Buffalo Gear: Sharp 60-inch Aquos TV

Recently, we had the chance to spend a little time with one of Sharp’s newest LED TVs, the 60-inch LE857, and were impressed with its performance. Check out the video above for a brief overview of what this 3D TV has to offer.

I’ve always had a great love of TV shopping — get me into any big box retailer, and I’ll immediately start gravitating towards the biggest screens available — and the 60-inch Sharp LE857 is one of the brightest, boldest televisions I’ve had the pleasure of testing. As mentioned in the video, I’ve been historically wary of 3D TVs: one, because I generally dislike a second pair of glasses sitting on my face while trying to relax; and two, because 3D televisions tend to have much darker displays than their non-3D counterparts. Fortunately, Sharp’s Quattron 3D technology adds yellow pixels to the traditional RGB mix, which brightened up the display considerably compared to other models/manufacturers I’ve seen recently. Watching 3D movies was much less of a chore with the LE857, but you’re still tethered to the 3D glasses included in the box.

Sharp’s Quattron technology also carries over to regular high-definition viewing, as they’ve added yellow pixels to that palette as well. It’s true the picture looked very bold and bright; however, in full disclosure, we didn’t have another TV set up right next to it for instant comparisons, so the difference in picture quality wasn’t immediately apparent, aside from brightness.

There are also quite a few connected services and features available via its SmartCentral hub, which offers games, social media, music, movie, TV, lifestyle, and other apps directly from the set. Unfortunately, if you’re already in possession of an Apple TV, a Chromecast, a Roku, or the like, you’ll find many of these services redundant, and may end up not using them at all if you prefer your external peripheral to Sharp’s UX.

If you’re still on board with the E857, the price may be a little bit steep: with an MSRP of $2299 (you can find it for under $2,000 with a cursory Google search), we’re not sure it’s worth the investment right now, mostly because affordable UHD TVs are (hopefully) on the horizon. As we said in the video, if it’s been a long time since you’ve upgraded, this is a fantastic set to consider… but if you already have an 1080p LED TV, you may want to wait until 4K sets start hitting more consumer-friendly prices.