Sharp's press conference is underway here at CES 2012 in Las Vegas, and the company's thinking big. Admitting that there were those who had doubts when it launched its 70in LE732 model, the company says its big-screen TVs have become a hit with consumers, which is why it's launching a new version of its 80in LED.
And it's making great play of the fact its biggest screens offer 'more than double the screen area of a 55in class [TVs]' – guess that may be aimed at those companies launching 55in OLED displays at the show.
Top of the range is the LC-80LE844U Aquos 3D LED TV (above), on sale in April and described by the company as 'the world's first 80-inch screen size class 3D LED TV'. It uses Sharp's Quattron technology, full-array LED backlighting and 240Hz refresh, and is designed to be energy efficient, costing just $22 a year (or around £14) to power.
Wi-Fi is built-in, along with Sharp's new SmartCentral platform, giving access to services such as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube.
And it's promising a 4K solution later this year, its ICC-4K LED TV being on display at the show. It uses 'Integrated Cognitive Creation Technology', no less, and intelligently upscales from HD to 4K. If that wasn't enough, the company is also showing an 8K 85in display.
Want an even bigger picture? Sharp has its XV-Z30000 3D High Definition projector, using proprietary digital image processing ICs to reduce flicker, a six-segment, five-times-speed colour wheel 1600 ANSI Lumen brightness and a 50,000:1 contrast ratio (in high contrast mode).
It comes complete with two sets of 3D glasses, and will be on sale in the States in March at $5000 (£3250).
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