Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 Review

Design

• Heavy, weatherproof casing
• Requires wall mounting
• Screw-in panel hides cables

The Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 is available in a range of sizes. I’ve got the 55-inch version on review (OT55A2KOGF), but there’s also 43-inch (OT43A2KOGF), 65-inch (OT65A2KOGF) and 75-inch (OT75A2KOGF) options.

As I found with the previous outdoor TV that I reviewed, the ‘Partial Sun’ Sylvox Deck Pro Outdoor TV, the Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 is a beast of a TV. Whereas most 4K TVs are super-thin with barely a visible bezel, this TV needs to be able to withstand whatever the weather throws at it, from bright sun to freezing weather and rain.

Full weatherproofing (IP55 and resistant to temperatures between -30°C to 50°C) requires a strong metal chassis that encloses the TV, but it means that the 55-inch version that I reviewed is very heavy: 21.8kg. You may well need two people to help get it out of the box.

There’s no stand provided, so you have to use some kind of mount, whether that’s a wall-mount, ceiling mount or moveable stand. With a wall mount, be careful of anything on an arm, as extending it with the TV on the end can put a lot of pressure on it.

Luckily for me, I’ve got a bar that I built out of pallets (a lockdown project), which is sturdy enough to take the TV on a fixed mount.

Before mounting, it’s important to plug in anything that you need, and the power cable. For weatherproofing, there’s a panel at the back, which is screwed into place by a lot of little screws that require a screwdriver; the Deck Pro I reviewed used thumbscrews that were easier to remove, but I presume the change here is because the panel has a better fit.

Once the panel is removed, there’s a standard kettle plug for the power cable. This has a wire frame that holds it in place, which is handy: you wouldn’t want changing temperatures or someone tugging on the cable to disconnect the power cable, as it’s an effort to reconnect.

There are then the inputs: three HDMI 2.1 (one with eARC), co-axial and satellite inputs for the tuner, dual USB ports, optical out and an Ethernet port (although Wi-Fi is available).

While the TV runs Google TV, so has all of the major streaming apps, you might need a streaming stick for some services, such as BBC iPlayer. I installed a Fire TV Stick 4K Max, powering it via a USB port.

If you want to connect external devices later, I recommend connecting an HDMI cable, but wrapping the exposed end in a plastic bag and using a cable tie to waterproof it, so it’s ready for use. With the panel sealed back on, I could mount the TV, and power it on ready for setup.

Sylvox provides a Bluetooth remote control in the box, which contains a microphone for using Google Assistant. With this tV, the remote has rubberised buttons, as the remote is waterproof.

All of the buttons are responsive with a positive click, and the waterproof design does make sense: with an outdoor TV, it’s very easy to accidentally leave the remote outside. Overall, this remote does everything, but it’s odd that there’s no mute button.

Basic controls are on the side of the TV. They’re well labelled and easy to reach, so it’s easy to quickly turn the TV off or adjust volume without having to reach for the remote control.

Fan vents are on the side and there’s a low hum from the ventilation fans while the TV is running; inside, they’d be annoying, but outside the fans are hard to hear from normal viewing distances and drowned out by anything that you might watch.

Features

• Google TV
• 4K Resolution
• HDR 10

The Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 runs Google TV, rather than Android TV 11, which the older TV used. There’s not much difference in the user interface, but Google TV is better as it can be configured using an Apple or Android smartphone, automatically sending your Google account details and Wi-Fi password to the TV.

All-in, it took me only about 15 minutes to have the TV connected, updated, and apps downloaded.

App support from Google TV is generally better than with Android TV, but there are some obvious ones missing. The main streaming services are all supported, with Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount+ and Disney+ all accounted for.

UK streaming apps aren’t as well supported: NOW was available, as was My5, but there’s no ITVX or BBC iPlayer, as the TV is not officially supported. That Fire TV Stick I added solves this issue.

Live TV is available if you can get a satellite connection or aerial coax cable into the back of the TV.

Sylvox has used a fairly standard 4K panel in this TV, which runs at 60Hz and only supports HDR10, with no support for advanced HDR formats, such as Dolby Vision.

Picture Quality

• Super-bright image during the day
• Bright HDR imagery
• Best to turn brightness down at night

Working outside, the key thing required is brightness, so the Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 has a 2000 nit panel, that’s twice as bright as the Deck Pro, and a lot brighter than a typical TV set that will have between a 300 and 450 nit backlight for standard footage; peak HDR brightness can be higher but for short periods.

HDR10 is supported, but there are no advanced formats, such as Dolby Vision. That means you don’t get the best possible input source, as Dolby Vision has dynamic HDR metadata that adapts to the scene; HDR10 uses flat metadata for the whole runtime, so the overall detail is a little lower.

There’s a set of pre-configured picture modes named after the kind of content that you might want to watch, such as Vivid, Sport and Movie; when watching HDR content, there’s a slightly different choice of profiles.

Selecting a profile is slightly fiddly, as a dialogue box pops up warning you that changing the profile may change power consumption. It’s a dark grey dialogue box, with the OK and Cancel buttons shaded in lighter grey, and the option selected very slightly lighter again. It took me a good, hard stare to determine whether OK or Cancel was selected.

Only the Personal profile gives you more control over the image, but to change the more advanced settings I had to select a different viewing profile, and then select Personal to bring up the menu which has Sharpness, Brightness, Color Saturation, Hue, Contrast and Gamma controls.

I needed to tweak brightness, contrast and the color saturation and hue controls to bring out the best in the picture.

There are a few more image settings. Wide Colour Gamut (WCG) is worth setting to Auto (the default) or on to get the full colour range. It makes a big difference in HDR content, bringing out more detail throughout the picture.

There’s an Advanced Settings screen that let me toggle Dynamic Contrast on and off (I’d leave it on), plus a control that turns on a low-latency mode for gaming, although this is only available through certain profiles.

Overall, the TV’s high brightness means that it can overcome any ambient lighting condition to show a clear image, even when the sun is shining directly on the screen. It’s still better to avoid as much direct sunlight as you can, particularly with the sun reflecting off the highly-reflective screen; but, in the middle of the day, the Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 is still watchable, which is hugely impressive.

That does make positioning it much easier than with the Deck Pro, where I had to be careful where to mount it, as the TV is only viewable in shade.

What you watch does make a difference as to how much you can see during the day. Bright vibrant content, such as football or tennis, are clear and easy to see, as are brighter parts of films, such as the Human Torch scene in Deadpool vs Wolverine.

Put on something darker, such as the running wheel scene in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and shadow detail is harder to see, although the picture is still clearly visible. That’s typical of any TV or projector, and very dark scenes are best viewed when it’s darker.

Things get better with the TV in the shade, although in full daylight, dark and moody content is always going to lose some of its subtlety, and this kind of content is best saved until night.

At night, the TV is easier to see and the screen not so reflective. Into the night air, that high brightness is, well, really, really bright: clearly much brighter than a regular TV. In fact, you may want to dial the brightness down a little.

At night, the slightly uneven backlighting (brighter to the sides and bottom of the screen) can become more pronounced, particularly when the screen goes black. It’s not that noticeable when watching most things, and dialling the screen brightness down does reduces the effect.

At night, the funeral scene in Kingdom of the Planet jumps to life: plenty of shadow detail, and the very high brightness makes the flames almost difficult to look at, as they’re so bright.

Look carefully at some scenes, such as the running wheel part of Guardian’s of the Galaxy, and there’s plenty of detail into the shadows, while the brighter parts of the image pop. However, on full brightness, there are a few vertical lines that run down the screen. Dial the brightness back at night, and these lines go away, and it’s a far smoother picture.

Bright content really pops on this TV at night, such as the opening forest scene in Apes. With its super brightness, this forest really comes to life.

Sound Quality

• Loud, even in an open garden
• Virtual surround not that engaging
• Metal box does ‘enclose’ the audio a little

There are a few basic sound profiles to choose from: Standard, Cinema, Music, News and Personal. As with the image settings, the Personal option gives you advanced options including a toggle for the volume leveller (equalises loud and quiet sounds), the intelligent equaliser and the virtual speakers.

Otherwise, there’s an option to turn Dolby Atmos on or off; with it off, there’s control over the TV’s integrated virtual surround system.

There’s also a dialogue enhancer, which might be worth a go if you’re struggling to hear what people are saying.

I quite like the Sound Only mode, which turns the screen off and is useful if you just want to play music and don’t need the image.

Sound is generally loud and clear, although the solid metal construction of the frame, and need for waterproofing, means that audio does sound a little enclosed. Sylvox does sell a waterproof soundbar that fits underneath the TV, which could be a good option if you want cleaner audio.

That said, the Sylvox Pool Pro 2.0 is a TV about balance and compromise, and designed to be used outside it simply can’t have a sound system that competes with an indoor model.

And, it’s not as though sound is bad. There’s not much in the way of virtual surround, but there’s enough depth to bass to make action films engaging, and dialogue is firm and clear.

More importantly, the TV goes loud enough to be heard clearly when outside, which is technically quite hard when there aren’t solid surfaces to bounce sound off.

Should you buy it?