Author Archive
Sharp LC-52LE820UN 52-Inch LCD TV
August 19, 2011 | 
Author Sharp has been touting its Quattron quad-pixel technology (which adds yellow pixels to the usual red/blue/green array), so we were ager to see how its image quality would fare in our juried tests of the Aquos LC-52LE820UN, a 52-inch, LED-backlit LCD TV. The results had some judges scratching their heads: Things looked different–neither better nor worse than the competition, but somehow “off.” Image quality and audio system (which is above-average) aside, however, the Aquos LC-52LE820UN falls short of the competition on some design and feature elements, making its $3000 suggested retail price (as of October 4, 2010) a bit difficult to justify.
The Sharp landed in the upper half of all HDTV sets tested over the last few months. Judges generally rated it good to very good for most content, but they accompanied the ratings with written comments expressing reservations such as “slightly dim” or “seems a little dark.” One problem was that the set’s glossy glass surface was annoyingly reflective in the lit room where we conducted our tests.
Sharp’s TV ads feature George Takei (Sulu from the original Star Trek series) talking about how Sharp sets show yellows that others can’t. There might be something to his claim: A yellow dress in a party scene from the Blu-Ray Disc of The Dark Knight seemed to pop, though not in a pleasing way. Perhaps Sharp’s technology simply doesn’t play well with the way content makers balance colors to accommodate more-traditional pixel arrays. Whatever the reason, our judges weren’t impressed.
The set’s performance in our motion panning tests betrayed its use of edge-lit LED backlighting. Judges noticed slight shadowing in a pan of a blueprint. And though the set handled a diagonal pan of a city perfectly, we spotted some jaggies in our benchmark test (the set has a relatively modest 120Hz refresh rate); some judges also noticed slight loss of video resolution in a separate benchmark test. Overall, the Sharp offers good but not great image quality. In our power consumption tests, it averaged a very low 69 watts of per hour, and registered 0 watts per hour when powered down, making it among the most energy-efficient sets we’ve seen.
Sharp’s design features rounded silver edges surrounding a standard-issue black bezel. In the back of the set, Sharp tries to deal with cable clutter by placing several ports (four HDMI, one PC-in, one composite video-in, ethernet, analog audio-in and -out ports, digital optical audio out, and a USB port) in a depressed area behind a flip-out plastic panel, with a channel for running the cables to the outside. But in my tests this arrangement made setup difficult: You had to bend the cables to get the connectors into the depression, then hold them steady while completing the connections (I needed a second person to help with this), and then bend them at 90 degrees–twice in most cases–to get them through the channel while keeping them flat enough to permit replacement of the flip-out cover.
Sharp left the set’s coaxial and component inputs and an RS-232C terminal (typically used for specialized diagnostics and service) in a separate depressed area without a cover. But the ports face down, needlessly complicating the task of screwing in a coaxial cable–again, I needed help to keep it steady.
Powering up the set produces a typical setup wizard for specifying home vs. store use (which determines video presets), language, and video source before beginning the channel scan. You can follow up with various image and audio tweaks via the serviceable on-screen menus, but the set offers few extras–no picture-in-picture support or headphone jack, for example.
Sharp puts a ton of features and functions at your fingertips with a long, skinny remote bristling with small buttons. It’s clearly designed with universal remote functionality in mind (you get a lot of detailed explanations and help on setting up external devices in a 68-page printed manual that is bound with French and Spanish versions, and is also available online as a PDF).
The remote is a bit confusing in its control of Internet serves. The Aquos Net button launches the Aquos Net home page, where you can launch Yahoo Widgets; but to access Netflix on Demand, you have to press the Dock button. Doing so produces a bar at the bottom of the screen showing a number of available functions, including Netflix and the USB media player. Assigning different categories of Internet content to different buttons on the remote is unintuitive at best.
On the other hand, Netflix and Yahoo Widgets work well once they’re set up. Sharp also offers an interactive support service, Aquos Advantage Live, for registered users (registration is free and is accessible via the Dock).
Sharp’s media player features are fairly basic: The LC-52LE820UN can play MP3s and display JPEG stills from a USB drive, and you can set up a slideshow with background music, but there’s no video support.
I enjoyed listening to music and movie soundtracks on the set’s audio system (two 10-watt speakers and a 15-watt subwoofer). The system’s simulated surround sound was quite good, and it produced more-robust tones than most sets.
Sharp’s aforementioned printed manual, though somewhat cluttered looking, is fairly detailed, and you also get a sheet of connection diagrams in lieu of a quick-start guide.
Posted in 
AVADirect Clevo P151HM
My initial impression of the AVADirect Clevo P151HM all-purpose laptop, with its unassuming, matte-black exterior and hefty size, 
wasn’t entirely positive: I’m no fan of bulky, nearly 9-pound (with power brick) 15-inch laptops–I’ve seen lighter 17-inch units. But as I used the P151HM more, my attitude definitely softened. Some users certainly will love this laptop, despite its bulk. Although I wouldn’t want to lug it around, that extra weight has been put to good use.
Most of that additional heft goes toward performance. On ourWorldBench 6 suite, the P151HM achieved a solid score of 132, but its gaming performance was truly impressive. The P151HM carries an Nvidia GTX 460M with 1.5GB of video memory and full support for DirectX 11. On 3DMark 2011 its score was 1800–one of the better marks I’ve seen from a laptop in this class. On the Far Cry 2 benchmark the system delivered a rate of 56.8 frames per second (without antialiasing), which is pretty darned good. Even better, it ran the highly demanding Metro 2033 at 30 fps, albeit at medium settings. Finally, it ran the F1 2010 Formula One racing game, with the high preset enabled, at 67 fps–not too shabby.
Given the solid discrete GPU, as well as the machine’s Intel Core i7 2630QM quad-core CPU and Blu-ray burner, the P151HM could make for a pretty decent media-authoring workstation on the go. The asking price of $1416 (as of March 9, 2011) is a bit on the high side, but you get what you pay for.
Sometimes, performance can take a back seat if other features are lacking; for instance, one thing that can drag down a laptop’s utility is a poor display. Fortunately, the P151HM’s matte, full-1080p LCD panel delivered seemingly accurate color. Blu-ray movies played on the included Blu-ray drive looked sharp, with good color fidelity. Black levels were adequate, though still mostly very dark gray. The one area where the display fell short was in off-axis viewing angles, but that’s a problem with most laptop LCDs.
Audio quality also proved better than anticipated. The P151HM’s speakers don’t get particularly loud, but they are clean and neutral-sounding. That may be due in part to the additional THX TruStudio Pro tuning from Creative Labs that’s included with the system. I tend to avoid stage-widening effects and fake surround, but the stereo imaging and overall audio fidelity on this laptop sounded surprisingly good to my ears. Music was generally balanced, though lacking in deep bass. Movies sounded crisp, with vocals–often heavy on the center channel–coming through very clearly. You may still prefer to use headphones if you want more punch in your gaming or movie audio, but the built-in speakers, coupled with the THX software, definitely impress.
The keyboard is another area in which laptops often disappoint. The Clevo P151HM’s keyboard offers excellent tactile feedback. One cute touch is the set of red arrows silkscreened onto the W-A-S-D key cluster, which many first- and third-person action games use for movement. Overall, the keyboard is quite good, but it lacks dedicated Page Down, Page Up, Home, and End keys; you need to double-press the Fn key or deactivate the nearly full numeric keypad to use those keys. Transport controls for media players also require Fn-key use, as they’re layered on top of the function keys.
Battery life is adequate, at a little short of 3 hours–good enough to watch most movies all the way through, but not quite enough to last through a transcontinental flight. The laptop does get fairly loud and warm under a full gaming load, so be wary of using this PC on your lap if you’re wearing shorts while gaming.
The Clevo P151HM provides five USB ports; two are USB 3.0 ports and one is a combo USB/eSATA port. You’ll also find an actual DVI dual-link connector, plus an HDMI output. Networking includes 802.11n and gigabit ethernet, but no Bluetooth support. Storage is robust, consisting of the aforementioned Blu-ray burner and Seagate’s spiffy 7200-rpm Momentus 9500 hybrid drive.
Weight is the main area in which the AVADirect Clevo P151HM disappoints. Sure, it packs a lot of performance into its plastic chassis, but the system weighs shy of 7 pounds without the power brick. Add the 120W power supply, and you’re approaching 9 pounds. That’s a lot to lug around, even though it pays off in system performance.
HTC EVO 3D
I’m not sold on 3D for consumer devices, and I’m certainly skeptical of it on a smartphone-size screen. However, Sprint and HTC make a great team, so I decided to keep an open mind about the HTC EVO 3D. Did the EVO 3D change my opinion of 3D phones? Well, let’s just say it is a very good thing that there’s more to this phone than just a 3D display.
Solid, Beautiful Design
First and foremost, the EVO 3D is a gorgeous phone. Like the EVO 4G, the EVO 3D is black with blood-red detailing. Keeping it in the family, the EVO View Android tablet, also announced today, has the same color scheme. The EVO 3D smartphone feels solid, but not bulky in the least. It has a nice, textured rubber backing and a slimmer shape that feels good in hand.
With the battery in place, the HTC EVO 3D weighs 6 ounces. It measures about 5 inches tall, nearly 3 inches wide, and 0.47 inches thick. Its display is a 4.3-inch 3D touchscreen with a sheet of Gorilla Glass for added toughness. Unlike the EVO 4G, the EVO 3D doesn’t sport a kickstand–mainly because the twin 3D cameras occupy most of the space on the rear.
3D Display
One of the most important features of the EVO 3D is, of course, its 3D display. The phone uses parallax barriers to display 3D images and video, without the need for clunky 3D glasses (similar to the concept used on the Nintendo 3DS). The EVO 3D’s 4.3-inch qHD 960-by-540-pixel screen looks terrific in 2D–and pretty good in 3D, as well. Let me be clear, however: This isn’t the kind of 3D you’d see at the movie theater. Images aren’t exactly flying in your face. Rather, it looks like you can peer into the phone much like a diorama.
You need to maintain an absolute dead-on viewing angle to properly appreciate the third dimension, though. If you’re viewing at a slight angle, the image will look like a blurry mess. This can be difficult with a small screen. With an image or a short video clip, it isn’t too hard to hold the phone directly in front of your eyes for a few seconds. And don’t even think about trying to watch 3D movies outside; it completely fades in bright sunlight. If you don’t want to view 3D images and prefer to stick to the standard 2D display, a toggle switch on the side of the device allows you to turn the effect off.
New HTC Sense User Interface
Like the HTC Sensation, the EVO 3D comes with the latest version of the Sense user interface. Sense 3.0 has a brand-new customizable lock screen. You can pick a theme for your lock screen (the phone offers quite a few to choose from) and then select four apps that you visit the most. When you turn on your phone, you’ll see those four apps at the bottom of the screen. To unlock your phone, you drag the circle and move it over an app; you then jump straight to that app. That way, you don’t have to go through multiple menus to reach your e-mail or any other items you access frequently.
The new version of Sense also has a spruced-up Walls system. Rather than having to flick back and forth between your walls, as you do in the stock Android operating system, you can flick the EVO 3D’s screen to make the walls spin. The effect is slightly reminiscent of a carousel and makes navigation a little easier.
You’ll find a clutch of new widgets in Sense, but my favorite is the gorgeous new Weather widget. HTC has a nice tradition of creating visual weather apps, and it is cool to see the company continue to improve them. They might not always be pretty, but they sure are dramatic.
Performance
The EVO 3D is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Snapdragon processor supports advanced 3D technology, including full 1080p 30-frames-per-second HD video and stereoscopic 3D video capture and playback.
So how much of a difference does dual-core make? We matched the EVO 3D up against its predecessor, the HTC EVO 4G (a single-core device), and there’s quite a big difference–one you’ll notice as soon as you turn on the phone. The EVO 4G had a startup time of 74 seconds (!), while the EVO 3D had a much faster startup time of 13.7 seconds. File transfer speed was about the same for both phones, with the EVO 4G clocking in at 7.8 megabits per second versus the EVO 3D with 7.2 megabits per second.
We also conducted two gaming performance tests using GLBenchmark, a software suite that tests the quality and performance of OpenGL graphics. We conducted two tests: one with antialiasing on, and one with it off. (Antialiasing is a graphics setting present in many games and is intended to make gameplay graphics look smoother–for a full explanation of the pros and cons of antialiasing, check outGeek 101: Making Sense of Anti-Aliasing). We measured the graphics in frames per second (fps)–the more frames per second, the smoother the animations and graphics. The difference between the single-core EVO 4G and the dual-core EVO 3D is huge: With antialiasing off, the EVO 4G averaged 5.7 fps while the EVO 3D averaged 36.5 fps.
We’re currently testing other dual-core phones, including the HTC Sensation and the LG T-Mobile G2x, to see how the EVO 3D’s Snapdragon chipset stacks up against its Tegra 2 competitors.
3D Camera and Video Capture
Despite my mixed feelings about 3D, there’s something quite satisfying about capturing 3D images or videos and then being able to watch them on the same device. But you can also view them on any 3D TV with the help of the phone’s HDMI-out jack. The HDMI jack uses a technology called MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) that allows both charging and HDMI-out via the same port.
Like the Sensation 4G, the EVO 3D comes loaded with Watch, HTC’s new movie and TV-show streaming service. With Watch, you can download videos and start viewing them immediately. Watch is well integrated into Sense, making it easier to find the videos you want to, um, watch. The app’s interface is clean, and movies are easy to find, but the library is pretty sparse at this point. You’ll find some newly released movies like Due Date and some classics like Top Gun. If you’re looking for something in particular, though, you’re not likely to find it (no Spinal Tap!). A few popular TV shows likeChuck and Gossip Girl are available, but you’re limited to one or two seasons of episodes.
Data Speeds and Call Quality
The EVO is also juiced with Sprint’s 4G data speeds, and it comes with a 4G mobile hotspot feature that lets you share your connection with up to eight devices. I tested the EVO 3D’s data speeds using the FCC Speedtest app in the South Park area of San Francisco. The EVO 3D achieved average download speeds of 3.59 megabits per second and average upload speeds of 1.42 mbps. This is in line with other 4G Sprint phones we have tested in the past. And thank goodness for the 4G widget on Sprint phones, which makes it easy to switch 4G on and off (this setting is buried in the Settings menu on Verizon’s 4G phones).
Call quality over Sprint’s network in San Francisco was okay, though it could be uneven at times.
Bottom Line
The EVO 3D is a powerful phone–3D or not. My opinion of 3D remains pretty much the same: It is fun to watch short videos in 3D or take 3D photos, but it is definitely still a novelty feature. That said, the EVO 3D’s design is gorgeous, and the combination of dual-core Snapdragon processors with 4G can’t be beat. It is definitely the best phone on Sprint, and a worthy successor to the original EVO.