The Sharp Aquos LC70LE-732U is the largest television I’ve ever reviewed. As a matter of fact, it’s the largest main stream flat panel TV on the market today. Not only is it big in size, but it is big in quality too, delivering as solid picture, though there are a few flaws that will be mentioned later. And, it’s a bit on the expensive side.
Good black levesScreen sizeGood bright lighting performanceDecent uniformityPricePoor Audio OutputSizeCalibration Settings for this ReviewMotion Enhancement: 120Hz High
Quad Pixel Plus: On
Active Contrast: Off
The Sharp Aquos LC 70LE732U is big. There just aren’t two ways about it. And, while there’s something to be said about having one of the biggest small screens available when it comes to watching your favorite flick, I can’t help but believe that there will be a limited market for such a large screen. It’s going to be tough to sell such a large screen to people who can’t fit it into their living rooms.
With that being said, this television offered one of the better pictures that I’ve seen thus far from the LED based LCDs this year. The movie preset was the most accurate out of the box, offering one of the most linear grayscales. The color gamut is “Expanded” to show off the additional yellow pixel, but this creates a rather inaccurate palette of secondary colors.
Black levels: The Sharp offered a solid performance in this category, besting several of the other LCDs I’ve reviewed this year. The blacks were deep and realistic, which really sets the tone for the movie by providing some great contrast to the colors.
Shadow details were vivid and sharp, which was a fantastic surprise, even if they were a bit brighter than I would have hoped. The blacks were significantly less blue and way more accurate than many of the other LCDs I’ve seen, so kudos to Sharp for minimizing that particular issue.
Color Accuracy: Overall, the Sharp turned in a decent performance here. The colors were solid, though there were a few issues worth mentioning. Skin tones were definitely a plus, offering natural, realistic looking characters. Green and blue looked a bit washed out, though.
Uniformity: At first, I really didn’t notice any particular screen uniformity issues, but as I continued to watch it, the more noticeable a few issues became. There wasn’t any particularly bothersome lightening in the corners or edges as I would have expected. But, there were some obvious fluctuations in the vertical banding during bright motion scenes. These were minor, however, and weren’t a deal breaker for me.
Off angle viewing wasn’t terrible, but with such a large screen, it was pretty obvious to me that the sweet spot was much larger as well. Simply put, in a normal household, it would be tough to place seating far enough away from center to cause a viewing issue.
Bright lighting: The matte screen and solid light output made this particular unit very well suited to brightly lit viewing conditions. I found it tough to actually find any ambient light glare or reflections in the screen at all.
Standard-definition: Standard definition media playback was decent. DVDs were replayed well, even if the details appeared somewhat softer than I had hoped.
If there was a true drawback to this TV, it would be the quality of the audio output. That’s really not saying much, though, since most flat panel televisions struggle in this category. If you find that audio distortion and vibration is an issue for you, I would suggest that you add an external speaker system to your purchase.
When it comes to features, the Sharp really does shine.
As far as design goes, the Sharp is a sharp looking set, but Sharp was smart to leave this set relatively unremarkable in the design category and let the sheer size of the TV speak for itself. It’s mostly gloss black plastic with a rather normal sized bezel. Really not much to write home about.
The remote control is somewhat cheap looking and feeling. It’s somewhat longer and thinner than many of the competitors’ clickers, but overall unsatisfactory. I didn’t like the fact that the keys were somewhat small and tough to differentiate between under darkroom conditions, especially since Sharp didn’t add a backlight feature. But, it is nice to see that you can control up to three peripheral pieces of equipment through this remote.
You get the gambit of goodies with this one including integrated Wi-Fi, plenty of audio and video streaming apps (although Amazon and YouTube are missing) and a few nice widgets. The Vudu interface is easy to use and generally well received, but the main Aquos Net interface could use some work.
At just under $3800, the Sharp LC-70LE732U is an expensive TV. Of course, it is the largest flat panel TV on the market today, has a nice picture, and offers plenty of extras; it’s tough in this economy to justify the extra expense when there are several 65 inch models that can offer the same deal for a lot less.
Overall, I really enjoyed living large and reviewing the Sharp 70LE732U. There’s no other television on the market today that allows you to bring the big screen home to your living room. The picture was great, though the audio output left a lot to be desired. But, I think that this will be a tough sell for Sharp as too many people will find it tough to either pay the money or fit this monster into their living rooms.
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