PLASMA HDTV REVIEW

Sharp brings LED tech to its affordable TV range.

There’s something exciting happening in the world of TVs. And it’s not really what some analysts expected or predicted…Some were guilty of being so giddy with excitement over the prospect of OLED TVs that they didn’t expect LED backlighting to emerge as the saviour of flatpanel technology. But it has. In spades. LED backlighting has, in the past year or so, improved the performance of LCD TVs so dramatically that you’ve got to wonder if there’s even going to be a need for largescreen OLED panels at all. An LED-illuminated screen can offer a super-thin footprint, deep, involving black levels and a blisteringly vibrant colourfield – all of the promises attached to OLED technology – but, and this is the crunch, you can have them now. In traditional sizes.

In addition, with LED technology, the major manufacturers needn’t spend billions creating new production lines from scratch, and can focus instead on adapting current ones. As a result, costs are minimised and prices remain reasonable. Everyone’s a winner. Except plasma manufacturers, perhaps…

Ready for market

The LC52LE700E is Sharp’s first affordable mass-market LED TV and very own prospective OLED-killer. While the company has dabbled with LED-backlighting before, with its super high-end XS1E range of screens, they cost two arms, a leg and half a lower intestine, so it’s welcome to see the brand finally bringing its own form of the technology to the wider marketplace. The cost reduction can partly be explained by the fact that the screen
features a backlight consisting of so-called UltraBrilliant white LEDs, rather than the RGB array used in the XS1E. These new LEDs, proprietary to Sharp, feature a unique ‘double-dome’ light amplifier lens for extreme high brightness and rmulti-fluorescents for improved colour fidelity. And by adopting a full array of LEDs distributed evenly behind a diffuser, the backlight has best-in-class uniformity.

Rival manufacturers, such as Sony and Samsung, have latterly adopted side-firing LED systems, allowing for even thinner screens, but risking issues with brightness uniformity.
Interestingly, the Sharp doesn’t employ any local dimming. Another cost-cutting measure? Local dimming requires the LED bulbs to be individually driven depending on screen content. When areas of the screen are dark, the bulbs in that zone switch off (or dim).

When brightness is called for, they shine brighter. It’s a system that allows for both deep, bold blacks and bright, brash whites on the same image.
While this particular screen does have a full set of white LED bulbs behind the LCD panel, it doesn’t switch off in zones. However, Sharp argues that its UltraBrilliant LED System has other plus points – it’s capable of high brightness, and offers environmental benefits including longer life expectancy and lower power consumption.

The screen also debuts the brand’s latest Full HD glass. Dubbed the X-Gen LCD Panel, it utilises a new pixel design that permits more light to pass through even while minimising light leakage.
Aesthetically, there are some ramifications of adopting a Full Array

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