+ Smart design; vibrant image
- Too many usability and image quality concerns
Sharp makes some impressive TVs for people with lots of money, but it seems that its not trying so hard to please shoppers on a tighter budget. At 550, this 32in model is hardly a bargain but its relatively chunky design, ugly on-screen menus, lack of support for 1080p signals and just two HDMI inputs make it feel a year or two out of date.
We dont expect a native 1080p display (with 1,920x1,080 pixels) at this price, but most TVs in 2008 can accept a 1080p signal and, if necessary, downscale it to match the screens resolution. Feeding the LC-32AD5E with a 1080p signal from a Blu-ray player made the screen go blank. We had to downscale the video to 720p in the player in order to watch it. Fortunately, Blu-ray playback quality was hard to fault, with crisp details and faithful colours after a fair bit of tweaking to get rid of the lurid default colours. The TV also accepts HD video in 1080i format popular among HD video cameras. Picture quality was impressive, except for a tendency for high-contrast horizontal lines to flicker up and down. It was a rare occurrence but not a pretty one.
The Freeview tuner has room for improvement, too. High-definition TVs are much better quality than Freeview broadcasts, but many TVs manage to clean and sharpen up the picture before presenting it on the screen. If the 32AD5E is doing this, its not doing a very good job. Compression artefacts made a mess of colour gradients and areas of motion in other words, faces. The eight-day programme guide only found room for five channels at a time and was slow to navigate. We dont like the way inputs are labelled EXT1 to EXT7, giving no clue as to whats plugged into them. We also found it impossible to get a pixel-sharp desktop from a PC using a DVI-to-HDMI cable something most HD-ready TVs are capable of although we had more luck when using a VGA cable.
If the 32AD5E cost 150 less we would be a lot more forgiving of its foibles, but it doesnt so were not. At this price theres no need to settle for so many compromises.
They say: Delivers more lifelike detail and drama into the world than ever before
We say: Fails to deliver a compelling reason to buy it.
Author:Maggie Holland
Copyright 2009 Dennis Publishing All Rights Reserved.
Sharp Aquos LC-32AD5E