You’re in the market for a new high end TV that has everything you ever wanted and then some, plus some more additional features, but which model do you choose? With so many makes out there, how can you find the best one available today? We are going to let you in on a little secret — meet the 60" Sharp 1080p LED Smart TV that is about to dramatically change your viewing experience. From its uber sleek and slim design with diamond cut edges, crystal clear picture, active 3D, AquoMotion (which eliminates blur in fast motion scenes) and Super Bright technologies, this powerful television offers visual thrills like no other. And we haven’t even gotten to the thunderous audio system that features a built-in subwoofer.
“The 8-series is our top of the line series this year,” said Anthony Favia, Sr., product manager for Sharp USA. “Our goal is for the viewing experience to be as natural and realistic as possible with our picture clarity. We strive from the get-go to have the picture quality with as accurate colors as possible. This TV is fully featured with the most elegant design, so it’s stunning in appearance. The Quattron Color Technology adds a lot of color, especially in the yellow and golds that other TVs cannot produce. We have a 12 million to one dynamic contrast ratio, so our blacks are deep and vivid, while our whites are very bright. That’s a tremendous advantage for us.”
The matte screen finish is non-reflective, so you can easily see the images clearly regardless of the room’s brightness. “Our Super Bright technology is only available with the 8-series TVs,” he said. “You can really appreciate it in a bright room. It boosts the brightness of a self-lighted item like fireworks, while the background remains a deep black. It keeps the brightness of the objects with incredible contrast. We also have a strong audio package to match the video package with 35W audio that comes with a built-in subwoofer.”
If you are really into the set's inner workings, there are performance enhancing calibration tools available in the advanced user menu. “There is an out-of-the-box setting so you can just take it out of the box and turn it on, but if you want to get into adjusting luminance and precise greyscale calibration, you can do that too,” Favia added. “The overall performance of the TV is very fast.”
What has set Sharp apart in the TV market? “We have the unique ability to drive the market in the large screen (60 inches or larger) area to be able to produce very efficiently and we will continue to focus on that in the future,” he noted. “We do well in terms of average selling prices, as our competitors sell TVs in the 30 and 40-inch range, we are lucky to participate with 70, 80, and even 90-inch models, so we're driving business upwards.”
We have all experienced 3D before, but there is nothing quite like Sharp’s full HD active and Quattron technologies, which (due to its lifelike clarity) actually takes a little bit of getting used to. When in full HD active 3D mode, this TV gave us little to no reason to ever have to buy tickets to a baseball, hockey, football or other sports game. The powerful and realistic clarity left us feeling like we were literally sitting on the sidelines, reaching for that fly ball or enjoying the crisp view from crystal clear clubhouse seats. “The reaction has been mixed on 3D technology in general because of the need to put glasses on,” he said. “I think that is why there has been a lag in the demand for 3D content. However, 3D continues to be a feature requested on top-of-the-line TVs. There is a lot of excitement in that area, so we are going to continue to employ 3D as a feature on these high-end TVs.”
One of our favorite features of this Smart TV is its Dual-Core processor and built-in Wi-Fi that allows you to quickly access apps streaming movies, music, games, and websites. This unique feature allows you to watch TV and check a website at the same time, which comes in handy if you are watching sports and want to look up stats or if you are watching a cooking show and want to look up a recipe.
When the $2,299 TV is turned off, the Wallpaper Mode lets you display any photo of your choosing on the LED screen. It truly looks like a painting hanging on the wall instead of a blank black TV screen. This feature was intended to mimic the exact brightness of a picture hanging on a wall, making it the centerpiece of a room, and it has done just that.
