Hubbl Glass review: Those in Glass houses

One of the most immediately attractive features of the Hubbl Glass is its look. Not it's picture quality, the actual product design. Like smartphones, television design has become fairly hemogenous as we've strived for slimmer profiles and thinner bezels. With a few exceptions, such as the Samsung Frame,  you're not buying a television for the way it looks. But the Hubbl Glass makes me wonder: why not? Why not have a small selection of fun colours alongside your standard black TV set? Hubbl Glass comes in five flavours: Ocean Blue, Racing Green, Dusky Pink, Anthracite Black, and Ceramic White, and honestly, I could find a way to make any of the five work in my own home. The Dusky Pink is a genuinely lovely looking device. 

Granted, most premium 4K televisions simply don't have enough of a visible surface to warrant any flashy colours and it's probably a good time to point out that the Hubbl Glass isn't the most svelt screen on the market. At a depth of 447mm, it's a much thicker unit than the LG equivalent which sits roughly 57.5mm from the wall. 

That is partly down to the undercarriage of the Hubbl Glass where a full-length Dolby Atmos soundbar lives. 

Most major television manufacturers would much rather sell you a soundbar than throw one in for free, let alone manufacture a television where the soundbar and TV are one. That's exactly what Hubbl Glass offers.

Soundbar included, Hubbl's Dolby Atmos system offers a six speaker array. It's decent, there's no doubt about that. You can crank the volume up on your next Fast and the Furious marathon without sacrificing fidelity but if you're deadset on deciphering Vin Diesel's drawl, you could be out of luck. Just like its limited picture settings, Hubbl Glass doesn't offer much in the way of audio customisation past a few preset profiles. There are a few additional settings, like a binary toggle for making dialogue louder but, just quietly, it didn't make much of a difference when I first switched it on. 

Thankfully, I think I've settled on the right all-rounder audio profile for my needs but out of the box it may sound a little muffled. 

It’s hard to argue with what is essentially a free soundbar, however. While I've heard better integrated speakers on pricier TVs, Hubbl Glass sounds better than you’d expect for the price.

If only I could tinker with the Hubbl Glass's EQ settings a little more, I might be able to score it a weeny bit higher for audio quality. Alas, I'm just a common fool who shan't be trusted with such precious decisions. 

I've got no complaints about the image on the Hubbl Glass. The quality of its 4K QLED panel isn't in question. In fact, 4K streams of Foxtel fare like Kayo and Binge plug along at an impressive clip without much of an issue (though I am one of the lucky ones on NBN 1000.)

The user interface doesn't make a great first impression. It's muddy and honestly pretty slow by smart TV standards in 2024. But once you're up and streaming, there aren't many criticisms you can level at the TV for what it advertises on the tin. 

It's still not exactly a premium experience and there are a number current televisions within the Hubbl Glass's price range that offer comparable specs (or for a little more, much better,) and I just can't help but feel like this one took a little too long to get to market. It is, after all, the exact same TV that Sky launched in the UK back in 2021.

Here are a few competing TV brands in a similar price range to the Hubbl Glass:

Many of your mainstream alternatives offer a few extra bells and whistles too, like a high refresh rate of 120Hz or higher, which PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X owners are going to want. Sure it's not the sort of thing Hubbl's major demographic will be too concerned with but let's not get lazy, it is still a $1,395 television at minimum. Whether the regular punter cares or not, they could be getting better gear for a fraction more and in some cases comparable gear for a lot less. 

All of the televisions listed above also use some version of Android TV, which puts them on a level playing field when it comes to app compatiblity. The same can't be said for Hubbl.

The biggest thing holding back is the operating system at the centre of everything. This isn't limited to Hubbl Glass, you can pay $99 for the Hubbl box and get the same experience. Hubbl OS is a bespoke platform and experience you can only get through Hubbl devices and is made up of a few unique selling points: Universal search and recommendations across all your streaming services, Stack  & Save discounts for streaming apps and Single View billing.

Those three features are generally nice to have. Hubbl's ad-free aggregation of streaming services is clean and simple. It's meant to take the stress out of streaming for those who have been too scared to jump in. Similarly, Stack & Save and Single View Billing serve to tackle two major pain points with streaming: the growing monthly costs and managing all your logins and accounts. Stack & Save will give you tiered discounts when you sign up to multiple streaming apps (up to $15 per month off when you sign up to five services) and Single View Billing lets you start and cancel streaming subscriptions all within Hubbl's UI, kind of like Optus SubHub.

What a dream. Well, almost. 

Stack & Save only applies to Hubbl's own apps and Netflix. So in order to get any discount you need to be subscribed to at least two Hubbl apps (Binge, Kayo etc.) Single View Billing only works with the same list of apps and Disney Plus. Stan, Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, and Paramount Plus subscribers get none of Hubbl's most desirable benefits. 

For former Foxtel devotees, the mention of a loyalty discount might induce flashbacks to a better time. That's what Hubbl gets right. Even if it is a limited selection, Stack & Save and Single Billing are still unique ideas that could only get better if other third-party providers like Stan and Apple TV Plus eventually come to the table. 

The Hubbl and Hubbl Glass also take care of the hardware side of things. Mostly. Foxtel iQ box customers will sorely miss the ability to schedule recordings for linear programming. It might seem silly to on-demand natives but a decent PVR feature is still the only way to stay up to date with certain news programs and select soaps like Eastenders. If my dear Nan were still around today, she'd be guarding her Foxtel iQ5 hard drive for dear life. It's not like the Hubbl Glass doesn't have the space for some onboard storage. The built-in soundbar makes it a thicc unit with plenty of free space for a terabyte or two of storage.

Another convenient (and mildly concerning) feature of the Hubbl Glass is the onboard far-field microphone on the TV itself. The smart TV comes with the same Hubbl Voice Remote as the Hubbl box, but Hubbl Glass has an additional mic on the television set. That's useful in two ways: one, you can use voice commands to browse and play content without the remote and two, you can tell Hubbl to find your remote and it will activate a high-pitched beeping sound from your remote. Super handy. Potential privacy concerns aside, that's a neat use of voice control and you can ask Hubbl some pretty specific requests (e.g. "show me movies starring Ryan Gosling") though it can be a bit hit and miss with both the commands it accepts and the results it delivers. 

There's a big mute button next to the power button that you really can't miss so if you don't love the idea of Foxtel lurking in your living room, you can always switch the microphone off. That said, there's not much in the privacy policy to be worried about and Hubbl claims that voice commands are "stored anonymously to action the command and for troubleshooting" and not linked to any personal information.