Sharp LC40L650X LCD TV

Sharp LC40L650X review: This Sharp TV is cheap, small and has good USB media playback

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Sharp's newest mid-range LCD TV is the LC40L650X, a 40in screen with traditional CCFL backlighting. We think it's slightly too expensive at its recommended retail price for the features you get, but you might be able to find it on sale. It's an LCD television with good picture quality and a useful USB media playback mode, but we don't like the slightly long delay when changing channels.

Pros

  • Reasonably low price tag for a 40in screen, good picture quality, simple and powerful USB media playback

Cons

  • Slow input changing speed, basic interface

Bottom Line

Sharp's LC40L650X LCD TV misses out on the advanced features found in more expensive televisions but for watching Blu-ray, DVD and broadcast television it does an acceptable job. Its USB input plays back a range of files, and it has good picture quality for a budget television.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 1,199.00 (AUD)

If you're picking out a new television and want to work out what's best for you, read through our LCD vs LED vs plasma TV buying guide.

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Have a look at what we thought were the best TVs of 2010.

Sharp LC40L650X LCD TV: Design, connectivity and included features

The Sharp LC40L650X has a black bezel that's slightly over an inch thick surrounding the Full HD 1080p screen. There's nothing that makes it stand out from the crowd of other piano-black TVs, but it's not ugly. Three HDMI ports and a range of analog connectors make for a reasonable connectivity setup, including a USB 2.0 port that can play back photos, music and video. It's one of the better USB playback implementations we've seen — the interface is simple and fast, and we had no problems playing a range of file types including high definition content.

We don't especially like the form factor of the Sharp LC40L650X's remote control. It's smaller than previous Sharp remote controls — we liked the simple remote of Sharp's 2008 and 2009 TVs like the Sharp LC37D53X — and has a more crowded face with smaller buttons. It's still easy to use once you learn where all the buttons are, though.

It takes around five seconds to switch between inputs, with a wait that's noticeable and annoying. Channel changing is slightly slow at around two seconds, but this is bearable.

Sharp LC40L650X LCD TV: Picture quality

The Sharp LC40L650X has picture quality that's on par with similarly priced LCD TVs from Sony, such as the Sony KDL-55EX710. Its Full HD 1080p panel does lose a bit of detail in especially dark or bright areas of the screen — our test footage of the opening sequence of The Dark Knight had the television struggling to display bright whites alongside deep blacks — but for general TV, DVD and Blu-ray watching it's got sufficient contrast to correctly display images. The Movie preset offers the best picture quality, with good saturation and colour accuracy, but is a little darker than the default Dynamic mode.

The 100Hz motion control mode of the Sharp LC40L650X works as well as any other we've seen on a budget television. It smooths fast panning shots without seeming unrealistically fluid, and Blu-ray 24p content is correctly displayed with no jumpiness. There's no option to tweak it — you can enable or disable it, but that's all — but it does a good job.

Sharp LC40L650X LCD TV: Conclusion

The Sharp LC40L650X is a generally competent budget LCD television. Its interface is basic and the wait when changing inputs is extensive, but otherwise it's able to display good quality images and play back a range of media files via USB.

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Read more on these topics: lcd tvs, home entertainment, LCD tv

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