Sharp Aquos Quattron LC-60LE835U Review

Sharp Aquos Quattron LC-60LE835U Review

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Login Register HomeProduct ReviewsVideosMobileComputingGamingHome TheaterLifestyleFeaturesHow-ToGuidesPhotography •Gadgets •Buying Guides •Talk Backs •Entertainment •Movies •Auto Home » Product Reviews » TV Reviews » Sharp Aquos Quattron LC-60LE835U ReviewSharp Aquos Quattron LC-60LE835U ReviewProduct ReviewSpecificationsUser Reviews 8.5 / 10

The Sharp Quattron LE835U series is easy to recommend with its very good picture quality, enhanced 3D effects and growing number of Internet apps.

Buy it Now:$1,399.00 at Enterlowprices$2,369.00 at Buy.com$2,369.98 at Best Buy

Highs: Vivid 60-inch screen, Improved 3D effects, brightness, Built-in Wi-Fi, Better selection of apps

Lows: Expensive, Still not as black as plasma, Must pay for 3D glasses, No SD card slot

ShareTweetBy: David Elrich Date: April 18, 2011Review: The Sharp Aquos Quattron LC-60LE835U improves on last year’s 3D effects, while retaining the brightness and vivid color the company’s LED LCD TVs have been known for.

3D is old news. The current hype for high-end HDTVs is Internet access and apps galore (actually this has been a feature in TVs in some way, shape or form for over 15 years but who’s counting). Oh, and picture quality has its place too. Let’s see how this Sharp measures up on all fronts.

Features and Design

The Sharp Aquos Quattron LE835U series is the company’s latest generation edge-lit LED 3D-ready HDTV and is very attractive on its supplied silver-accented stand. Just from late last year, the company changed the ID of many of its televisions, creating a flat panel with a bezel 50% narrower. With the thin bezel it looks like a large picture window – exactly what HDTV’s pioneers envisioned back in the day. With such a thin frame, there’s not much more to discuss on the front although on the bottom right is the 3D emitter for the optional active shutter glasses required to watch 3D programming. This year Sharp, Sony and other companies decided to take the glasses out of the carton of many models in order to lower list prices. With 3D such a bust, they’ve decided if you want 3D, you’ll buy the shades at the time of sale or at a later date—if ever the amount of programming truly gets appealing. After all, how many times can you watch “Avatar”?—we’re at 15 and counting… Also along the lower edge is an icon that turns white in 2D, blue in 3D—or you can just shut it off. There are sensors for the remote and Optical Picture Control which adjusts brightness to the ambient light. Also here are touch sensors for controls you’ll never use unless your remote dies.

Flat-panel HDTVs seems to be getting lighter by the week. The new Sharp 60-inch weighs 68.3 pounds (panel only), compared to a 60-inch version of last year’s LE820 which tipped the scales at 89.3 pounds. Thickness is about the same at 1.6 inches while overall dimensions have dropped (54.5 x 33.1 x 1.67) versus 56.6 x 35.9 x 1.6. This is a mathematical way of saying the bezel of the new panel is very thin, practically not there.

On the left side is the primary jack pack with four HDMI inputs as well as USB 1 and audio out. On the rear are additional jacks including Ethernet, PC-in and RS-232. This should take care of most add-ons, but it would be nice if there was an SDHC card slot for quickly reviewing stills.

The set has fairly standard audio package of 10 watts by two with a 15 watt subwoofer. It goes without saying a quality soundbar or multichannel surround system should be part of your entertainment mix—especially if you’re buying a 60-inch television.

What’s In The Box

You get the panel, stand with connecting screws, owner’s manual (88 pages in English) and four-device remote (three buttons are programmable). As part of our usual lament, the remote is decent but a $3,000 HDTV should have a backlit one. There’s one item missing from the carton of last year’s wireless-enabled sets—the USB Wi-Fi dongle. Now Sharp has wisely built the Wi-Fi circuitry into the TV eliminating the add-on. It handles 802.11 a/b/g/n signals.

After putting the puzzle together (it’s really simple and the lighter panel certainly helped), we connected a Sharp BD-HP35 3D Blu-ray player and a Verizon FiOS cable box. Our review sample was supplied with one pair of Sharp active shutter glasses ($150) so keep that extra cost in mind if you’re heading down the 3D trail. Note: Sharp told us they will only offer active 3D HDTVs this year rather than any of the lower-quality passive sets hitting the market.

12Next » Sharp AQUOS Quattron LC-60LE925UN Review Sharp LC-46LE820UN Review Sony KDL-55NX810 Review Sharp Aquos LC-32LE700UN ReviewMerchantRatingTotal Price Enterlowprices Merchant Rating: 0 $1,399.00 Buy.com Merchant Rating: 8.7 $2,369.00 Best Buy Merchant Rating: 8.2 $2,369.98 Tags: 3D • 3D TV • LED TV • Sharp • Sharp Aquos Quattron LC-60LE835U You must be logged in to post a comment. Login | Register .

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Olympus XZ-1 Review

Review: The Olympus XZ-1 digital camera offers aspiring photographers a chance to step up to better image quality and manual controls, without all the bulk and expense of a full DSLR.


The XZ-1 is a new addition to the Olympus lineup, and packages the power of a DSLR into…well, almost point-and-shoot size. While the device might be a little much for some pockets (not all) to handle, its capability and simplicity should at the very least cause pause before your next camera purchase.
Unlike some Micro-Four-Thirds or even beginner DSLRs, there’s nothing intimidating about the make and mold of the XZ-1. That said, novices might find themselves relying on its iAuto settings before rushing into any of its manual capabilities. But once you get there, you’ll be happy you took the plunge.
Olympus also outfits the XZ-1 with a highly capably OLED display, and of course, a wide-angle lens that can step up to just about any dimly lit scenario.
Our first impression of the XZ-1 is how sleek and compact the wide-angle camera feels. Its chassis is very reminiscent of the Nikon CoolPix P300. It’s remarkable that manufacturers are able to fit extremely capable lenses onto such discreet bodies, and looks alone will tell you the XZ-1 is a pocket cam. However, put one in the palm of your hand and you’ll immediately understand you’re dealing with a real machine. The camera has some heft (but not bulk) to it, something new photographers might shy away from but enthusiasts will find to be a comforting indication of quality. Just to give you an idea, the XZ-1 weighs in at just under 10-ounces, and units from Olympus’ entry-level digicams usually come in around four to six ounces. If you’re a fan of all things thinner, lighter, and smaller and in the market for a wide angle camera, you might be leaning toward something like the CoolPix P300 (6.7-ounces), but we personally like a little bit of weight when using compact DLSRs for manual shooting.
While we’re being shallow, we should address the fact that the XZ-1 comes in white and black. We’re fans of both options: The white is inarguably eye-catching, but there’s the all-business look to the matte black.
Onto more important things. The XZ-1 measures 110.6mm x 64.8mm x 42.3 mm (width x height x depth) and offers shooters a nice, wide 3-inch OLED display. The OLED screen gives photographers a clearer, sharper, more contrasted image – and its resolution of 610,000 pixels doesn’t hurt either. The functions are simple to master, with a dedicated power butter and shutter, a top dial for adjusting your manual settings as well as selecting iAuto, auto-scene options, and built-art filters. On the camera’s back panel, you have your dedicated video recording button, playback function, and turning dial for determining shutter and aperture manually, as well as a host of other settings. This dial also serves as your navigator for scrolling through photos.

The flash is manual only: Experienced shooters will appreciate a camera that doesn’t self-determine when to light up a setting and newbies might find themselves momentarily confused, but in general this is an appreciated feature of the camera. It also comes with a hot shoe attachment.
The design is simple without being obnoxiously minimalistic, and transitional learners will be able to use the manual settings without feeling alienated by a crowded screen. DSLR loyalists will of course find the lack of a viewfinder with all the settings annoying, but sacrifices have to made when using a compact camera – and that’s one of them.
In addition to the XZ-1 itself, Olympus includes a lithium ion battery, USB cable, AV cable, USB-AC adapter, the various required straps and lens caps, and a setup CD.

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Sucker Punch Review

Review: Director Zack Snyder offers us his passion project, the visually stunning and utterly soulless Sucker Punch.

Sucker Punch is just not a good film. It is an interesting film, it is an original film, and it is definitely a visually stunning film, but it is also a seizure-inducing mess that laughs at the idea of depth and dares you to find anything more to it. At best it can be described as mindless fun, with a heavy emphasis on mindless. By the end of the movie, most will actually walk out of the theater wondering if they missed something—some key element that was deeply buried in the world of the film. Maybe a hidden metaphor, or some allegory. The answer is no, it is just a superficial and soulless two-hour music video directed by a guy that is almost certainly a victim of ADD.
Sucker Punch is actually a fairly hard film to review, mainly because it isn’t really a film. If you took all the actual plot elements and cut them together, the entire movie would be about 15 minutes long. The visual scenes are fairly impressive to watch, but there is nothing holding them together, and there is never any real sense of danger or accomplishment in their completion. But more on the plot later—don’t worry, that section will be brief.
But still, Snyder has to be applauded on taking the chance and trying something new–even though he fails on most levels. Snyder’s films are just somewhat soulless. There is such an emphasis on the visuals that everything else suffers. There is not a single shot in all of Sucker Punch where multiple things are not going on. Even in the most innocuous of scenes where someone is just talking—not even saying anything important, just talking — the camera will zoom in. It may even then cut to an overhead view looking down, before cutting back to the speaker and panning over them. Just leave the damn camera alone for one single second, Snyder!  It is not just distracting, it could almost be described as “twitchy.”
You can’t care about any of the characters because there simply isn’t anything to care about. They are slaves to the action, and most are little more than sexy set pieces. God help me for saying this, and believe me, it hurts to type this, but even Michael Bay does character development better. And it is a problem with all of Snyder’s movies, but none more so than in Sucker Punch. In fact, after watching this movie, it makes all of Snyder’s films look like less of the work of a visionary, and more of the work of a guy that seriously needs to lay off the caffeine.
The idea of Sucker Punch is that it is a world within a world within a world. In that sense, and only that sense, it is similar to Matrix. Baby Doll ( Emily Browning) is the daughter of a wealthy woman who dies, leaving her estate to her two daughters. The stereotypical evil stepfather (Gerard Plunkett) isn’t too keen on this, and while about to rape the younger daughter, Baby Doll tries to shoot him but accidentally kills her sister.
The film is set in the 1950s, and so her stepfather has little trouble in having Baby Doll institutionalized and scheduled for a lobotomy because things like that apparently happened a bunch, even though when the police come there is more than enough evidence to acquit her and send the stepfather to jail, but that is beside the point. It does, however, set a precedence for the entire plot though and you get the idea that the plot is an inconvenience.
Once in the institution, the corrupt orderly Blue (Oscar Isaac) forges the signature of Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino who is bewilderingly trying to pull off a Russian accent for no real reason), and Baby Doll has five days before the Doctor (John Hamm) arrives to lobotomize her.
Baby Doll meets a handful of other women in the institute, beginning with attractive and friendly Rocket (Jena Malone), who she saves from an attack. Once she has been accepted, the attractive and innocent Baby Doll joins the clique that includes such notable stereotypes as the attractive but stern Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), the attractive and ironically named brunette Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and the attractive but timid Amber (Jamie Chung). A pattern should be obvious by now.
Rather than accept that she is falsely imprisoned in an institutional hospital, Baby Doll creates a world where she is part of a brothel run by Blue, who takes the role of a pimp, with the partially unwilling help of the now “Madam” Gorski. Baby Doll has a talent for dancing, and she has an appointment with the High Roller (Doctor) in five days. So she hatches a plan to escape, and creates another fantasy world where she and the other girls are basically a group of superheroes tasked with completing four quests given to her by the Wiseman (Scott Glenn), with each quest yielding an item to help with their escape. This fantasy within a fantasy world contains dragons, steampunk German soldiers, robots and demonic samurai, all attempting to stop the girls from completing their goal.
The plot is just something that is there to explain the visuals in the same way that a video game would send you on a quest to achieve the “plans” from the insanely well guarded enemy stronghold, but the film is so busy trying to be “cool”, that it forgets to actually do anything in terms of attaching you to the characters.  One minute they are victims, then they are prisoners, then they are superheroes. The opening scene–which should be a heart wrenching scene of loss–is entirely filmed with music blaring and hardly a word of dialog, and from there the tone is set.
Again, the plot is barely worth mentioning, but honestly, that is fine. You are watching a movie about giant samurai with Gatling guns, so the story is not why you are there. The problem though is that without any emotional attachment, you won’t — no, you can’t — form any feelings for the girls, any more than you would become attached to a dancer in a music video.
It also is never really clear why Baby Doll just doesn’t explain what is going on to Doctor Gorski, who is supposed to be sympathetic, nor does it explain why Baby Doll would imagine a brothel instead of a hospital, but those are minor quibbles.
From almost the first second, the camera never stops moving. It swings, it zooms, it pans, it goes slow-mo. It is up, its down, its behind the characters, then it is somewhere else entirely. There is never a scene without multiple things going on, and after a while it is not only annoying, it is hard to follow. It is like watching the world through the eyes of a hyper-active kid. It never stops moving, and after a while it is hard not to feel like Snyder is doing half of the visual tricks that he is doing just because he feels like he can. It doesn’t help the story, and it actually hurts the appeal. It’s tough to relate to a character when the camera is on that character for about  two seconds before it begins moving and spinning around them.
This has always been an issue with Snyder’s work, and it is left totally unchecked by either the studios or common sense. Imagine Michael Bay making a movie filled with nothing but explosions, non-stop from the opening scene to the credits. It would be a movie about an explosion finding love with another explosion while fighting off evil explosions.
With Dawn of the Dead, the studio watched Snyder closely on his first outing, then with 300, the visuals were always meant to be part of the storytelling process, so Snyder’s style worked perfectly. When it came to Watchmen though, the story was originally meant to be more important than the look, but Snyder was so into the visuals that the story was just not compelling. It lacked depth, and many would say it missed the point of the original material, and lacked what many would call soul. If you need proof of that, ask around for people who saw the movie but never read the original comics. See how many of them actually remember the story. Probably not many. Considering that the story is what has kept the source material going strong for years, the film missed the point. To take a note from Sucker Punch, it was as if Snyder lobotomized Watchmen. Still, there was plenty to like from that movie, and it was never bad. It just wasn’t all that good either.
Everything that did not work with Watchmen is what is the base for Sucker Punch. The soundtrack is also an issue, and Snyder just has a terrible ear for music. To call it heavy handed is an understatement, but no one will ever accuse Snyder of being subtle. It plays a big part in the film, and it is almost always poorly chosen. It was weird in Watchmen, and it is worse in Sucker Punch.
But people will go to see Sucker Punch for the massive fights, and they do look great. Sucker Punch is very much like a video game in many ways, but like with a video game, you will never feel any real sense of fear for the characters. It is a fantasy world within a fantasy world, where the girls are superhuman. They are always in control and never really challenged until late in the film, so the episodes are always entirely visual without any stakes. The music is also omnipresent and always based on popular hits which makes it seem “cool” and never like a movie, so each fight is visually appealing and totally devoid of any depth.
But be warned — this film is not easy to follow visually. In fact, a girl at the advanced screening I attended had a seizure. Seriously.  She was alright, but it was almost certainly an epileptic reaction brought on by the movie. Remember that episode of The Simpsons where they go to Japan and watch a cartoon called “Battling Seizure Robots”? Yeah, Sucker Punch is a lot like that.
Granted, epilepsy is a terrible affliction that can happen almost randomly at times, but the cut scenes in the fights can hurt the best of eyeballs.
This movie is a mess on many levels, and you have to lay the blame almost entirely at Snyder’s feet. The cast do a solid job, and they are all doing exactly what Snyder wants of them. Baby Doll is the toughest of all the roles though, and Browning comes across exactly as Snyder wants. That isn’t really a good thing because she is a fairly dull character when she is not punching dragons and judo chopping zombies, but Browning comes across as likeable almost despite Snyder.
To give you an idea, due to the quick cuts and blaring music in the start of the film that introduces Baby Doll and her situation, you may actually wonder if she is mute. It isn’t until about 20 minutes in that she even speaks, and then it is just a few words. Until about the half way point of the movie, she probably only says 20 words, which is a hard task for an actress to base a character on. Now, keep in mind that the entire film is a fantasy from Baby Doll’s point of view, and yet she is the dullest character in the film. Again though, Browning is as good as she can be, and her career should be fine. Snyder’s however…
It is just odd choice after odd choice. Gugino sports a Russian accent that borders on ridiculous, while characters like the cook have absolutely no depth. The orderlies in the hospital are also just there, and by the end it is obvious that they understand that Blue is doing some seriously evil stuff, and they kinda protest, but are otherwise just so detached that you will forget that they are even in the movie.
Of all the characters, the only one with any real depth at all is Rocket (Malone). Her sister Sweet Pea is also a vital character, but is never really given a chance to grow which makes her fate utterly terrible. In fact, the climax of the film is totally devoid of any real emotion at all because the characters are never really given any reason to root for them.
The film is a music video crossed with a video game, but then at the end, Snyder almost arrogantly assumes that you will care about the characters so much that it switches back to reality to close out the plot on a dramatic note. By that point, most audiences simply won’t care.
Despite the fact that most people at the advanced screening left this film quietly and without so much as a single cheer, and despite the fact that the damn movie literally sent a seemingly healthy girl into a seizure, and even considering the fact that the movie itself is fairly slim on emotion to the point that it could be called vapid, there will be a group that loves this film. It will almost certainly develop a cult following, and many will claims its virtues while anointing Snyder as a genius.
They are wrong.
There is a bit of enjoyment to be had from Sucker Punch in a mindless entertainment sort of way, and Snyder really is to be commended for attempting to do something totally original. But the first person that claims that this movie is art, should be quarantined immediately as a danger to society.
Sucker Punch is at best — at very very best — supremely flawed. You almost literally have to detach your brain to enjoy this movie. There are some fine qualities to it: The fights are cool to look at, the acting is top notch and the originality is hard to deny. But Sucker Punch is simply a juvenile film that lacks even the tiniest bit of depth, and the emotional climax at the end, which is meant to convey something profound, is laughable to the point that you seriously have to question what goes on in Snyder’s head.
This movie is Snyder’s passion project — he produced it, directed it, and co-wrote the screenplay from his original idea. It is the film he has been dreaming of making for years, and he has brought his A-game. That is unfortunate. There is a very real possibility that Snyder could have just ended his career with Sucker Punch, and you can bet that the producers of the upcoming Superman: Man of Steel, which Snyder is now set to direct, are now very nervous.
Again though, Snyder tried. He did something new and original, and for that he should be commended. He is a visual maestro. It is just a shame that those visuals come at the cost of everything else.



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Nintendo 3DS Review

Review: The Nintendo 3DS is simply a fun device with a lot of promise. Unfortunately, we will have to wait a bit to see much of that promise realized, but the potential is definitely there.
Whether you love the company or hate it, it is hard to deny that Nintendo is currently the king of gaming systems. Arguments can be made against them, especially when it comes to pushing the boundaries of the industry, but it is hard to overlook the insane amount of success the company has had recently with the Wii and the Nintendo DS.

The DS family of portable systems is the best-selling gaming system of all time, with over 146 million units sold worldwide, so to say that its replacement has been somewhat anticipated is akin to saying that James Cameron’s Avatar was something of a box-office success. Beyond just the obvious addition of glasses-less 3D, the Nintendo 3DS is more than just a DS with a neat screen, it is new hardware that supports new software. And for the most part, the changes are very welcome. For the most part.
The new Nintendo 3DS has its good and bad features. In general it is a welcome addition to the Nintendo family, and one that gamers will eventually flock to. But a handful of launch day omissions and an underwhelming battery life paired with a low resolution camera might make it worth waiting for the promised updates. Find out more in our full review of the 3DS below.
The design of the 3DS is slightly bulkier than the original DS by necessity, in order to fit the new 3D cameras on the front as well as the 3D screen. To be fair, the previous DS wasn’t the most comfortable device ever made, and it was never really a good fit to throw in your pocket. It could be done easily enough, but the square edges and overall width of the device made it easer to carry in a bag. The 3DS is worse.
The 3DS is just a larger device. It’s still light weight, and it isn’t really an issue to stick it in your pocket, but it is uncomfortable, and should be done only with baggy clothes, or you risk damaging the device and possibly your poor, unprepared leg. The hardware jammed inside makes this a necessary evil, but rounded corners would have been a nice addition. Still, no one is going to pass up a 3DS just because it is an awkward fit in the pocket.
Along with the added size, there are a few new improvements, though. The first is the inclusion of sliding bars that control the 3D image strength, another for the volume, and one for the Wi-Fi. The slides are easy to use, and well located. Another addition is the analog circle pad. The D-Pad has always been a source of pride for the DS, and the 3DS builds on that with an analog stick that reacts well and encourages smooth movements. It makes complicated moves in games like Street Fighter IV fairly easy, and the slight resistance is a perfect balance for movement.
The shoulder buttons — once a source of annoyance on the DS — have been raised and make a click to indicate that they have been pressed. It sounds like a minor addition, but it transforms the shoulder buttons from an irritation into an integral part of the DS.
The touch screen is something of a mixed blessing, and Nintendo designed the device to require a stylus. That isn’t a bad call, especially for some of the games and software coming out for the 3DS, but in a world that is going more and more touchscreen crazy, most gamers will simply use their fingers. The 3DS will usually be alright with that, but it’s not designed for it, and that occasionally shows. The touchscreen also comes with a start, select, and home key, all of which are good to have, and yet all of which require an odd amount of pressure to activate. That is a minor quibble, but it could lead to the keys wearing down sooner than they should.
The first thing most people will want to know about the Nintendo 3DS is simply “How well does the glasses-free 3D work?” The answer in a nutshell: It works very well, but you have to be prepared for the realities of it.
The 3DS uses what is called autostereoscopy, which is a style of 3D similar to the 3D you see on printed 3D images. DVD and Blu-ray covers, for example, use stereogram 3D, which is similar in the sense that if you move from side to side, the 3D image disappears.
When you are playing a game on the 3DS, especially one that requires a lot of movement, you will frequently move the device just enough that the 3D effect will disappear. It just happens, and it is inevitable with the technology. But putting that aside, the 3D can also be awesome at times.
A lot of the success of the 3DS will come down to the games themselves, but the technology is there and ready. Sometimes the image can be overwhelming, reminiscent of the old 3D images made of dots, which forced you to star at the center and relax your eyes to see the full image. The same is true with the 3DS, but the sliding bar that controls the intensity of the 3D can help with that. The system also recommends that you rest your eyes for 10 minutes for every 30 minutes of gameplay, and it is a warning you should heed, or risk eye strain and headaches. It isn’t something that will always happen, but it will happen now and again.
The 3DS has a Wi-Fi option that is better than the DS. Along with a more streamlined friends software setup, it makes gaming with friends much simpler. However, the range seems limited to about 20 feet away at most, and for a strong signal you should be within 10 feet. With no 3G connectivity options, this may turn off some gamers, but that is more a limit of technology in general than a problem with the 3DS. That might sound slightly like an apologist’s approach to the 3DS, but the Wi-Fi connectivity generally works extremely well, and offers a lot of potential for the device, even if its range puts it on a short leash.
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