Sylvox Cinema Helio QLED TV

Design

• Available in three screen sizes
• Simple watertight panel to protect ports
• IP55 rated and capable of direct sunlight

I’ve got the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED OQ65A3K8HG-UK (£4299) on review, which is the 65-inch version of the TV, but there are also 55-inch (OQ55A3K8HG-UK, £3199) and 75-inch (OQ75A3K8HG-UK, £5399) versions available.

That’s quite a bit more than you’d pay for an equivalent size of the Samsung The Terrace range, but there’s a good reason for this: Samsung’s TV is designed to be placed in the shade outside of direct sunlight, while the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED can go in full sunlight.

If you’ve got a covered area for the TV to go under, a cheaper option might make sense, but my garden doesn’t have a single area that’s always in shade. Having a TV that can just go anywhere and take the full power of the sun is a massive advantage, and it’s well worth paying the extra for.

As with previous Sylvox TVs that I’ve reviewed, such as the Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0, the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED is a beast of a TV. It weighs a staggering 33.02kg, and has a solid, thick metal case.

That’s required, because this TV has to live outside, so it needs to be protected from the elements. This TV is beautifully finished, with a rugged and tough feel to it that inspires confidence.

I can say from experience that Sylvox TVs are built to last. I’ve had the Pool Pro 2.0 survive through heat waves, rain storms, snow and freezing temperatures, and it just keeps working; the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED has similar build quality.

This TV is IP55 rated, which means it’s protected from dust and water jets; Samsung’s The Terrace is IP56 rated, which means it can take a higher level of water jets, but that level isn’t strictly required. With IP55, the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED can take any type of rain shower.

There’s no integrated stand for this TV (or in fact, any outdoor TV that I’ve reviewed in the past). Instead, you need to mount the TV using a bracket or, as I’ve done, using one of Sylvox’s wheel stands.

It all depends on what you want to do. I like the wheeled stand, as I mostly watch TV sat on the terrace, but when I have more people around, such as to watch the football, I like to swing the TV round to face the garden instead.

Inputs are all hidden behind a metal plate at the back of the TV. This is removed using the thumbscrews on the bottom, and the plate slides down. It’s easier to remove this plate than the screw-in one on the Pool Pro 2.0.

And, an advantage of the wheeled stand is that the plate and ports are accessible from the rear of the TV. With a wall mount, you need to take the TV down when you want to connect anything.

This is all worth thinking about before you install. With wall mounted outdoor TVs, I tend to install a Fire TV Stick and HDMI cable (with the end wrapped in a plastic bag until I need it), so that I’ve got everything I need ready.

This TV has three HDMI inputs, with one that supports eARC, DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 inputs for live TV, optical out, an Ethernet port, and two USB ports (one 3.0 and one 2.0). There’s enough space inside the cavity to squeeze in an Amazon Fire TV (or similar streaming stick), which you may want to do for wider app support.

Power is provided by a kettle lead, which is held in place by a metal clip, so it can’t accidentally get yanked out.

Sylvox provides its standard Bluetooth voice remote in the box, which has a rubberised cover, as the remote is waterproof. Despite that, the remote is responsive and easy to use, with some shortcut buttons to quickly launch apps: Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and Disney+.

Finally, there’s a dedicated power button located underneath the TV.

Features

• Runs Google TV
• Supports most apps, bar iPlayer
• Clean, simple interface

Sylvox uses Google TV, which is a decent enough choice. It can be set up automatically using your phone (Android or iPhone), so getting the TV connected to your Google account, Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) and your favourite apps installed is easy.

All of the main streaming apps are supported, with the exception of iPlayer. Whether it’s the BBC being funny with Google or the other way round, iPlayer is constantly missing from Google TV devices, and it’s a real pain for those of us that live in the UK. The only outdoor TV that I’ve seen to have iPlayer is the Samsung The Terrace.

My workaround is to install a Fire TV Stick and use it for iPlayer at a minimum, although I’ve found it’s often easier to use that device for everything.

Live TV is possible via an antenna or satellite, although who has these connections outside? I stick with streaming apps for outside, or I run a long HDMI cable to a Sky Q mini box inside if I want to watch sport with the minimum delay.

Picture Quality

• Very bright image
• Dolby Vision support
• Needs brightness dimmed at night

Previous Sylvox TVs I’ve reviewed have been more about the brightness required for outdoor viewing. While that’s clearly important, the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED takes a different approach, and has a 4K (3840 x 2160) Helio QLED panel with local dimming.

And, it supports 120Hz, which is good for gaming and means no stutter when watching 24fps footage (each frame can be shown five times).

Brightness is still very important, and the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED runs at 2000 nits, the same as The Terrace and Pool Pro 2.0. This level of brightness is needed so that the TV can display a visible image in full daylight.

This TV has several picture modes to choose from, including Standard, Dynamic, Movie, ECO, Gentle, Vivid, Sport and Game.

Plus, you get additional profiles for HDR modes, both standard HDR10 and Dolby Vision. I’m pleased to see the latter supported, as Dolby Vision is the best HDR format, with dynamic metadata giving the right settings on a per-scene basis.

I found Standard best for most situations, with the ability to tweak local dimming, brightness, contrast and colour settings.

Fully calibrating this TV isn’t that easy, because it will be subjected to a lot of different lighting conditions. That’s true of all outdoor TVs.

The only thing that I wish this TV had was an ambient light sensor. When it gets dark, the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED OQ65A3K8HG-UK’s full brightness is too much, so it’s worth dialling it down.

I found that the TV can show anything, even in full sunlight, but it does work best with brighter content. Watch the football, for example, and the image is super-clear, and very smooth. Even the ball is easy to track when watching in 4K. And, that’s in full sunlight, something that The Terrace needs to avoid.

It is possible to watch anything outside, but brighter content is best during the day, simply because anything with a lot of shadow detail can be hard to see clearly, with the screen picking up some reflections. That’s true when watching inside, too; films tend to be best watched in a darkened room if you want to get everything that’s going on.

Watch something nice and bright, such as the ‘flame on’ scene in Deadpool & Wolverine, and the daylight version does exceptionally well. Even under full daylight, the TV is bright enough to show the highlights well. Move to nighttime viewing, and the image remains good, but this time there’s more detail through the image in the dark parts of the frame.

During the day, the TV is bright enough to pick up the detail in the fire during the funeral scene in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but the sky tends to get blown out. At night, you get more shadow detail, and the sky colour is better.

With a dark and moody scene, such as in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, the daylight version does well, although parts of the screen are obscured by reflections. At night, the image looks darker and moodier, although I think a little more brightness would have worked (a good reason why the TV needs an ambient light sensor to avoid manual adjustments).

With black and white content, the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED OQ65A3K8HG-UK shows its true mettle. Watching Spider-Noir, the picture is very good during the day, with even some of the water drops visible. At night, the picture really comes to life, with local dimming doing a good job balancing out the highlights and lowlights.

Sound Quality

• Dolby Audio/Dolby Atmos
• Dual 30W speakers

The Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED OQ65A3K8HG-UK has dual 30W speakers with Dolby Audio processing. Outdoor TVs have got a tough job: they don’t have walls to bounce audio off, and their speakers have to work in a waterproof frame.

On that basis, you can’t expect class-leading audio quality, but the Sylvox 2026 Cinema Helio QLED is perfectly well suited for its job. Outside, even in a big open space, audio is clear, clean and defined, and it doesn’t sound muffled.

Dolby Atmos can be turned on, which helps with processing and giving a rich, balanced sound, but don’t expect full 3D virtual surround sound.

Overall, this TV’s audio is ideal for use outside, coping with practically any environment.

Should you buy it?