- Reasonably asking price for the picture quality and sound on offer
- Nice build and design
- Content first approach makes a lot of sense
- Missing a lot of streaming services
- "Stack and Save" discounts only last three years
- Can be buggy, some apps quite sluggish
Hubbl Glass is the most interesting TV I've seen in years. While there've been eye-catching developments like rollable TVs, transparent TVs, and suitcase TVs, just to name a few, the Hubbl Glass stands out for a very different reason. The core business model is fundamentally different.
TVs are a low-margin business. Companies don't make a lot of money selling them, which has led to frustrating trends like advertising within TV operating systems. Features that actively make the user experience worse in the pursuit of padding out revenue.
Meanwhile, Foxtel's business goals are quite different. The core pitch behind Hubbl is aggregating streaming services, and ideally, Foxtel wants you to subscribe to them directly through it. As such, Hubbl Glass doesn't run ads for anyone willing to pay. It's a content-first experience that's different from any TV I've tested. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times it's not.
Everything* in its place
The core Hubbl pitch is aggregating content in one place, from both paid streaming services as well as free-to-air networks. After you've set up the Hubbl Glass, turning on the TV reveals an interface that will look familiar to anyone who's used any streaming service. You're presented with rails of shows and movies; the key difference is they're pulled from multiple platforms, rather than just one.
Hubbl highlights content from every service that has partnered with the platform. Right now, that includes Netflix, Disney Plus, Binge, Apple TV, Kayo, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, LifeStyle, and Flash on the paid front. Paramount Plus, Stan, and Optus Sport are coming soon. ABC, SBS, Nine, Seven, and Ten are all accounted for on the free-to-air side of things.
This can be a win for discovery, but it can also be annoying to come across something you want to watch that you're not subscribed to. Certain streaming services - Netflix, Disney Plus, Binge, Kayo, LifeStyle, and Flash - can all be subscribed to directly from the Hubbl Glass, and are put on your Hubbl account. Four of these are services that Foxtel owns, and it's presumably getting a cut on the other two.
There's definitely a convenience to being able to sign up to a service with the click of a button, which you can do if you've already got your credit card linked to your Hubbl account. And honestly, it would be great to see it expanded to the broader set of apps available on Hubbl Glass, to remove that element of friction you get when you come across something you want to watch but can't.
Subscribing to services via Hubbl can also earn you a discount on your total monthly bill. If you're subscribed to three eligible services, you'll save $5 per month. Four services gets you a $10 per month discount, while five maxes this out at $15 per month. Only a small number of services count toward this discount, however: Binge, Netflix, Kayo, Flash, and LifeStyle.
A saving is a saving, but it would be great to see more eligible services. In addition, the discount will only last for 36 months.
Optus has a similar initiative through its SubHub subscription management platform, where you'll save 5% per month with two services or 10% with three. While the savings might end up being smaller than the $15 per month Hubbl scales to, more services count toward it, and there's no fixed time frame on when you stop getting the discount.
A Hubbl spokesperson told us that the number of services that will count toward a discount will increase in the future.
Similarly, there are plenty of streaming services that are absent from Huddl. Two of my most used services - Dropout and Mubi - are missing. So are options like BritBox, Shudder, Crunchyroll, and Hayu. While these are niche options, Hubbl's content aggregation idea falls apart if a streamer you regularly use isn't available.
And unlike Apple TV or Google TV, services need to directly partner with Hubbl to launch an app on its platform. While I'm sure Hubbl will expand its offering in time, you can't bank on a service you use ever getting an app if it doesn't already have one.
Philosophically sound, factually sluggish
In use, the Hubbl Glass is a mixed bag. There are well-thought-out elements, but the TV can be buggy and slow.
The native interface is as smooth and responsive as you'd hope for a new TV. Foxtel's apps - Binge, Kayo, Flash, and LifeStyle - all seamlessly exist within the core Hubbl experience. A Binge app doesn't need to open before you can watch shows or movies on it, for example.
This experience differs from every other service on the platform, which open as dedicated apps - like they would on any other TV or set-top box. Individual app performance varies greatly, however. The Amazon Prime Video app is especially slow, and has even crashed on me. Apple TV Plus is also a bit sluggish, but nowhere near as bad as Amazon. Conversely, YouTube is pleasantly responsive by contrast, and all the free-to-air apps work smoothly enough.
It would have been great to see content from other streaming services integrated in the same way shows and movies from Foxtel's are. While that's a big ask for a number of reasons, that kind of consistency would greatly improve the Hubbl experience.
Sluggishness aside, I've encountered a number of quirks and bugs while testing the Hubbl Glass.
When it comes to Foxtel's services, there's a weird lack of continuity. Before I got the Hubbl Glass, I was watching 30 Rock on Binge on my Apple TV, but there's no way to pick up where I left off on the Hubbl. Similarly, I started watching BlackBerry on the Hubbl Glass, but I couldn't continue watching it on Binge on my phone without starting it manually.
The Kayo integration on Hubbl might also disappoint sports fans. It's missing flagship features like SplitView, meaning you'll get a better Kayo experience on platforms like Apple TV and Android TV.
Hubbl Glass also lacks user profiles. There's just one overarching experience for everyone using the TV in your household. You can add items to individual watchlists, however.
On the bug front, I've had the TV outright crash at times. At others, the screen has gone black and have needed to unplug it from the power to get it working again. I've also had less dramatic but still annoying issues, where it would skip forward on a TV show instead of playing the next episode.
There's also a "wake on motion" feature enabled out of the box, where the Hubbl Glass will turn on if it detects motion in the room. This is a weird feature to have on by default, but it's also inconsistent. Sometimes I'll walk in front of the Hubbl Glass and nothing will happen. Other times, I'll walk into the room to find it's been on for god knows how long. I'd definitely have this off by default.
One neat feature is a TV guide that collates free-to-air content and Foxtel services. Using an EPG is a pretty old-school way to find content, but it's kinda neat to have it. Free-to-air content can be accessed through the web, or via aerial. If you're watching free-to-air via the web, you'll be subject to blackouts for sports, as an FYI.
The TV bits
When it comes to the TV itself, the Hubbl Glass is a solid mid-tier display. It's a 4K QLED panel with Dolby Vision support. It doesn't attempt to do local dimming, which is probably for the best, but means blacks are definitely on the greyish side. Bright images can also look a little washed out at times, but the overall picture quality isn't bad. I appreciated that it didn't try and do motion smoothing out of the box, unlike most other sets.
The Hubbl Glass does max out at a 60Hz refresh rate, however, so may not be the best if you've got a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X and want to take advantage of high-frame-rate gaming.
You also get an "integrated" sound bar, which amounts to a prominent speaker grill, a woofer in the TV's thicker-than-usual body, and some upward-firing speakers. As such, sound quality is better than you'd expect out of the box. You're not going to get room-filling bass (and sub-bass is non-existent), but it's a solid overall experience.
Naturally, the Hubbl Glass speakers won't compare to a dedicated soundbar. Plugging in my Sonos Beam via the HDMI eARC was like night and day. I wasn't able to get the Hubbl Glass remote to control the volume on my Sonos Beam, however.
There are a few other little quirks worth noting. Changing HDMI inputs is weirdly annoying; there's no dedicated button on the remote. The Hubbl Glass is clearly built around the core Hubbl experience, so if you're plugging in video game consoles, you need to open up the HDMI port in the same way you'd open an app. It's hardly the end of the world, but a niggle that adds up.
Similarly, settings are annoying to access. You need to scroll down all the way to the bottom of the main interface to find them or use the voice assistant. Ideally, settings aren't something you'll need to access too often, but burying them is a weird choice.
On a more positive note, the Hubbl Glass itself is quite nice! It almost looks like a supersized iMac, and I love that there are colour options. My review unit came in black, but I've seen the pink in person, and it's surprisingly cute.
Hubbl Glass TV - Final Thoughts
On paper, Hubbl Glass makes a lot of sense. A good quality TV with better-than-average speakers and a properly integrated streaming experience. An all-in-one package that saves you money on a sound bar and streaming device.
It's just a shame the Hubbl Glass isn't that little bit better. It feels like it was made to hit a price point, so compromises had to be made. The picture quality and sound on offer are fair for the asking price - $1,595 for the 55-inch model and $1,959 for the 65-inch - but the sluggishness is harder to excuse. A beefier processor would have gone a long way in making the Hubbl Glass experience smoother.
It's also hard to look past the bugs and limited service selection. While I'm sure these are things that will get better with time, I can only write about my experiences so far.
In a way, the Hubbl Glass' biggest strength is its aesthetic. It may not be a Samsung Frame, but it looks nice in a room. You also don't need to buy a sound bar, so it doesn't add clutter. When you couple this with the fact the operating system isn't a vehicle for random ads, it makes for a pleasant TV experience, regardless of whether you're buying into the Hubbl ecosystem or not. And hey, if you find the apps too slow, you can always plug in a Chromecast or an Apple TV.
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