Although the overall television market contracted a bit in 2010, Japanese television manufacturer Sharp Electronics remains bullish on big screen HDTV. According to their top number-crunchers, the extra large screen size category (60 inches and larger) actually grew approximately 400% in 2010. And so, Sharp has revealed their intent to focus on the largest of the large screen TVs this year, with the introduction of their 70-inch LC-70LE732U LED LCD HDTV -- the largest commercially available LED or LCD flat panel TV.
At a press event in New York City yesterday, Sharp revealed that the first of their 70-inch sets is now available, at a list price of $3799, from more retailers than ever. Warehouse, department and big box stores such as Best Buy, Sears, CostCo, BJ's, Sam's Club and many more will be proudly displaying Sharp's 70-inch monolithic set along the aisles of their electronics departments. Actually considering the size, this thing will probably form the entire aisle.
Sharp made a point of stressing that a 70-inch set actually delivers 62% more viewing area than a 55-inch TV. While this may seem odd at first glance, it's absolutely true. A 70-inch diagonal screen offers approximately 2,013 square inches of viewing area while a 55 inch set offers only about 1,241 square inches.
It's the difference between, "hey, that's a big TV," and "Whoooooooaaah!"
The event was kicked off by Sharp USA's CEO Kozo Takahashi who assured us that while their Japanese plants did suffer some damage and temporary disruption due to the earthquake and tsunami, no employee lives were lost and the LCD TV manufacturing operations were back online in fairly short order. Next up was Sharp USA's president, John Herrington who introduced us to several key new members of Sharp's sales and marketing team who each presented details of the company's new products, sales and marketing strategies.
In a welcome bit of news, the 70-inch set features a full array LED backlighting system, as opposed to the edge lighting system used by many other manufacturers even in their largest screens. Full array LED backlighting can create a more uniform lighting source, with fewer hotspots or irregularities across the screen. The LC-70LE732U offers full HD 1080p resolution as well as a 120 Hz refresh rate for reduced motion smearing and blur. The set also features Sharp's Quattron 4-color pixel technology which adds a yellow subpixel to the existing red, green and blue elements in order to increase brightness and extend the available color spectrum.
Sharp says the model will be joined by three more 70-inchers this summer. The LC-70LE733U and LC-70LE734U models will feature TruMotion 240 Hz technology, while the 70LE735U will add active 3D capability. All will include the same full array LED backlighting, Wifi and networking capabilities of the 732 model.
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