Hands-on review: Now TV Smart Box

Let's make one thing clear right off the bat: Sky's Now TV Smart Box is a completely different beast from its existing Now TV Box.

As well as offering streaming services from Sky and the other major British broadcasters, it also integrates a Freeview tuner, meaning this could just be the only box you'll ever need to plug into your TV.

The Now TV Box was in essence a trojan horse for Sky's Now TV service. It was a rebranded and gated Roku box that offered a cheap way to hook up a non-internet connected TV with a streaming box carrying Sky's streaming service, in addition to a number of other apps.

But let's focus for a moment on the Now TV Smart Box's headline feature: the Freeview integration.

Now TV Smart Box: features

Open up the device's main menu and you can immediately see a thumbnail showing a live-stream of your most recently watched channel alongside Sky's other streaming content.

From there you're free to either jump across to an EPG to select which Freeview channel to watch, or you can select the thumbnail to start watching TV and jump between channels from there.

Once you're watching a live broadcast you're able to pause and rewind live TV by up to half an hour, but unfortunately there's no option to record live TV.

When I asked Damien Read, Now TV's Director of Product Marketing, about the omission he said that it was out of a desire to keep the box as affordable as possible: "We asked our customers what would you really value, especially what's affordable. This is very much that Freeview demographic."

By limiting the device's PVR functionality Sky can keep its price down by only including a single TV tuner and a limited amount of internal storage.

Also worthy of note is the fact that much of the need for recording is removed with the inclusion of streaming services. "You see the screen up there with all the catch-up down the left hand side and scroll to the right and get all the programs... catch-up with that 30 day window is starting to become the default screen" said Read.

With the majority of programmes now appearing on one catch-up service or another it could be the case that the lack of record functionality won't be a problem, but inevitably there are going to be moments where you'll wish you had the ability to record a film off BBC for example.

Now TV Smart Box: performance

Moving beyond the Freeview functionality brings you to all of the streaming services offered by the device.

On the home menu each streaming service has its own row where you can either launch a dedicated app or else scroll left and right to see a curated selection of the top programs on each service.

If you choose to launch one of the dedicated apps like iPlayer then this gives you the alternative of streaming live TV over the internet.

Many people won't have a use for this functionality when live television is just a button press away, but should you live in an area with bad TV reception but good internet this could be useful for you.

Alternatively you can browse lists of programs drawn from Sky's own streaming services, which are shown depending on which of the four passes you're subscribed to.

There are two downsides to Sky's streaming implementation. First is the fact that the Smart Box is limited to 720p and doesn't support 4K or even 1080p streaming. According to Read, "picture quality [of the existing Now TV box]... is really really good and customers love it, so that wasn't an area they said [Sky] needed to improve."

From the time I spent with the device the low resolution wasn't immediately apparent, but this may have been because we were watching fairly visually boring daytime TV. When we get the device in for full review we'll be sure to put it through its paces.

The absence of 4K isn't surprising when it has so far failed to come to even Sky's premium Sky Q service, but it's a shame to see 1080p absent when it was present on the last generation of Roku devices.

Now TV Smart Box: apps

The second downside is the lack of support for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which is a problem that's carried over from the original Now TV box.

It makes a certain amount of sense given that the two services compete directly with Sky's own, but with the Now TV Smart Box being positioned as the only device you need to have plugged into your TV this omission is a painful one.

During our interview Read mentioned that Sky has been "talking to people" about the inclusion of the service but that currently there are "no immediate plans" to do so.

To my mind this leaves any Smart Box owner with two options. Either they buy into Sky's ecosystem and rely entirely upon their Now TV subscription to watch film and TV shows (forsaking its competitors exclusives in the process), or they rely on a different device for streaming Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Given the inclusion of these two apps on just about everything, including almost all smart TVs, it's unlikely that people won't have a device capable of streaming them. Still, having to switch between inputs is a shame when the Now TV Smart Box's interface is as well designed as it is.

Early verdict

It's hard not to love using the Now TV Smart Box. Its interface is clean and well designed, and the way the Freeview content sits alongside the streaming content from Sky and its partners is really smartly done.

But the absence of two of the biggest streaming services from the device is likely to really harm its chances of becoming the only smart device you need to connect to your TV.

You might question whether a dedicated streaming and Freeview box is necessary in this age of Smart TVs, especially with their respective operating systems getting better and better with each passing year.

But at just £40 the Now TV Smart Box looks like it could be the most affordable and polished way of bringing your 'dumb' TV into the streaming era.