Review: Sharp LE320
Sharp LE320 review
Sharp has released a new LE320 range of inexpensive LCD-TVs with Edge LED backlight. This means that you get a very slim TV like the other Edge LED models. LE320 will be available in 32, 26 and 22 inches initially and a 37 and 42 inch model later this year. The LE320 range also has a 100/120 Hz circuit.
FlatpanelsHD will review the 32-inch model to find out if it can serve as a smaller TV for living rooms, bedrooms or holiday homes. The review also applies to the larger versions that has the same panels.
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Panel size: 32" Resolution: 1920x1080 Response time: 6 ms(g2g) Contrast ratio: 3.000:1 Brightness: 400 cd/m2 Colour support: 16,7 million colours Signal processing: 8 bit for each colour Viewing angles (H/V): 178/178 Dot pitch: - Panel type: LCD Wall mounting: Swivel stand: Dimensions (HxWxD): 53.5cm x 78.6cm x 4.4cm (without stand) Weight 10.1 kg Built-in speakers: Input formats: 480p/i, 576p/i, 720p, 1080i & 1080p (50, 60 & 24p) 1:1 pixel mapping: Inputs • VGA • DVI (can be converted through HDMI)
• Audio (type) (Audio in/out)
• SCART • S-video • Composite • Component • HDMI • Other Outputs • Audio (type) • SCART • S/PDIF Tuners • Analogue • DVB-T • DVB-T (MPEG4) • DVB-C • DVB-C (MPEG4) • DVB-S • DVB-S (MPEG4)
Price and retailer:
| US retailer | UK retailer |
  |   |
Our first impressions
Sharp LE320 has a glossy black front with speakers at the bottom. In the middle of the frame there's a small logo that is lit by a blue LED.
Sharp LE320
The stand is rectangular and has no swivel function.
Sharp LE320 review
Sharp LE320 is very slim because of the Edge LED backlight. This is not often the case with the cheaper series and we're welcoming this trend.
Sharp LE320
All inputs are located on the back of the TV and pointing towards the back wall. This is a shame if you want to wall mount the TV close to the back wall. You can connect an HDMI source on the side, though, which solves part of the problem.
Test tools
Our TV signal is DVB-S (satellite) from Canal Digital and DVB-T (terrestrial). We also have an analogue TV connection. Testing is done with the DVE (digital video essentials) and Peter Finzel test DVD. Testing is also done with DVD, TV, Blu-Ray and Media center/PC.We use our own monitorTest. The software supports some of the traditional test patterns used to evaluate displays as well as some new and unique test patterns developed by the people here on FlatpanelsHD.
Sony PlayStation 3 is our Blu-Ray player.
All contrast measurements are based on the ANSI methodology.
Functionality
The remote control is not nearly as attractive as the one that came with LE820 that we recently tested. It looks more like the older Sharp remotes.
Sharp LE320 review
It has a matte finish and not very large buttons. It also feels a bit cheap and too lightweight.
Sharp LE320 has a USB port on the side that eats music, pictures and video. You can access the USB mode from the source menu.
Sharp LE320 review
The interface is not graphically beautiful but it works. In the music mode mp3 files are handled without problems and you can select shuffle and repeat functions. LE320 also has an audio only mode that lets you turn of the LCD panel while playing music.
Music not stopped if you change to the picture mode and this is great for slideshows. Pictures load fast, even large MP pictures.
The video mode is good, too. LE320 has support for a lot of video formats such as mpeg2, mpeg4, DivX and avi. My MKX clips wouldn't play, however.
In the menus LE320 has these picture setting options: brightness, contrast, color, tint, sharpness, color temperature, and Eco mode. In the advanced menu we found noise reduction, flesh tone, backlight, DCR, 100/120 Hz and a setting option called"Effect" that is connected to the 100/120 Hz option. LE320 has no RGB settings.
You can also choose from these picture modes: Standard, Vivid, Movie, Eco, and Personal.
Energy consumption
I have measured energy consumption on the 32-inch Sharp LE320.| Out-of-Box | After calibration | |
| Standby | 0.2 W | 0.2 W |
| SD | 77.5 W | 51 W |
| HD | 77.5 W | 51 W |
After calibration I measured power consumption to 51 W. Although this is low for a 32 inch model Sharp's 40-inch LE705 model still had a similar power consumption level.
Also, please note that the flat panel TVs uses less power after calibration. This is common on flat panel displays because many picture parameters are reduced during calibration.
Calibration on Sharp LE320
Below I have measured the out-of-box picture quality on Sharp 32LE320. The Eco mode is deactivated.
The graph says this:
The number on the left is the delta value. Delta is a difference between two factors; here it’s the difference between the measured color on the panel and the actual color that is our target.
Out-of-box picture quality is not very accurate. Sharp has too saturated colors and a too high color temperature giving the picture a bluish tint. Also, notice that the gamut is not 100 % exact.
Gamma is too low and rises from about 1.9 in the bright shades to 2.5 in the dark shades. This means that bright shades are brighter than they should be and dark shades are darker.
The brightness level is also too high and we want a lower brightness level for all-round usage.
I tried to switch to the Movie picture preset and changed some picture settings in the menu. Here's my result.
Sharp LE320 is limited when it comes to picture settings. There's no RGB settings so I can't correct the color deviations that much but I managed to get improve the picture accuracy. I also lowered the backlight setting in the menu to get a more decent brightness level - especially if you're planning on using this TV in a bedroom.
Gamma is still not perfect. Bright shades are too bright and dark shades are too dark. This also creates inaccurate colors and a bit of unbalance to the picture, and we never got a perfect result from LE320 in terms of accuracy in colors.
Below are my calibrated settings.
| After calibration | |
| Profile: | Movie |
| Backlight | 35 |
| Contrast | 48 |
| Brightness | 43 |
| Sharpness | 5 |
| Colour | 50 |
| Color temperature | Warm |
| Tint | 0 |
| Noise reduction | Off |
| Flesh tone | Off |
| DCR | Off |
As I said before Sharp LE320 has no RGB settings making it hard to get a good result. Compared to the standard settings you should also reduce the setting called backlight. Make sure to disable the dynamic circuits, too.
Picture quality on Sharp LE320
This section covers the picture quality on Sharp LE320.Sharp LE320 has a matte panel without any serious reflections. You can see a picture below taken in a living room environment.
Sharp LE320 review
Color gradation is above average when compared to typical 32-inch models. In our gradient tests we saw some bands in the darker colors. The semi-bright and bright colors are reproduced well.
Sharp LE320 review
The SD picture quality is fair for average users but not fantastic. The picture is a bit soft and has less details than for example Sharps more expensive LE820 model but this is also what you should expect from a TV in this price range and compared to the competition in this price segment LE320 is performing well.
Sharp LE320 review
HD picture quality is naturally better than the SD picture quality but LE320 lacks details in HD pictures. A bit better than most inexpensive TVs, however.
Response time on Sharp LE320 is better than I had expected. Cheaper TV rarely performs very well in our response time tests but Sharp LE320 has no serious issues with trailing or blurring.
Sharp LE320 review
I did experience a bit Overdrive trailing. Overdrive trailing is a white halo around moving objects that can occur if the Overdrive circuit is not 100 % accurate. Although I did see this in practice a few times it was not a critical problem. You can compare Overdrive trailing to the phosphor trailing on plasma TVs. To put it into perspective LE320 has less overdrive trailing than most plasma TVs have phosphor trailing.
Sharp LE320 review
The 100/120 Hz system on Sharp LE320 is set to high by default. This setting has too many artifacts and you should use the 100/120 Hz system on either low or the medium setting. The 100/120 Hz system does contribute to a smoother picture and the effect is quite subtle like we have seen on other Sharp TVs but the High setting is too aggressive. In my opinion Sony and Sharp are the best in terms of frame interpolation systems (100/120/200/240 Hz systems.)
It's often a matter of taste whether you like these systems but I prefer to turn it off for most HD content. This can be done in the menu. Also, the 100/120 Hz circuit introduces a fairly high amount of input lag. And even with the 100/120 Hz system deactivated Sharp LC32LE320 is not one of the fastest TVs in terms of input lag.
Sharp LE320 review
Below I have measured black level and contrast.
| Out-of-Box | After calibration | |
| Black level | 0.27 cd/m2 | 0.09 cd/m2 |
| Brightness | 402 cd/m2 | 126 cd/m2 |
| Contrast ratio | 1489:1 | 1400:1 |
Contrast ratio +/- 50
After calibration I measured a black level of 0.09 cd/m2 which is a decent value. This ensures a relatively deep black level compared to the majority of 32-inch TVs today that typically have far worse black levels, either because the models are based on cheap panels or because the use the TN panel technology (mostly true for 22-26 inch models).
Sharp LE320 review
Shadow detailing is fair. Because of the wrong gamma LE320 cannot distinguish all grey tones and the darkest grey tones are reproduced as a black color. This can lead to some undetailed dark scenes in movies but the problem is not critical. LE320 cuts the 3-5 darkest grey tones.
Sharp LE320 review
Finally, I examined LE320 for clouding / backlight bleeding issues. You can see LE320 in a completely dark room on the picture below.
Sharp LE320 review
LE320 has some very minor clouding in some of the corners. Nothing critical.
PC and Media Center
I had no trouble outputting a 1:1 pixel mapping signal to LE320. Just output a 1920x1080 through DVI->HDMI or D-SUB (VGA) and LE320 handles this correctly.Viewing angles
The viewing angles are far superior to most of the cheaper TV models. Small-size TV models today often use a TN panel because it's cheaper. The TN panels have horrible viewing angles but this is not the case with LE320 that uses Sharp's own AVS panel technology.The viewing angles are by no means perfect and from to top the picture gets a bit milky. Colors also change from angles and contrast is reduced.
Sharp LE320 review
Sharp LE320 review
Sound quality
The speakers are not exceptional. We didn't expect much from the very slim frame and bass and punch is lacking. The sound is a bit fluffy and dead at times.The built-in speakers are still better than in most small-size TVs, however, and adequate for some light viewing. But I recommend a separate sound solution for movies and games.
Conclusion
Manufacturers don't put a lot of effort into the 32-inch segment any more. Most living room TVs today are larger than 32 inches and therefore 32-inch models are primarily reserved for bedrooms and smaller rooms. LE320 is one of these TVs. It has a slim frame because of the Edge LED backlight and low energy consumption.Sharp LE320 has a HDMI input on the side but most other inputs are located on the back. The USB input on the other hand also allows you to playback DivX video files (and avi, mpeg2, mpeg4 and some other) which is positive, and this means that you can – to some extend – do without a separate DVD player in the bedroom.
The picture quality has some pros and cons. LE320 has a fair black level, fast response time, and no serious clouding. On the other hand colors are not very accurate because of the wrong gamma. SD picture quality is fair and HD is better but the HD picture quality is undetailed compared to more expensive models. The horizontal viewing angles are wide but the vertical can affect picture quality so if you're planning on wall mounting this TV in the bedroom don't place it too high.
Compared to the competition in this price segment LE320 is performing quite well and the slim frame makes it look elegant in the room. All in all Sharp LE320 is a decent TV in a 32 inch segment that manufacturers have abandoned the last few years but it's no miracle either. It has no critical issues but the color accuracy could have been better.
Price and retailer:
| US retailer | UK retailer |
| |
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| Pros | Cons | Target group |
| Response time | Lacks details in picture | Bedrooms |
| Fair black level | Inputs pointing towards the back wall | Small rooms |
| USB DivX support | Color accuracy | Holiday home |
| Very slim |
