Sharp Aquos Quattron LC-LE830U

Hi, I'm David Katzmaier and, oh, my, this is a Sharp Quattron LED-based LCD TV. This is the LC-LE830U. It's Sharp's midrange model, it's a step below their 3D TVs so this is a 2D-only television, but the real claim to fame here is the extra yellow pixel. Sharp puts a fourth subpixel into these TVs which means that in addition to the red, green, and blue subpixels that make up color, there's also a fourth yellow one. Sharp says that does improve color fidelity. We'll get to that in a little bit but first let's check out the styling on this television. It's an LED-based LCD which means it's really thin. Around the edge of the picture, it's also got a really thin bezel so, all told, it's a very compact model. It's also got a nifty swivel stand but in general, we found it looks a little bit generic. It's pretty much just glossy black with a couple of rounded corners. Sharp includes a full suite of internet activities on this television. There's the Aquos Net which is their name for widgets which includes things like weather, sports, and news. There's also your standard suite of the streaming video services including Netflix and VUDU video. There's also a whole VUDU apps suite which makes three total interfaces--yes, we counted them--for all the extra stuff you can get including Wikipedia. There's a second Twitter app on there and a bunch of other VUDU apps, so, all told, there's plenty of content on this TV, it's just not as well organized as we'd like to see. We did appreciate the remote control's additional three extra programmable favorites buttons which allow you to tap directly into Netflix or VUDU or whatever streaming app you want to. The TV also has a built-in Wi-Fi which makes all of that internet content a lot easier to get so we really did appreciate having a Wi-Fi built in without having to buy an extra dongle. Around back on this TV, you'll find four HDMI inputs, two USB inputs, as well as a component video input and a PC input so plenty of connectivity for all your home theater gear. Sharp also adds a full suite of picture adjustments including color temperature at 2 points but also a superb color management system that allowed us to adjust away the inaccuracies of that extra yellow pixel. When we took the Quattron in the lab, we were impressed by its color accuracy, at least in the bright areas. Once we got our calibration done, we really didn't have any detriment or any bonus with those yellow pixels so, in general, it does look as accurate as a lot of the other TVs on the market. In the darker areas, however, it was tinged relatively blue so we weren't huge fans of that. The TV also has relatively light black levels as well as uneven uniformity so, all told, it's one of the more mediocre performers among LED-based LCD TVs this year. That's a quick look at the Sharp LC-LE830U series and I'm David Katzmaier.