors

Color reproduction is one area where RGB TVs are being touted for their capabilities, and based on the ones I’ve tested so far, they certainly can deliver impressive results. OLED is known for the strength of its colors too, however.

In Speed Racer, both TVs deliver vibrant, punchy colors that really pop on screen. Both manage to reproduce the saturated, bright colors of the Racer household, with its orange walls, pink details and sometimes lime-green paintwork. The characters' clothing, such as Trixie’s bright pink shirt and Spritle’s yellow shirt, are also expertly handled by both TVs. The real difference is each TV’s color profile. While the G6 delivers these colors with real depth and richness, the R95H’s colors are more subtle, and arguably more accurate and natural looking.

Switching to animation, in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, both TVs again demonstrated excellent color reproduction, with a similar profile to what I’d seen in Speed Racer. As the Lumas gathered for story time, the various colors of their bodies popped on both TVs, and again the G6 had that beautiful depth and boldness, while the R95H had a more neutral but realistic look.

I did find at times that the G6 leaned a little too heavily towards red, which made some reds, such as Mario’s hat and overalls or the red of a toadstool, look a little oversaturated compared to the rest of the picture. The R95H had a much more uniform color profile, with no one color standing out. Still, the G6’s more vivid colors were hard to look over, and did really suit the crisp, colorful animation of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Contrast and dark room viewing

Switching both TVs to Filmmaker Mode for darker content, I started my comparisons with my go-to contrast-y movie: The Batman. While OLEDs tend to be the best option for high-contrast scenes, thanks to their self-dimming pixels for deeper dark tones, I was surprised by how close this particular contest was.

In high-contrast scenes, such as the exploration of the crime scene at Mayor Mitchell's house, or as Bruce talks with Alfred in the Batcave, both TVs demonstrated an excellent balance between the dark tones of the environment and the lamps/overhead lights. While the G6 did show richer dark tones overall, the R95H’s highlights, such as light hitting the side of Commissioner Savage’s face at the aforementioned crime scene, actually had more impact, despite its lower peak HDR brightness.

Both TVs also showed superb shadow detail. When Batman stands on a darkened subway platform, his armor is completely legible, despite the dark surroundings and dimly lit nature of the scene; this is a scene that some TVs I’ve tested have struggled with. Both TVs also did a very good job preserving the dark tones while accurately displaying these details too.

Another thing I noticed while watching The Batman was that I actually preferred the R95H’s skin tones. On the G6, people’s skin tones in darker scenes looked a little washed out, while on the R95H they appeared to have more color, looking more true-to-life.

Sitting between the two TVs, I did notice that off-center, the R95H is prone to some backlight blooming (where bright objects against a dark background have a halo of light around them), whereas the G6 wasn’t, thanks to its self-dimming pixels and lack of backlight.

For one final test, I used a scene from Alien: Romulus, in which the team approaches the Romulus station for the first time. Both TVs did a fantastic job rendering the deep, black tones of space, and while I expected this from the G6 OLED, I was pleasantly surprised by how rich the R95H’s blacks were, especially for backlit TV.

OLED vs RGB: who comes out on top?

In terms of pricing, these two TVs are on a level pegging. A 65-inch G6 costs $2,999 / £2,999 / AU$4,999, while a 65-inch R95H costs $2,999 / £3,099 / AU$4,999. So, while they may both be at the very premium end of the market, if you have that kind of money, price isn’t really a factor here, as there’s nothing much between them.

So it really comes down to performance. I’ve said before that RGB TVs, at least the ones I’ve tested, haven’t achieved ‘OLED-killer’ status just yet, and the same is true here — but it’s getting close. For me, I preferred the G6’s overall contrast, textures and color performance, but that doesn’t mean the R95H didn’t impress, especially for darker-room viewing, and when prices start to drop for these two TVs, my decision could swing the other way. OLED may be the current king, but RGB is hot on its heels. Over the next couple of years, this is going to be a thoroughly intriguing contest.

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• The BluHub reads and writes Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs
• It has 4x USB 3.0 ports and two card reader slots
• The Kickstarter Super Early bird price is $59 (about £40 / AU$80)

If you've got a fairly recent computer you'll be vividly aware that for everything but high-powered gaming PCs, thin is most definitely in: the pursuit of ultra-thin laptops in particular means that computers have shed their optical drives and many of their expansion ports to reduce their size and weight. But what if you want those things without having to live in World of Hubs, like I currently do? One Kickstarter may have the answer.

Thanks to our pals at Tom's Hardware we've been introduced to a docking station with a difference: it's a USB hub that also has a Blu-ray drive in it. The BluHub, as it's called, is a 9-in-1 PC and Mac dock that promises "everything you need in one compact drive". It's smashed its Kickstarter goal, which to be fair was a very low $700 / £512 (about AU$977). Pledges are currently sitting at $214,411 / £157,127 (about AU$301,250).

It's clearly designed for people like me: I've got multiple hubs and accessories in front of my Mac so I can do things like burn discs, attach external storage and read camera memory cards, and that means a lot of cables and clutter. This could be a more elegant option, and it's not terribly expensive.

BluHub 9-in-1 docking station: key features and pricing

The BluHub connects via USB 3.2 Gen 2 at up to 10Gbps, and it's bus-powered so you don't need a power supply. It's compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS and USB On-The-Go for mobile devices.

In addition to the expected USB ports (4x USB-A / USB 3.0) it has SD and microSD slots and a Blu-ray, DVD and CD drive capable of up to 6x Blu-ray burning speeds.

The promotional images confused me at first because what looks like a lid for the BD/DVD/CD drive isn't; it's just a place to park a disc or discs. The drive itself pops out of the side, with the same kind of mechanism as the drives in desktop PCs.

It's not remotely pretty, but it's a lot less messy than my desk — and the mobile compatibility means it's an interesting option for road warriors who need to expand their Android tablet or iPad.

The retail price of the BluHub will be $129 (£90 / AU$180), but at the moment there's a super early bird offer of $59 (about £40 / AU$80) with a predicted ship date of November 2026.

Whether that early bird deal is a good one or not very much depends on your opinion of crowdfunders and your risk tolerance: they can be a great way to get in on the ground floor and save some money, but you're buying something without the benefit of being able to read reviews or see what customers have to say, and there are no guarantees.

Many early commenters on the likes of Reddit also seem a little dubious of the BluHub's credentials, noting that the enclosure appears 3D-printed and that the listing doesn't reveal the make or model of the Blu-ray drive.

As always, all of the usual caveats apply — Kickstarter isn't a retailer and doesn't offer refunds after a project is fully funded, so consider yourself warned.

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In my opinion, 4K Blu-ray is easily the best way to view a movie at home. It delivers unmatched picture quality that will give the best TVs a chance to shine, along with uncompressed audio that, when played through one of the best soundbars or a full surround system, is unbeatable.

Since I started testing 4K Blu-ray for TechRadar back in November 2024 as part of the Blu-ray Bounty (where we test the latest 4K releases from each month), I’ve come to appreciate the format even more, and I've even become a fan and collector during that time. 4K Blu-ray is also a staple of my AV testing, as it uses that exceptional picture and audio I mentioned to really push AV equipment to its limits.

I’ve spoken before about my favorite discs of classic movies, as I believe 4K Blu-ray has worked wonders for some older titles. But in recent months, there’s been a few new discs that have impressed me in one area in particular: color. I’ve tested two discs in the last few weeks alone that have entered my testing disc rotation, so I thought I’d pick my top five 4K Blu-rays for color that I’ve tried out as part of the Blu-ray Bounty.

Speed Racer (2008) (Warner Bros.)

Based on the 1967 animated TV show of the same name, Speed Racer follows the story of a young man called Speed Racer (Emile Hersch), a racecar driver who follows his deceased older brother’s career and vies to become a champion. After he chooses to stay with his family’s racer company, Racer Motors, instead of joining the Royalton Industries team, he becomes a target. The movie also stars John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Christina Ricci.

From the moment I fired up Speed Racer, I was amazed by the sheer brilliance of its colors, which practically explode on screen. Throughout the movie, there’s plenty of bold, vibrant tones that really show off your TV’s color reproduction. As the Racer family eat breakfast after the opening race, the bright orange walls, green furnishings and pink details all pop on screen. Even people’s clothes have an almost oversaturated, bright look to them than when I watched on the LG G6, one of 2026’s best OLED TVs, showing real vibrancy.

Of course, there’s the colors around the racetrack itself too. From the bright, neon advertisements to the candy-colored outfits and car decor, if your TV has good HDR peak brightness, you’ll be rewarded with punchy highlights that really dazzle on screen. The disc supports Dolby Vision, and if your TV supports it, you’ll enjoy even more vibrant colors. This really is a reference quality disc.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Universal Pictures)

Sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie follows Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi and Toad as they attempt to rescue Princess Rosalina from the clutches of Bowser Jr. The voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day and Jack Black.

Animated movies often deliver striking, eye-catching colors, but I was floored by how good The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s colors were. It starts in the very opening scene with the Lumas. As the Lumas themselves are all a variety of vivid colors, including red, green, blue and gold, they really show the 4K disc’s superb clarity from the get-go.

There’s plenty of natural color too, particularly in Mario and Luigi’s overalls, which are the most toned down, lifelike colors throughout the movie. Scenes of space show gorgeous pink, purple and blue hues that balance that are both nicely saturated and rich, and even fire has plenty of dazzle that, on the right screen, can also look realistic. It helps that the movie has crisp textures and details, but the color is what really shows off this disc.

Wicked (Universal Pictures)

Wicked, based on the musical of the same name, is a re-imagining of the events of The Wizard of Oz. It follows the story of how Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), played by Cynthia Erivo, and Glinda (the Good Witch of the North), played by Ariana Grande, strike up an unlikely friendship while at the Shiz academy.

When I first tested this disc as part of the March 2025 Blu-ray Bounty, I was impressed with its color reproduction. While I expected dynamic, lively colors, due to the setting of Oz, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the 4K disc struck the balance between vivid and true-to-life. Elphaba’s green skin, although not in itself ‘realistic’, looks believable and lifelike. Glinda’s bright, pink outfits really pop on screen, but again look natural.

One scene I frequently use in my TV testing is where Elphaba stands under a tree with pink flowers. On the right TV, this scene can really show off a TV’s colors, thanks to the vibrant pink flowers, Elphaba’s green skin and even the blue detail on the decor of the school walls. Even if a TV doesn’t have the strongest color reproduction, the scene can still look good: it just won’t have that wow-factor that does the 4K disc justice.

The Sound of Music (Disney)

One of cinema’s most iconic musicals, The Sound of Music, based on the 1959 stage musical of the same name, tells the story of a nun Maria (Julie Andrews) who is assigned as the nanny for the Von Trapp family children during wartime Austria. The movie won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

I’ve always been amazed about what 4K Blu-ray can do for older movies, and The Sound of Music is one of my chosen showcases for this. Not only is the restored detail exceptional, but the movie’s colors are a sight to behold. My reference scene from this disc is when Maria and the children are at a market. In front of them are various fruits, mainly yellow, orange and red, that on the 4K disc practically shimmer on screen. But like Wicked, these colors also appear natural at the same time.

Throughout the movie, many scenes of the Austrian landscape also really showcase the bold, engaging color profile that the 4K disc can show on the right screen. The green grass, gorgeous blue sky and the white snow-capped mountains all pop, and if your TV can replicate the finest details, individual shades within these large colorful areas look exceptional. This is one of the best 4K discs of an older movie I’ve seen, and its colors are a big reason for that.

The Wild Robot (Universal Pictures)

Based on the 2016 novel of the same name, The Wild Robot follows Roz, a robot sent to gather data on wildlife. Roz, who is abandoned, must adapt to her surroundings, where she becomes the surprise adopter of a wild goose. The movie stars Luipta Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Mark Hammil among its all-star cast.

While a lot of animation, such as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie higher up this list, can opt for vibrant, saturated colors, some animated movies go for a more natural color profile. The Wild Robot is one of the best examples I’ve seen of this. Using a beautiful animation style, which looks like a watercolor painting, the 4K disc is truly stunning. Colors are vibrant, but also true to the watercolor aesthetic of the movie and really do look like a real-life painting.

There are tons of scenes to choose from here, but the opening sequences where Roz first encounters nature are the best. The green trees and fields look superb, appearing both realistic and bright, and as Roz touches a group of yellow butterflies, the screen is filled with beautiful, vivid color that can really glisten on the right TVs. There’s even excellent detail within the colors of different creature’s fur, with different shades appearing nuanced and refined. I’ve seen numerous animated 4K Blu-rays, and this is one of the very best looking around.

• Amazon has made Alexa+ free to use on Fire TV devices
• You can ask it to find movie recommendations and also integrate it with other smart home devices
• The best part is that you don't need an Amazon Prime membership to make the most of it

Access to Amazon’s AI voice assistant, Alexa+, has always required a Prime membership — but now the company is upgrading it as a free-to-use tool on eligible Fire TV devices.

Rolling out to Fire TV owners in the US now, users will be able to make use of Alexa+ on the big screen at no additional fee. This includes current-generation Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Cube, and Amazon Ember smart TVs, as well as third-party smart TVs with Alexa built-in such as Hisense and Panasonic.

While the upgrade is limited to US users for now, Amazon shared that it will consider expanding to additional regions over time, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel for users outside of the US at least. It’s also great news for those who have a Fire TV device, but aren’t Amazon Prime members.

When Amazon launched Alexa+ back in February 2025, the tech giant threw Alexa+ access into its pool of Prime membership perks at no additional cost. For those without a Prime membership, a standalone Alexa+ subscription costs $19.99 a month.

Having a Fire TV device without a Prime membership is more than doable, as you can still watch titles from the best streaming services given that you’re subscribed to each of them separately. The only platform you won’t be able to access is Prime Video, as that’s one of the perks of being an Amazon Prime member.

As expected, Alexa+ on Fire TV devices is there to make your browsing experience more enjoyable and put an end to your indecisiveness when trying to find a Friday night movie or a new TV show to binge. Not only can you search for titles, but Alexa+ is also designed to better understand requests and follow-up questions.

For example, if you like a particular actor, you can ask Alexa+ to compile a selection of their movies, or if you want to dive deeper into a specific genre, you can ask something like ‘recommend me a top-rated thriller’. From there, you can narrow down your search by asking for a recently released title, or be even more precise and ask for one with a female lead.

Outside of its entertainment assistance, Alexa+ on Fire TV also helps integrate your smart home ecosystem. If you have a Ring Video Doorbell, you can launch live camera feeds on your TV with a simple voice request — and these functionalities extend to other smart home devices, too.

Want to set the ambience in your home for a dinner party or movie night? You can ask Alexa+ on your Fire TV to dim the lights on compatible devices. Need to secure your home? You can also ask Alexa+ to lock the doors when paired with your smart lock, making your Fire TV the central hub of your setup.

It’s not every day Amazon rolls out an upgrade without costly catches, as Alexa+ access on Echo devices still requires a Prime or standalone Alexa+ membership — but hey, we’re not complaining; a freebie is a freebie. With this in mind, it’s likely that Amazon is giving users a taste of Alexa’s upgraded capabilities with the hope that prospective customers will sign up for Prime.

Since Alexa+ was launched, Amazon says its popularity with users has grown exponentially. "Alexa+ customers have nearly twice as many conversations on Fire TV as they did with the original Alexa because Alexa+ understands what they're asking — and gives them useful answers back," Amazon claims.

Given this growth, it makes sense that Amazon wants to put Alexa+ at the forefront of its smart home devices and give as many users as possible a taste of Alexa’s new capabilities. Keeping Alexa+ locked behind a paywall limits exposure to those without an Amazon Prime membership, so granting some kind of free access is a no-brainer.

• New version of Siri Remote appears in latest Apple code
• There are no details of how it might differ from the current one
• One popular wish, customizable buttons, is already possible

Apple's latest product leaks include good news for Apple TV owners like me: a new Siri remote is coming. The current one is rather divisive, with some people comparing it to the Magic Mouse as an example of Apple style over substance; I definitely think the current one is perhaps a little too sharp-edged and minimalist, and hitting the on-screen Skip button with it is often more miss than hit.

The leak was spotted by MacRumors in the code of the macOS 26.7 release candidate, which is the last version of code given to developers and beta testers before the final and official release. In the code there's a reference to 'ATVRemote1,5', which appears to be the same new remote control that Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously described as part of Apple's 2026 product road map.

There are no details of what this new remote might do, but Redditors have plenty of good ideas — and three in particular would be on a lot of my fellow Apple TV owners' wishlists.

The features we'd like to see in the new Apple TV remote

Over on r/apple, the very first suggestion is the one that's top of my wishlist too: a dedicated Source button.

Like Redditor Masam10, who like me has their Apple TV 4K connected to a Samsung TV, "A source button would mean I could officially drop my Samsung remote and throw it away. 9/10 times my Apple TV works just fine with HDMI CEC, but every now and then it will get a bit funky and not work and I have to use the Samsung remote to swap inputs," they explain.

The second suggestion, by the fantastically named 'handtoglandwombat', is a speaker for Apple's Find My feature. That'd be very welcome too, given the current Apple TV remote has a habit of disappearing down any available nook in your sofa. Some even have their remote in a case that holds an AirTag for this very reason.

Lastly, another interesting suggestion is the addition of a customizable action button — and the discussion of that unearthed an Apple tip I didn't know about, even though it's been there for a few years: you don't need to wait for a new remote to customize your buttons.

You can sacrifice one of your remote buttons, such as the Mute button, by changing what it does in Settings > Remotes and Devices > Volume Control > Learn New Device. Follow the instructions and when you get to the bit where it says press and hold the mute button, don't. Press the source/input button on your TV remote instead.

The downside, of course, is that you no longer have a mute button. But you might think that's a price worth paying to have a source/input button instead.

The next generation Apple TV is expected to arrive this Fall alongside a new HomePod mini, so we shouldn't have too long to wait for the new Siri remote — although whether it has all of these features remains to be seen.

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Even though it might still feel like summer, football season starts next month, with the NFL kicking off on September 9. That means it's time to upgrade your home cinema setup with a brand-new TV, and I'm here to help you find the best display and, most importantly, save money.

• Shop Best Buy's full anniversary sale

Best Buy has a huge anniversary sale this week, which means incredible deals on top-rated TVs from brands like LG, Samsung, TCL, and Insignia. I've rounded up the 11 best TVS for watching football below, including a wide range of 4K, QLED and OLED displays.

You can find record-low prices on brand-new 2026 models, like LG's 65-inch C6 OLED TV for $1,799.99 (a $900 discount), as well as big-screen budget displays, including TCL's 75-inch S5 4K Fire TV for an unbelievable price of just $399.99. Other highlights that I recommend watching your favorite team on include Samsung's 75-inch R85H Micro RGB for $999.99 and LG's massive 77-inch B5 OLED TV for $1,399.99.

Shop more of Best Buy's top TV deals for watching football below, and keep in mind these are limited-time offers that expire this Sunday at Midnight.

11 TV deals I recommend for watching football

• The Sonos app on iOS now works with Live Activities and Dynamic Island
• Controls remain on screen for 15 minutes after playback stops
• Album art and full Watch/CarPlay support will arrive soon

Sonos has updated its iPhone app to support Live Activities and the Dynamic Island. Posting on the r/sonos subreddit, Liz from Sonos says that "We’re excited to finally bring back Sonos control from the iOS lock screen, but in an all-new way with iOS Live Activities. We know this is a much requested, anticipated, and needed feature, and we can’t wait for you to try it out."

The feature is off by default but you can enable it in the latest version of the app by going into Account > App Preferences > Live Activity.

Once you've enabled the feature, simply start playback and close the app. The Live Activity will show the current speaker group or room you last played audio on, and it gives you volume and transport controls. Those controls will be visible when your phone is locked, but you'll need to use Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode to unlock the device to change playback.

To make the Live Activity go away, just swipe it off the screen.

What's missing from the Sonos Live Activities support

Some features haven't been implemented yet. Sonos' app doesn't yet support album art in the Live Activity, although Liz says that "alternative ways to enhance the lock screen experience are being explored."

Live Activities are also used by the Apple Watch and with CarPlay, but Sonos hasn't implemented the feature for those platforms yet. That means the Live Activity will appear on your Apple Watch or on your Car's displays, but the on-screen controls won't do anything.

If you'd rather not use the Sonos app to control your audio, for example because you use Direct Control from a compatible service, AirPlay or Bluetooth) Sonos says that "you can still use the local playback controls that appear on screen or the Live Activity. You can choose which you prefer to use."

Live Activities were introduced in iOS 16.2, and Sonos's version is rolling out just weeks before the next version of iOS, iOS 27, drops. The feature will work just as well in the next iOS, and Sonos says that while there's no news to share right now "the teams have been exploring the new capabilities [iOS 27] has in Beta."

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RGB TVs have become the talk of the TV world this year, with just about every brand releasing their own RGB model. While the tech is still in its infancy, having been introduced by Hisense in 2025, the tech is being touted as an OLED-killer, delivering much higher brightness and bolder colors akin to a mini-LED, while also delivering the contrast and black tones of an OLED.

So far, I’ve tested the Hisense UR8 RGB mini-LED side-by-side with the Samsung QN80H (a traditional mini-LED), where the UR8’s color didn’t wow me, but its contrast and backlight control did. I’ve also tested the Sony Bravia 7 II RGB mini-LED side-by-side with one of 2026’s best TVs, the LG C6 OLED, and while the C6 came out on top, the Bravia 7 II showed real potential for RGB tech.

But, how do two RGB TVs compare? I’ve swapped out the 55-inch Bravia 7 II for a 65-inch Bravia 7 II and, thanks to some fortunate timing, the flagship Samsung R95H Micro RGB TV has landed in our testing lab at the same time. For context, a 65-inch Bravia 7 II costs roughly $2,599 / £1,999 / AU$3,995, while a 65-inch R95H costs $2,999 / £3,099 / AU$5,295. So, while prices are relatively close in the US (when you’re spending this much money), they are in different price brackets in the UK and Australia.

One note here: as the Samsung R95H has a matte screen, this can cause a red tint in photos that's not visible in-person.

Colors

Watching The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, with both TVs in their Movie modes (Movie for the R95H, Cinema for the Bravia 7 II), I noticed that in their default settings, the R95H appeared to be overblowing its brightness, resulting in some clipping of bright objects. I found that dropping the R95H’s brightness from its default 50 (max) down to 45 or 40 was better for the picture. The color luminance was certainly impressive on the R95H though, with the Lumas’ colors looking extremely bright and vibrant on screen. The Bravia 7 II’s colors had more depth and richness to them, having a lot more boldness that reminded me of an OLED.

Both TVs' color accuracy for the red and green of Mario and Luigi’s overalls respectively, and the vivid pink of Peach’s dress, were very good, but there’s no denying the R95H has much more pop on screen. The R95H’s colors can look a little washed out next to the Bravia 7 II at times, as the latter has such richness in its color profile. While the R95H delivered the brightness of the animation, it was hard to ignore how rich and deep the Bravia 7 II’s colors were.

Moving to Speed Racer, a real-world movie with equally cartoon-ish vibrant colors, the Bravia 7 II once again showcased richer, deeper colors, giving more detail to the gaudy outfits and decor of the 1960s-inspired aesthetic. The R95H once again delivered on the brightness, which really did make colors explode on screen.

On the surface, the R95H seemed to sacrifice some color accuracy in favor of the pop on screen and in some cases this worked. The orange walls and floors of the Racer home and Pops Racer’s shirt were much more vivid on the R95H, but had that nice clarity on the Bravia 7 II. Yellow however, such as Mom Racer’s apron, was much bolder on the Bravia 7 II.

Switching between picture modes, the Bravia 7 II’s Cinema and Professional (its equivalent Filmmaker Mode) were consistent in their color depth and volume, but Cinema mode suited the more colorful movies. On the R95H, while Filmmaker Mode had a nice accuracy to it, the colors were a bit lifeless in comparison to Movie mode. While the R95H’s Movie mode did sometimes sacrifice accuracy, its sheer brightness was better for Speed Racer.

Contrast and backlight

Firing up the opening scenes of The Batman, an often challenging disc for backlit TVs, with both models set to their more accurate Filmmaker modes (Professional for the Bravia 7 II), they do an excellent job. Contrast was strong on both TVs, with a great balance between light and dark tones, such as wall lamps and dark wood walls in Mayor Mitchell’s house, or the overhead lights with the black walls of the Batcave. In the default settings, the R95H again demonstrates its higher brightness, which results in stronger perceived contrast compared to the Bravia 7 II.

Dark tones were pleasingly rich on both TVs as well, and there was very little sign of blooming when viewed head-on. From an angle however, both TVs did show some signs of blooming during dark scenes, with the R95H’s more obvious than the Bravia 7 II’s. The Bravia 7 II did sometimes show some black crush, resulting in detail loss in objects, while the R95H did a better job maintaining these details, such as the texture in Batman’s armor and the lapel of Gordon’s coat.

Both TVs did a great job with shadows, but during The Batman, the Bravia 7 II cast deeper, inkier shadows across people’s faces. Switching to Dark City, which features plenty of these high contrast shadow shots, this was actually reversed. The R95H cast darker shadows that delivered a higher perceived contrast compared to the Bravia 7 II.

Black levels looked great in Dark City on both sets, although interestingly, in a shot where Murdoch talks to the hotel clerk, I noticed the R95H was subject to black crush this time and the Bravia 7 II actually had better shadow detail. Some dark scenes in the movie did reveal some more blooming, moreso on the R95H when viewed from an angle.

Trying out some black and white content, the R95H’s higher brightness creates a greater dynamic range and higher contrast in black and white movies. Watching Dead Man, any scene during the day has much more punch on the R95H, thanks to the aforementioned brighter whites. Both TVs do demonstrate deep dark tones though, with a good range of grays in between. The 4K disc is in SDR and when switching from Filmmaker to Movie, the Bravia 7 II has a significant brightness upgrade over the R95H, though the R95H’s brightness is much lower by default in this mode.

Brightness

Starting off with measurements, the R95H is significantly brighter with both TVs set to HDR Movie mode. The R95H clocked in at 1,960 nits HDR peak brightness, while the Bravia 7 II hit 1,163 nits. It’s a similar story in Filmmaker/Professional mode, as the R95H hits 1,977 peak HDR brightness and the Bravia 7 II hits 1,114 nits.

Fullscreen HDR brightness, however, is where things get interesting. In Movie/Cinema mode, the R95H clocks in at 607 nits, while the Bravia 7 II measures 830 nits. This means the Sony should display larger bright areas on screen with more punch and vibrancy.

Watching real-world content, the R95H demonstrates much higher brightness than the Bravia 7 II, especially in Movie mode and with HDR content on screen. Watching Lawrence of Arabia, specifically the desert scene where Lawrence and his guide fetch water from a well, the R95H demonstrates significantly higher perceived brightness, with the white sands and blue sky looking much more vibrant on the R95H. While the Bravia 7 II shows more detail in brighter areas, such as the patterns in the ground, the R95H clearly wins in the brightness battle here. This is interesting given that the Bravia 7 II had the higher HDR fullscreen brightness.

The same is true with more colorful movies. Going back to Speed Racer, the R95H shows much punchier highlights, such as the lights of the Mach 5, as well as glossier whites of the Mach 5 and Speed’s helmet. I did find that switching to each TV’s respective Filmmaker Mode resulted in much closer brightness, though the R95H’s peak areas were still a little brighter.

As for bright room viewing, the R95H shows how effective its anti-glare, matte screen is. Even with darker movies such as The Batman, there’s no sign of mirror-like reflections at any point. For the Bravia 7 II, bright room viewing is more of a challenge. With a brighter scene, such as the desert one from Lawrence of Arabia, the Bravia 7 II does a good job in a bright room. Any darker or high-contrast scenes, and mirror-like reflections are clearer.

The best buy

Which TV you should buy from these two really comes down to what region you’re in and your budget. In the US, it’s a close contest, whereas in the UK and Australia, the Bravia 7 II is much cheaper. In terms of actual performance, both TVs did well. Both TVs rendered challenging dark scenes accurately, with hints of blooming on both (though they were sometimes more obvious on the R95H). Both TVs showed excellent color reproduction, with the R95H showing higher color luminance, where the Bravia 7 II showed more color volume.

It’s difficult to choose between these two TVs, and while I preferred the Bravia 7 II in some reference scenes, especially with color, the R95H performed better in darker, more contrast-y scenes. While this is a battle of a mid-range RGB (Bravia 7 II) vs a flagship RGB (R95H), the Bravia 7 II puts up a heck of a fight and is the better value option for the budget conscious. If however money isn’t an issue, the R95H is the TV to pick.

Do either of these TVs topple OLED? For my money, not quite yet, but the Bravia 7 II delivers some seriously impressive colors and the R95H shows again what RGB tech can do for backlight control. OLED, it's definitely time for it to start taking note.

• Dolby confirms that Dolby Vision 2 Max is intended to be the replacement for Dolby Vision 1 in more premium TVs
• Standard Dolby Vision 2 is intended to come to budget TVs that wouldn't have included DV1, and will be cheaper as a result
• More chips that support Dolby Vision 2 are coming to help make this happen, likely for use in 2027's models

Dolby Vision 2 is a next-gen HDR standard that comes in two flavors. Dolby Vision 2 Max is designed for premium TVs, taking takes full advantage of their higher-spec hardware to add in extra features — and it's arriving on its first TVs this month.

Meanwhile standard Dolby Vision 2 is designed to be simpler and more affordable for more budget sets, with the goal being to bring Dolby Vision 2 to TVs that previously went without it due to licensing costs, according to Dolby's experts.

I've been taking a deep dive into the technology with Dolby Laboratories' vice-president of home devices, Chris Turkstra, and director of business strategy, Jonas Klittmark — we've already discussed the ins and outs of Dolby Vision 2 coming to 4K Blu-ray, and how conversion to Dolby Vision 2 can be automated to ensure that lots of movies and shows are available in the new format. And according to Turkstra and Klittmark, the new Dolby Vision 2 technology may be the cheapest way for TV firms to deliver better picture quality on a budget.

As Turkstra explains, the decision to make a more affordable and less demanding version of the Dolby Vision 2 technology was made with affordable TVs in mind, a market infamous for razor-thin profit margins. "When it comes to improving picture quality, this is the cheapest bang for the buck for a TV [manufacturer] compared to a panel [upgrade], compared to a new backlighting technology, compared to anything else," he says. "This is way less expensive than those things."

He continues: "When we do [Dolby Vision 2] demos, the one that is the most impactful is the demo we have on two $300 TVs that show the difference between Dolby Vision 1 on one TV and Dolby Vision 2... it is surprisingly effective at increasing accuracy and pulling detail out."

Turkstra suggests that panel hardware upgrades to deliver similar improvements would be significantly more expensive than the cost of licensing Dolby Vision 2. I've seen the kind of comparison demo of Dolby Vision 2 on cheap TVs that Turkstra is referring to, and it's significant — though obviously I can't speak to whether Dolby's system would really be the cheapest way to a quality upgrade.

What are the differences between budget Dolby Vision 2 and the full-fat Dolby Vision 2 Max?

"As we were developing Dolby Vision 2, we found that it does amazing things on premium TVs," Turkstra told me. "It does a great job on the new TVs that are very bright, have a wide color gamut and have a lot of capabilities that we didn't have 10 years ago [when releasing Dolby Vision 1]. But it also brings a lot of benefit to mainstream users with TVs that are not as premium. So we split the product into two [versions].

"Dolby Vision 2 Max is the version that we believe will basically replace Dolby Vision… we think it will move into the premium position Dolby Vision has today. And we think that the standard version, Dolby Vision 2, will be in new TVs that don't have Dolby Vision today."

That doesn't mean the absolutely cheapest bargain-basement TVs, however. "We won't allow Full HD TVs," Turkstra says. "There is a set of requirements that the TVs have to meet. But Dolby Vision 2 will be on a lot more TVs than Dolby Vision is on today."

One of the things that will enable that is a new generation of TV processing chips that include the hardware upgrade necessary for Dolby Vision 2. At the moment, there's only one chip, the MediaTek Pentonic 800, but Turkstra confirmed that more are coming, and that the Pentonic 800 will spread from the upper-mid-range and premium TVs it's in now to more affordable models.

"We're seeing the Pentonic 800 being deployed [more widely], partly because it supports Dolby Vision 2," he says. "At the same time, there are new chips that we can't talk about, but we're working very closely with our silicon partners on that. They will be targeted more towards the mainstream TVs that will become compatible."

He continues: "Our launch partner is MediaTek, but our intent is to expand to have every TV SoC [system on a ship] supplier support Dolby Vision 2. There's a lot of that in the works… there will be continued support for the Pentonic 800, and there will be more for sure."

I expect that CES 2027 is when we can expect to start seeing the effect of that — including new brands support Dolby Vision 2 as well as more models. We know TCL, Hisense and Philips TVs (in Europe) will get support this year, but it seems like next year may be when we know whether it's really going widespread.

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Ultimea Poseidon D60 review

Looking to unleash the power of surround sound on your living room without breaking the bank? Then the Ultimea Poseidon D60 surely seems like a tempting proposition. This 5.1 channel system comes with a compact main bar, a small subwoofer, and a couple of surround speakers, enabling you to experience more expansive audio than your TV can provide alone.

Not only that, but the D60 supports Dolby Atmos, has a wide array of connectivity options, and customizable sound. All of that for less than $200 / £200? Seems like a sweet deal.

But is the Ultimea Poseidon D60 actually worth considering? Can it compete with some of the best cheap soundbars around? I spent a few days testing it, and this is my verdict.

First things first, let’s talk setting up. The D60 isn’t especially hard to get up and running. The sub is wireless, and pre-paired to the main soundbar, and both of those units just need to be hooked up with a power cable, as well as an HDMI or digital optical cord for the bar itself. However, the rear speakers are not wireless — you have to connect them up to the subwoofer with RCA cables. Depending on your placement of the sub, this can look pretty messy, and I prefer the solution offered by models like the Majority Bowfell Halo Atmos, where you wire the two surround speakers together with just one linked to a power output.

Otherwise, setup is simple. You can use either the included remote, or Ultimea’s companion app to adjust aspects such as channel levels, EQ settings, source controls and more. The included remote looks and feels a bit cheap and I found that it wasn’t always perfectly responsive, but the D60 does have HDMI CEC support, meaning you can simply use your main TV remote to alter the soundbar’s volume.

More generally, I have to say that the Poseidon D60 does look as cheap as its price suggests. It’s not an eye sore or anything, but each constituent part of the system is very plasticky and does little to stand out in a fairly convoluted market of plain black boxes. The LED display on the bar is also pretty small, and not the clearest.

Something I will applaud about the D60’s design, though, is how diminutive it is. The main bar, sub, and rears are all very small, and can easily fit into a smaller living space. Even in my relatively cramped apartment, the full system seamlessly slotted into my setup and, even if you’re limited on space behind you, the rear speakers can be placed beside the main bar for front surround effects.

But anyway, you must be wondering how the Ultimea Poseidon D60 performs by now, right? Well, in all honesty, it exceeded my expectations.

I started by throwing on my 4K UHD Blu-ray copy of The Boy and the Heron, and there were some positives right out of the gate. In a scene where the protagonist, Mahito, exits his house, the surround speakers did a great job of conjuring up immersion, with the sounds of birds and crickets chirping coming through with impressive clarity. Shortly after, the heron flew towards me on-screen, and the directionality was captured well — I almost jumped back in my seat.

As the heron swooped to the side, the D60 mapped his movement with precision, and it sounded as if he extended past the confines of my screen. As Mahito and the heron conversed, I found that the dialogue was pretty clean too. It wasn’t the most forward or expertly separated, but I had no issue following along — it didn’t sound muffled or tinny as I’ve experienced on other soundbars.

But after this, I was introduced to the D60’s Achilles’ Heel: its bass output. When a horde of fish and amphibians appeared, exclaiming “JOIN US”, it was meant to be accompanied by an all-consuming, almighty bass roar, but this roar sounded more like a meow. The D60 failed to provide the impact I was looking for, even after I turned the level of the sub up a notch.

I found that bass lacked substance as I tuned into other 4K UHD Blu-rays and Dolby Atmos content on streaming services. While dialogue remained consistently tight, and the rear speakers whipped up surprisingly prominent, well-balanced surround effects, the bass always just felt lacking. Why? Well, the sub is small and limited in terms of power output, meaning it can’t provide the impactful low-end you’d expect from pricier options.

Another area where the D60 struggles to compete with some of its rivals is in its lack of height effects. The main soundbar has no upfiring speakers, so the vertical Atmos effects are hardly the most convincing. If you want to experience more substantial height effects while remaining on a budget, then I’d suggest checking out a model like the Hisense AX5125H.

As you may expect, the D60 isn’t the most musically talented, with bass sometimes lacking impact, and guitars or vocals in the mid-range feeling short on texture and definition. But most tracks I threw at the soundbar system were clear enough for background listening, and Bluetooth connectivity makes playing tunes from your phone feel pretty seamless.

Speaking of connectivity, the D60 is pretty versatile. Of course there’s Bluetooth and HDMI eARC, but you also get access to digital optical, AUX, and USB playback. That’s a great line-up for a cheap soundbar, though it's worth noting that there’s no Wi-Fi streaming or HDMI input for connecting devices like games consoles or streaming sticks.

Other features include a 10-band equalizer, as well as a vast array of presets in the Ultimea app, and a bass boost mode. The D60 isn’t offering specialized options like room correction, speech enhancement, or a night mode, but the fundamentals are solid overall.

So, at the end of it all, would I recommend the Ultimea Poseidon D60? It’s a complicated one. If you want surround sound on a budget, then it’s certainly a decent solution. You’re not going to get the most amazing Dolby Atmos effects due to the limitations to height effects, and bass isn’t the most impactful. But the rear speakers work surprisingly well, and you get clearer dialogue than a lot of standalone TVs will offer.

If you’re more particular about your sound, then I think it's worth looking elsewhere. If your budget is flexible, I’d suggest checking out the Samsung HW-Q800F or one of its predecessors for seismic bass and incredible expansiveness, although the aforementioned Hisense AX5125H is another amazing surround sound option if you want something cheaper.

Ultimea Poseidon D60 review: price & release date

• Priced at $169.99 / £199.99 (about AU$240)
• Released in September 2023

The Ultimea Poseidon D60 was released in September 2023, and typically costs around $169.99 / £199.99 (about AU$240). This plants it firmly in the budget category when we’re discussing 5.1 channel surround sound systems. It’s available in a single black colorway.

Ultimea Poseidon D60 review: specs

Should I buy the Ultimea Poseidon D60?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Ultimea Poseidon D60 review: also consider

How I tested the Ultimea Poseidon D60

• Tested across the course of multiple days
• Connected to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV
• Mainly used HDMI eARC connectivity

I spent a handful of days testing the Ultimea Poseidon D60 at home, using it to watch movies, stream videos, and listen to music. I had the system connected up to my Sky Glass Gen 2 TV via HDMI eARC, although I did test out other connectivity methods such as Bluetooth.

During listening sessions, I made sure to use a range of 4K Blu-rays, which I played using the Sony UBP-X700K Blu-ray player. When listening to music, I steamed tunes via Tidal as well as Spotify, and made sure to try out a range of Dolby Atmos and stereo format tracks.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio-visual gear here at TechRadar, and have reviewed everything from budget-friendly models like the Sony HT-SF150 to premium Dolby Atmos systems like the JBL Bar 1300MK2.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: August 2026

4K Blu-ray is a big part of my work at TechRadar. Not only is it my staple source for testing the best TVs and best soundbars, but thanks to its superior picture and audio quality over 4K streaming, the movies themselves have now become one of my main areas of coverage.

As a big fan of 4K Blu-ray, both as a user in AV testing and as a collector, I helped start our Blu-ray Bounty series, where we review the latest 4K releases from each month, scrutinizing their picture and audio quality, back in 2024.

While the 4K Blu-ray market (and the market for physical media in general) has been a volatile one in recent years, the Blu-ray fan base has always been a passionate one. As I’ve been testing more 4K releases, I’ve come to appreciate what the format can do for older titles and general at-home watching even more, and I now include myself in that passionate fanbase.

So, when I was invited to visit Silver Salt Restoration, a company whose work ranges from audio restoration, data archiving and restoration and transfer of movies to Blu-ray restoration (including 4K), I jumped at the chance. The company has some big-name clients, having worked with Hammer, Arrow Video, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Criterion, among others. All of those brand’s 4Ks have been featured in Blu-ray Bounty, so I was excited to see how the magic happens.

A meticulous process

Silver Salt Restoration was founded in 2017 by a team of restoration artists, before being acquired in 2024 by John Gore Studios, another company dedicated to the preservation and restoration of classic titles, especially British cinema. Some of Silversalt’s biggest projects include The Deer Hunter, The Wicker Man, The Dollars Trilogy, The Curse of Frankenstein and the upcoming release of Dracula (the iconic Hammer horror classic starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing).

I was taken on a tour of Silver Salt's studio in Hammersmith, led by Managing Director Mark Bonnici, during which I was shown everything that goes into the meticulous process of restoring a movie.

My journey begins at the film inspection table, where Marie Fieldman, Silver Salt's resident film inspector, is hard at work inspecting an old film reel for damage, including visible scratches, marks, wear and tear, degradation, and even mould on each individual frame, before crafting a detailed report for the respective client. “Some of these haven’t been looked at by a human for a very long time,” Fieldman says, as she shows me an older report she did for 1954’s Men of Sherwood Forest. Here, she’s labelled every single defect she can find, noting the level of damage and the best course of action.

She tells me about what fixes can be implemented, such as the cleaning of mould and even using a blank frame in place of a damaged one, which won’t be noticeable in the final movie, noting that deep scratches can be particularly problematic.

Once she is happy with the state of the film reel, it’s taken over to a cleaning machine. The reel is mounted and travels between Dacron rollers where surface dirt is gently removed with a film-safe solvent. Marie warns, “In some cases the film may need to be hand cleaned, for example if the film has a wax coating”. Once the film is clean, it’s ready for scanning.

Scanning

Next, Bonnici shows us the two scanning machines Silver Salt uses. The first is the Arriscan XT. The Arriscan XT can use a wet-gate system, where the film is immersed in a Kodika, a special liquid which optically minimises scratches and marks as the film is digitised into a digital image sequence, known as a DPX file. The film is scanned in at 6K resolution, before being downgraded to 4K for 4K Blu-ray. “The Arriscan XT was originally designed for new film stock, but was later revised to handle archive/legacy film too,” Bonnici says.

He then shows us a more advanced film scanner, the Laser Graphics Director scanner. This scanner is specifically designed for archival footage which also uses an infrared light to detect marks and scratches on colour film and makes corrections during the scanning process. The Director scans up to 13.5K resolution and can handle 8mm to 35mm film.

Restoration

Once cleaning and scanning are completed, the DPX files are sent to the restoration artists, who work their magic to restore the uploaded film reel by correcting image instability, removing superfluous scratches and marks that the scanner has picked up from the original film, removing excess film grain, and generally tidying up the image.

The digitised frames are saved to file storage and then the digital restoration work begins. The frames are analysed for film dirt and the results are presented to the restoration artists, they can review these in a red mode, which highlights the differences between the results and the original version and any falsely removed part of the image reinstated. “We spend most of our time putting detail back in that’s been incorrectly removed,” restoration artist Anthony Badger tells me. “The system can sometimes struggle to distinguish between dirt and other textures within the film, like snow.”The artists perform other tasks such as stabilisation, deflicker, scratch removal etc. Anthony shows us various examples of larger fixes performed by the artists.

One of the clips I’m shown shows the red filter picking up what it thinks are marks and scratches. However, it also highlights a section of a character’s trouser leg and attempts to remove it, mistaking it for a scratch, and this in turn takes an odd chunk out of the leg. This is where Badger and the other restoration artists will add detail back in.

During the restoration process, artists will carefully check each frame in quarters, zooming in to see if there are any other areas where the picture can be cleaned up. When it comes to film grain, it can be tricky. “It can be a bit of an ethical dilemma on how much we intervene,” Badger tells me, “but we need to consider if an extreme problem will take you out of the story.” The team’s philosophy is to deliver a great-looking restoration that preserves as much of the original, authentic look of the film as possible which is accessible to the expectations of modern audiences, without reinventing it.

I’m shown another example, from Don’t Look Now, the 1973 thriller starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. As Sutherland arrives in Venice for the first time, Badger points out a large yellow stain that appears on screen. “This appears to be a film lab processing error that would have been in the original negative and all previous releases,” he says. He goes on to say that the client requested that this be toned down as much as possible. With some magic work by the Silver Salt team, involving background replacement, layering and even some rotoscoping, going as far as using an extra in the scene traversing the frame as a wipe to make the transition seamless, the yellow staining is significantly reduced and the picture is beautifully restored.

Grading

Once the DPX files have been restored and the team are happy, the film is then sent off for grading, including HDR (if relevant). As Mark takes us up to one of the grading suites, he recalls Silver Salt’s first 4K HDR Dolby Vision grading project. “It was The Deer Hunter, which was a significant milestone for us and set the standard for future releases,” he says. He particularly remembers the opening scenes in the steel mill, with molten iron serving as an excellent showcase for 4K and HDR grading. “If you can ooze more detail out of it, why not?” he says.

Next, he takes us into another grading suite, where we meet Ray King, Head of Film at Silver Salt, and one of the main graders. As we enter, King is working on Dracula, the iconic 1973 Hammer flick starring Christpoher Lee and Peter Cushing. He talks about his process, and what type of film he prefers working with. “You’ve got to get a feel for the film,” he says, emphasising the importance of experimenting with color grading and detail to get the best results. “It helps bring the movie to life when you have the original elements,” he adds, saying he prefers to have the original film available.

As King works on a few scenes, he explains some of the details he works on, including skin tones and primaries, and points to a scene in which Cushing’s skin takes on a red hue. “Because of the old stage makeup and lighting they used in some older movies, when you’re changing the color grade, skin can take on this red tone.”

With a few quick adjustments, King reduces the red tone in the skin without compromising on the superb color he’s brought out in the surroundings, with vibrant, gorgeous reds in the velvet curtains being one particular highlight. Suddenly, there’s a wonderful richness and depth to the picture, with accurate colors and crisp textures that give this horror classic the distinctive '4K treatment' look that I’ve seen in so many great Blu-ray releases. “Once we’re done, some of these movies look like they could have been filmed last week,” King says proudly.

As he shows me his grading work on Dracula, he highlights that the original negative has faded over time, some colours more than others. To illustrate this fading, Ray showed us the red green and blue waveforms in the individual colour channels in his grading system and with the final results after his corrections on the grading monitor, the result I’m seeing is excellent. “Night time scenes can be very difficult to do,” King adds, pointing to a scene with a dark, shadowed forest that could easily show signs of black crush if not graded correctly. Ray mentions that he can use soft edges to remove black crush and again, the results I’m seeing are superb.

An even bigger fan

The above really is just an overview of the fantastic work Silver Salt Restorations does — the process of restoring a film is so intricate and laborious that it takes these talented artists and technicians countless hours of careful work to bring new life to a movie on 4K Blu-ray, especially the older, classic titles from studios like Hammer.

As a 4K Blu-ray collector and fan, it was such a great experience to see the hard work — and, frankly, wizardry — that the Silver Salt team can perform. While I’ve always marvelled at how good 4K Blu-rays can look, now that I’ve seen the restoration process in action, albeit briefly, I appreciate the format even more — and I especially appreciate the amount of work that goes into making many of our favorite movies look so good.

• Dolby says that Dolby Vision HDR movies can be upgraded to Dolby Vision 2 using an automated process based on the existing mastering information
• This means support may be more widespread than expected, since apparently it will be relatively low-effort for streamers to achieve
• The Authentic Motion and Precision Black features will be excluded from this, because Dolby says they they require human judgment to get right

If you're wondering where all the Dolby Vision 2 media is going to come from, we've got good news: it's already here, at least partly. Dolby Laboratories told me that it's created a process that can upgrade existing Dolby Vision media to add most features of the new HDR standard using an automated process based on the existing mastering data — and there are only two key features that are excluded, because they're areas that depend on new input from creators.

With Dolby Vision 2 arriving on TVs from this month, I caught up with Dolby Laboratories' director of business strategy, Jonas Klittmark, to find out the details: what it could do for 4K Blu-rays, what benefits it'll bring to streaming and most importantly of all, what to watch.

One of the biggest concerns with Dolby Vision 2 is that creators just won't be inclined to master video for it when it doesn't have widespread support — but it's unlikely to get widespread support if there's no content. But it turns out that existing Dolby Vision masters can be adapted to use many of its features without being reworked.

"There is a bunch of new features in Dolby Vision 2 that don't rely on new content at all," Turkstra told me. "Because you already have all the Dolby Vision content in the world... the streaming providers will have more to say about this later, but the existing Dolby Vision library will start to get converted and the new metadata for Dolby Vision 2 will be added."

Klittmark estimates that there are around 33,000 movies and TV show episodes available in Dolby Vision. "There's no realistic chance that all that content is going to get remastered from scratch," he says.

"The cost of doing that is just astronomical. So what we're offering instead is a semi-automated way of doing it where we're using modern techniques such as machine learning to assist in the creation of the additional metadata that's needed to make the most of Dolby Vision 2."

He elaborated that "many of the features, including the image engine, including the new version of LightSense, the intensity control, the pro settings, and sports optimization, all of those features can work through a combination of existing metadata."

That metadata is based on existing mastering data, and as will all of Dolby Vision 2, the next-gen data is in addition to the existing data; it doesn't replace it, so the automation won't affect the visuals of, or compatibility with, TVs that have the first generation of Dolby Vision but not the second.

What Dolby Vision 2 features can arrive automatically – and what ones can't

The two exceptions to the automated upgrade are Authentic Motion, which enables creators to control how strong your TV's motion processing is applied on a moment-to-moment basis, and Precision Black, which is designed to address dark scenes that looked great in the creators' mastering suite but appear too dark on TVs.

Klittmark said: "Authentic Motion is an example of a feature where it's just too sensitive. I don't know if you've been following the fairly polarized debate about motion that has been playing out over the years, with Tom Cruise making public service announcements, and things like that. That feature is so sensitive that we don't generate that metadata, it has to be manually authored."

I've seen Dolby Vision 2's Authentic Motion in action, and I think it's a great addition — it means that judder can be removed in scenes that need it, but motion smoothing can be deactivated in scenes that don't. I suspect that actually it probably could be automated to good effect, but as Klittmark says, I don't thing anyone would really trust that, so it's best that Dolby is leaving that to humans.

When it comes to Precision Black, Klittmark says this can't be automated because in order to get it right you need to know all about the creator's environment: "how dark was their ambient light, what kind of reference monitor were they using, et cetera... that cannot be speculated about or generated, so that needs to come manually from the creative."

When is Dolby Vision 2 not Dolby Vision 2?

I asked if this meant that movies might be labelled as supporting different Dolby Vision 2 features, but Klittmark says the firm doesn't want to make things complicated in that way.

"We've taken the simplest possible approach for consumers' benefit, which is that all the content is going to be Dolby Vision. There is no asterisk. There's no 'Dolby Vision 2' content, for example. There's no 'Dolby Vision 2 Max' content or anything like that. It's just all Dolby Vision content," he says. "And that way, it's very simple for a consumer to know what to look for. If you see that the content is in Dolby Vision, then you are getting the best experience you can get with that particular movie or whatever it is you're looking for."

I think this makes sense — your TV will be labelled as Dolby Vision 2 or Dolby Vision 2 Max, and potentially could tell you which features of the format are active, but when it comes to browsing the library, it makes sense to simply use the Dolby Vision logo to indicate that you're getting as many advanced features as the service has added, regardless of what they are.

Klittmark pointed out that this would be new to Dolby Vision 2, either. "The original version of Dolby Vision had tons of features in it, and not all creatives chose to use all of them all of the time. And there was no way to know that. And that's essentially a choice up to the creative. Which of the Dolby tools do they need do they feel like they need to use for which content? We leave that decision to the creative," he said.

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• Dolby confirms that Dolby Vision 2 HDR can come to existing 4K Blu-ray hardware, including both discs and players
• However, it will require the player manufacturers to work with Dolby on updates, and Sony says it has no plans to update, with no comment from Panasonic or Magnetar
• Dolby says that Dolby Vision 2 TVs will still show visual improvements with Dolby Vision 1 discs, because of the upgraded processing engine

Dolby Vision 2, the next generation of Dolby's HDR format, is rolling out to its first TVs right now — and Dolby answered one my most burning questions about the new tech, which is whether it can come to 4K Blu-ray as well as streaming.

Digging into the answer turns out to be mixed news. It was positive from a technical side: the team confirmed that Dolby Vision 2 can work on existing Blu-ray disc and players. However, making it work will require a firmware update to ensure full compatibility — and that looks like it could be the problem.

I sat down with Dolby Laboratories' vice-president of home devices, Chris Turkstra, and director of business strategy Jonas Klittmark. As you'd expect, both men were big cheerleaders for the new technology. But they were also realistic about the challenges around existing Blu-ray players in particular.

"UHD Blu-ray is fantastic," Klittmark said. "It's hard to get 120 megabits over streaming, right? So if you're the kind of person who cares about that, like I am, then it still makes sense."

However, "the problem with UHD Blu-ray is that the industry behind the consumer electronics devices that power it… some of them are not even there any more. My player happens to be an Oppo from 10 years ago, and I think those guys closed shop half a decade ago."

As he explains, that poses a potential problem for full Blu-ray compatibility. "While we wouldn't need any new hardware for those devices to have the optimal behavior for Dolby Vision 2, they would need a software update to make sure they're configured correctly."

And so far, the manufacturers still doing Blu-ray don't seem to be champing at the bit. We reached out to Panasonic, Sony and Magnetar to ask about their Dolby Vision 2 plans, and only Sony responded — and confirmed that that it won't update its existing players, as things stand. A statement from the company read:

"We do not plan to provide a software/firmware update to support Dolby Vision 2 on the current Blu-ray player lineup."

Why does Dolby Vision 2 require an update?

"We would love to see Dolby Vision 2 come to all devices. And I think over time, it will come to many more devices than TVs," Klittman says. "But UHD Blu-ray is a is a problematic one."

While supporting Dolby Vision 2 requires new hardware on TVs (it only works on specific TV processors), it doesn't require it for players because all the players need to do is pass data encoded in the stream onto the TV, and then the TV does the hard processing. However, the players need to know how to handle that data: "Since these are old players, there's probably a software update needed for many of them," says Klittmark.

Dolby's team highlighted that their particular concern is getting the data accurately over the HDMI connection. "There are so many nuances over HDMI," Klittmark says. "Different ways to prioritize things, different transmission formats, et cetera... I don't want to oversimplify the work involved. It's about making sure that all the Dolby Vision 2 Content Intelligence, as we're calling it, actually makes it through, and that the device is configured correctly for the best HDMI transmission."

As Chris Turkstra explains, the software update would be needed "in the formatting tools of the device. It's a fairly complex amount of change... while we definitely would love to have it, I don't know if there will be enough [demand] to get people to do that work."

Of course, the Dolby Vision 2 data would also need to be on the disc itself, so existing movies won't take advantage of it, and I doubt it's a format that will get people replacing their existing discs with a new version — but still, for new releases and fresh restorations, it would be great to have the extra accuracy it's designed to bring.

Dolby Vision 2 and 4K Blu-ray should still be better, even without upgrades

So what happens if your player's manufacturer is long gone, or is still around but doesn't want to put the effort into a firmware upgrade? You should still see some benefits from the new generation of Dolby Vision if you have a compatible TV, especially the new and significantly more powerful image engine.

"When it's just regular Dolby Vision, your Dolby Vision 2 TV will still be able to give you a lot of the benefits that we're talking about, including for UHD Blu-ray," Klittman says. "That's what's exciting: that will work for UHD Blu-ray regardless of whether the players get updated or not."

The upgraded processing engine at the heart of Dolby Vision 2 is capable of doing more advanced work with the existing metadata in Dolby Vision, and Dolby has said that there should be a clear improvement. I've seen a demo of Dolby Vision 2 processing with original Dolby Vision content on cheaper TVs, and there's a visible difference.

Of course, what I'm most interested in is how DV2-exclusive options such as Precision Black — in which data about how the creator viewed the mastering monitor when finalizing the color grade can be used to improve HDR visibility and accuracy — could help really dark movies to bring through more shadow detail while still staying true to the master.

Sadly cinephiles may face a frustrating choice if their favorite movies get the Dolby Vision 2 treatment on streaming: get the 4K Blu-ray version with the best picture quality overall, or stream in a lower bitrate but with potentially closer accuracy to the mastered image.

I’ve had the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV setup in my living room since April of last year. To begin with, I wasn’t quite sure whether I was going to get on with Sky’s flagship TV. It was quite different from a lot of TVs in its price range, boasting a relatively chunky build, a unique OS, and I'd be swapping my trusty soundbar for its built-in Dolby Atmos sound system.

For the uninitiated, Sky Glass models provide a captivating proposition for Sky customers. It acts as an all-in-one TV hub, with access to live channels over your network connection (rather than a satellite or aerial), various streaming and smart apps, and more.

So would I recommend buying the Sky Glass Gen 2 instead of one of the best OLED TVs or best mini LED TVs in its price range? I’ll take you through my experience as a user, break down its picture and audio performance, and tell you whether I think it's truly worth the asking price.

The user experience: how does the Sky Glass Gen 2 stack up after a year?

Let’s start by talking about the user experience you get with the Sky Glass Gen 2.

As I said, it aims to serve as an all-in-one hub for Sky customers, and in my view, it pulls this off with ease. The user interface is laid out in a simple and practical way, making it seamless to scroll through each channel, access a comprehensive TV guide, tap into apps like Netflix and HBO Max, and switch between various sources.

The crowning achievement of the Sky Glass Gen 2’s experience, though, is its voice control. I’m not usually a big fan of these — I’ve never really got on with Alexa for controlling devices, or Bixby on Samsung phones, for instance.

But Sky nails it on its Glass TVs. You can either say ‘hello Sky’ or press the mic button on the remote control, and ask for specific apps or channels, or even issue a more general command such as ‘show me movies with cats’. I always find that I get accurate, helpful results, and I rarely experience accidental triggers of voice controls or irrelevant answers.

The interface also looks really clean, and accessing settings is quick and seamless. Just press the ‘…’ button, and you can swiftly alter picture mode, sound settings, toggle speech enhancement, and more.

More generally, I just find Sky's OS to be a lot more user-friendly than a lot of its rivals, such as VIDAA OS on my Hisense TV or even Google TV on TCL models I've tested. Sky's OS just feels sleeker, more organised, and its pin-point voice controls make everyday viewing feel much more seamless.

Other than the occasional plug for a Sky exclusive, there's also little in the way of ads — something the aforementioned rivals push onto the home screen more than I'd like.

One issue I’d previously had was that advanced settings were buried deep within the main menu, but Sky has updated this, making them accessible via the ‘…’ button as well. This means I can easily change network settings, alter viewing preferences, and make advanced picture adjustments (such as changing Dolby Vision or HDR picture modes).

I’ve also found that having TV channels available through my home network is a big plus. The quality of broadcasts is excellent (more on that later), and I’ve experienced very few network issues during my time with the TV — you need 25Mbps download speeds to get 4K streaming, which is no problem in a city. But if you ever do encounter issues, there’s an option to fall back on an aerial connection, which is always handy.

This isn’t to say I’ve experienced no hiccups whatsoever. On occasion, some channels have failed to load, and apps haven’t displayed on the main menu. But this has been a very rare thing, and has always been fixable by unplugging the TV to restart it.

Something else that I love about the Sky Glass Gen 2, is that you get bundled subscriptions to select streaming apps, such as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and Hayu — so long as you have a Sky Ultimate TV subscription, which is £24 per month.

That’s an exceptional deal, and has opened up a lot of shows and movies that I’d previously missed out on. Sure, it's the standard (with ads) subscription for these services, but as someone who typically buys 4K Blu-ray if I want the best viewing experiences for things I really cherish, that’s fine by me for everything else.

Finally, I have to say that the Sky Glass Gen 2 is extremely easy to set up and get started with. It comes with plastic feet that slot into the TV without needing to mess around with screws or fiddly stands.

Picture & audio quality: a solid all-round performer

Right, so the user experience is great on the Sky Glass Gen 2, but how does it perform when it comes to picture and audio?

First things first, it's important to understand the tech inside this model. It's a QLED TV that harnesses the power of local dimming to create a vibrant picture with solid black levels to match. The Glass Gen 2 added more dimming zones, greatly boosts brightness, and provides wider viewing angles than its predecessor, and the results are pretty good overall.

Are you going to get the inky blacks and eye-popping colors that a TV like the LG B6 can deliver? No, but as a QLED model, the Sky Glass Gen 2 still really impressed me, and it's brighter than LG's model, making it good for well-lit living rooms.

I'd consider its picture to be competitive against similarly priced mini-LED options from the likes of Hisense and TCL most of the year around — though in the sales or on Black Friday, you might be able to get a more premium TV from those models for a similar price, which might edge the Glass 2 out.

The Glass Gen 2 supplies good contrast and color accuracy, decent black levels, and impressive motion-handling, making it a versatile option for all kinds of content. Whether I’m watching a blockbuster Premier League match, indulging in the quality of the best 4K Blu-ray players, or just watching a YouTube video, the Sky Glass Gen 2 is able to give me the vibrant colors and detailed picture that I need.

You get Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG support, meaning you can enjoy most video content at its best, although it's worth noting that there’s no HDR10+.

My main gripe with the Sky Glass Gen 2, performance wise, is its restrictive 60Hz refresh rate. As a keen gamer, this means I’m unable to play titles that offer 120fps gameplay at the peak of their powers.

Don’t get me wrong, 4K 60fps is good enough for the vast majority of my favorite PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 titles, but if you want advanced gaming settings and buttery 120Hz refresh rates, you may want to look elsewhere.

On the audio side, things get really interesting, though. The TV has a Dolby Atmos soundbar system built-in, which uses a 3.1.2 channel configuration. This means you get: three outward-firing speakers; a pair of woofers for bass output; and a pair of upward-firing speakers for more vertical, immersive sound.

If you’ve not got room for a standalone soundbar, or you don’t want to spend more on one, then it’s a practical solution without question. It offers much deeper bass and clearer dialogue than you’d expect from most TVs' built-in speakers. The system also whips up relatively expansive sound, ideal for movies with striking Dolby Atmos effects.

But in honesty, the built-in sound system can’t compete with a top-class soundbar. If you want rippling bass, crystal clear mids, and expressive highs — and if you want fantastic music playback to boot — I’d still recommend investing in one of the best soundbars, such as the Samsung HW-Q800F, or a larger surround sound option like the JBL Bar 1300MK2.

One unintentional benefit of the built-in system is that it provides some height below the screen to easily slot in your own soundbar, if you do want an upgrade. For example, I have the spectacular Marshall Heston 120 sitting in front of it, with plenty of space between the bottom of the screen and the soundbar.

Wrapping up: is the Glass worth the cash?

So, is the Sky Glass Gen 2 worth picking over rivals from the likes of LG, Samsung, and Sony? For me, the answer is yes — it offers reliable performance, intuitive functionality, and serves as a great hub for Sky TV and streaming services.

OK, if your number one concern is getting the best picture quality possible, and you’re happy with a Sky box (including the Sky Stream, which has the same core software as the Glass 2, though isn't quite as snappy), then there are some cheaper OLEDs and mini-LED TVs that outperform the Glass Gen 2.

But if you want an accomplished entertainment hub that still performs well across the board, and even comes with a built-in sound system, then the Sky Glass Gen 2 is well worth the outlay. Sky's trick here is that it says this is an all-in-one system, needing just one cable to get started, and I think it achieves that.

The Sky Glass Gen 2 costs £699 for the 43-inch version, £949 for the 55-inch, and £1,199 for the 65-inch model. For reference, I own the latter, and I think it certainly earns its price, all things considered.

It's also worth noting that the Sky TVs have flexible purchase structures — you can buy them outright or pay for them via monthly installments, which in itself can be a big plus.

However, one thing to consider is that purchasing the TV on its own will result in a fairly restrictive user experience. You’ll have to pay a subscription fee for a number of Sky TV products — such as Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, UHD & Dolby Atmos, and Ad Skipping — to get the best out of your Sky Glass, and these costs can really add up.

But if you’re all in on the Sky experience, or if you’re an existing customer, I think the Glass Gen 2 is a great TV all things considered, and after more than a year with it, I have no intention of substituting it out.

• Channel 300 brings you Fairground AI, 24/7 AI video
• Critics have been harsh, calling the channel "slop"
• Could this be a lawsuit waiting to happen?

Roku has added four new channels to its Roku Channel collection: Mad TV, Retro Black Laughs, Whose Line Is It Anyway, and Fairground AI. That last one is a world first: it's the first free, ad-supported streaming TV channel dedicated exclusively to AI-generated content. Or as Futurism calls it, "an unending conveyor belt of AI slop."

Fairground Entertainment says it's "a landmark moment in the distribution of AI Cinema, a groundbreaking new form of storytelling that merges cinematic production values with the creative possibilities of artificial intelligence."

According to CEO Colin Petrie-Norris, it's a genuinely groundbreaking moment for AI Cinema.

According to The Verge, it's "like eating from a trough."

What are people saying about Fairground AI?

That very much depends on which people you're reading. On X, AI fans and boosters are very excited, not least because you can upload your own GenAI videos in the hope of being featured on the channel. Fairground AI says it'll pay for that video.

However, more cynical sorts aren't impressed. "That new Fairground AI channel on Roku is so bad, it makes North Korean propaganda shows look good," says PSYMAGE on X. "It's kind of must watch for a little while, if only to see the cutting edge of AI slop."

Futurism isn't pulling any punches. "It broadcasts AI-generated abominations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only interruption to this slop flow state are intermittent ads — which are also AI-generated. It sounds more like a concept for a sci-fi torture device than it does a source of genuine entertainment, but it is, unfortunately, real."

While there are some interesting things being done by some of Fairground's creators, the AI videos being shared on X are attracting criticisms familiar to anyone who's seen much genAI video: dialog is bad and poorly delivered, cuts are incoherent, weird things happen on-screen, and the visuals are derivative. It's fair to say that if you're not a fan of genAI content, this channel isn't going to change your mind.

But I think there's a more serious issue. We've just seen the AI music platform Suno lose a lawsuit over unauthorized and unpaid use of copyrighted content in its AI models' training data. By monetizing generative AI video that's likely to be from models trained on commercially released content, Fairground AI may find itself attracting attention from something more terrifying than any AI-generated monster: movie studios' lawyers.

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• Google is adding over 10,000 on-demand movies and shows for free
• It's also expanding its library of free live TV channels
• The expansion could thrust Google TV Freeplay into the circle of best free streaming platforms

Google TV is getting its biggest upgrade yet, and it’s bound to get the best free streaming services quaking in their boots.

The company shared the announcement on its news blog yesterday (August 11), revealing it’s started adding over a staggering 10,000 free video-on-demand titles to Google TV Freeplay — a service that’s baked into Google TVs across brands such as Sony, TCL, and Hisense.

It seriously ups the ante on its already wide selection of FAST (free and ad-supported TV) movies and shows, and the best part is that there’s no subscription needed.

Understandably, Google hasn't released a full list of its new titles, but thanks to its partnerships with entertainment giants A24 and Lionsgate, you can expect to see a fair amount of movies from each distributor and beyond. This includes Oscar winners like Lady Bird (2019), to ‘00s favorites like Seventeen Again (2009).

In addition to its new FAST content, Google is also expanding its TV titles, which now include over 300 live channels spanning news, sports, true crime, reality TV, and more. Some of its new live TV channels include World of Love Island, Bloomberg TV+, Yahoo! Sports Network, and The Martha Stewart Channel.

It’s clear Google wants to solidify itself among the big dogs of FAST streaming channels. In December 2025, Google added more free live channels, taking its total catalog to over 250, so its latest upgrade marks a significant jump.

Watch your back, Netflix

There’s been an exponential rise in the number of users flocking to FAST services over the years, because what’s better than dedicating an evening to watching nothing but your favorite movies? Streaming them for free, of course.

For a long time, Google TV Freeplay offered live TV channels to viewers just like its competitors Tubi, The Roku TV Channel, and Pluto TV. It’s convenient and cost-free, but though it sparks joy to see one of your favorite movies or shows playing live, it’s annoying when you tune in halfway through the broadcast.

Google’s new on-demand library changes that. Not only does it give you more control, but it inserts itself as a serious rival to subscription-based services, not just free ones.

And sure, Tubi and Pluto TV have been challenging the likes of Netflix and Prime Video for some time, but Google TV Freeplay’s library appears to offer a higher number of contemporary titles. While Tubi and Pluto TV are considered the gold standards of free streaming, their respective libraries are filled with predominantly older and low-budget content, which arguably doesn’t have as much appeal — at least to me, it doesn’t.