First impressions of Sharp’s LE 925 Quattron 3D

Will the 3D latecomer be worth the wait? Absolutely, if you have the cash.

Sometimes quality just takes a little longer. While Sharp may have disappointed CES audiences earlier this year by tweaking 2D quality rather than diving headfirst into 3D with every other major manufacturer, its hesitance appears to have paid off.

With its recently unveiled Quattron 3D LCD televisions featuring a fourth yellow pixel, Sharp seems to have preserved the vivid color palette that made the Quattron technology a winner in two dimensions, and produced some of the best 3D we’ve seen from an LCD set.

We had a chance to sample both the 52- and 60-inch LE 925 series Quattrons at CEDIA 2010, and while the untrained eye still may not immediately detect the sizzle of Sharp’s particularly yellowy yellows, its 3D performance stands out among other LCD televisions.

If the aforementioned color gamut of the new LE 925 doesn’t stop you in your tracks, the sheer luminance of it will. Sharp hasn’t made any official claims to exact brightness on the series, but it claims the quad-pixel technology is capable of brightness up to 1.8 times that of competitors. Creative numbers? Perhaps, but there’s a discernable difference that pays off when you lay on a pair of dimming 3D glasses, producing a picture that remains brilliant.

Although Sharp has made very little effort to play up the LE 925’s 2D to 3D conversion, we managed to cajole them into showing it off, and it’s surprisingly slick. No, it doesn’t approach the immersive feel of native 3D, and it looks gimmicky and disjointed at its highest levels (you can adjust it between 1 and 16), but it certainly approaches what we saw on Toshiba’s impressive but never-to-be-produced Cell TV at CES. Purists, smirk if you must, but we can see ordinary consumers using it to fill the void of 3D content until more comes along.

Priced at around $4,200 and $5,300, the LE 925 might be a bit too indulgent for most consumers off the bat, but if they’re anything like the last Quattron models, prices won’t stick to MSRP for long. Sharp hasn’t yet announced launch dates for either set, but we expect to see them on store shelves prior to CES.

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