Sharp Aquos LC46XL2E review: Sharp Aquos LC46XL2E

Just when we thought we knew what the average Sharp TV looked like, the company surprised us by announcing that it was launching a new range. We were pleased to see there had been a number of excellent design tweaks and the result is a very cool looking screen.

7.5

Sharp Aquos LC46XL2E

The Good

Design; remote; menus; sound quality; ease of use; Freeview quality.

The Bad

HD picture is a little soft; colour is hard to set up properly; some motion judder; expensive.

The Bottom Line

The Sharp Aquos LC46XL2E is an attractive TV with good range of features. Unfortunately, HD picture quality isn't perfect and we think it's a little too expensive compared to other screens in its category

But even the best design can't help a TV that can't produce good picture quality. So can the £1,300 Sharp Aquos LC46XL2E step up and deliver?

Design
First up, we have to give some credit to Sharp. Until now, we haven't been that thrilled with its designs. Sure, they've been functional, but not much more than that. The 46XL2E is a different kettle of fish altogether -- finished in black, with a glass bezel around the outside of the screen, it has a modern and funky look.

The good design continues to the remote, which is a truly vast improvement over the old model. We always criticised the unnecessarily ugly controllers that came with Sharp's screens. They were fat at one end and thin at the other. This update has turned the remote into a long thin affair, which has seamless, semi-recessed buttons. There is even a backlight, which allows you to see some of the controls -- although annoyingly, not all of them.

Sharp has also decided to cover some of the inputs, including two of the three HDMI sockets -- the remaining one is on the side panel, which is amusingly not a million miles away from the back panel. The two Scart inputs and component video in are in a different place, at the back to the bottom of the TV.

Additional credit to Sharp as while it used to only provide a VGA input on its TVs -- supplying a converter cable to allow the connection of HD devices via component -- this has changed now. The 46XL2E has both VGA and component.

Features
TVs seem to have turned some sort of corner when it comes to the usability of their menu systems. We really like the system built into the 46XL2E. It's clear and easy to use, even though we still think the whole thing could be made more responsive. Overall, the settings are clear and easy to access.

One of the other things we really liked was the electronic programme guide. Sharp has managed to cram a lot of programme information onto each screen. You can see a handy grid that shows what's on 15 channels for up to six hours simultaneously. This is incredibly handy for planning an evening in front of the TV.

The Sharp also features the popular 100Hz picture mode, which is becoming relatively standard on all TVs -- mainly because it's reasonably trivial to implement. We're always pleased to see it and it can improve movies on HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Performance
We liked the sound on the Sharp. We didn't struggle to hear dialogue and we didn't have to crank the TV up to maximum to get more noise out of it.

Freeview performance was actually good. We had to spend some time adjusting the picture settings -- reducing the backlight and such -- but we're pretty used to this now, although we'd prefer manufacturers set up their TVs for home use, rather than for looking good in shops.

Although we had our player set to 24p, we weren't convinced about the TV's ability to handle motion. There were times when moving shots looked blurred and lacked the fluidity that we're becoming used to on modern TVs. Setting the HD DVD player to output regular 1080p seemed to improve the situation slightly, and HD output looked good.

Upscaled DVD fared well too, with our Mission: Impossible test disc showing impressive enough quality. Of course, 46-inches does show up a lack of detail in standard definition, but that's to be expected.

We also had to adjust the sharpness to get the detail to where we wanted it to be.While we were content with the picture, we don't like the sharpness controls on TVs as a rule because they tend to introduce halo effects around the edge of the picture. The TV did do a good job de-interlacing TV material though, something we've criticised Sharp TVs for in the past.

Setting up the TV to look good with all kinds of material took time and patience, but we did manage to get some colour settings we were happy with.

Conclusion
If value is a driving force in your purchasing decisions, you might like to consider that at the time of writing, Sharp is giving away either a free home install or floor standing mount, both of which it values at £200. More interestingly, you can also get the Sharp Blu-ray player for £200 off the retail price, making it £200. If you don't have a high definition player, this could be an excellent package for you to consider.

Still, the Sharp doesn't perform as well as we would have liked on HD material, although it is curiously competent with Freeview material. Its slick design and ease of use might well make it a good choice for someone who doesn't have any real interest in HD.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday