Sharp at CES: 14 new screens and a giant

By Ian Morris on 11 January 2007, 12:41pm

At this year's CES, Sharp unveiled 14 new screens, plus another one that's too big and expensive for anyone to buy.

At the top end, the company announced the 65-inch LC-65D93U (pictured). It's set to retail for around $11,000, which sounds expensive but converted to sterling is a paltry £5,600. Not too bad, then, if you've got both a burning desire and the space for such a large set.

Next up is the high-end range, which features Sharp's latest technologies. These sets all support 1080p and the company is claiming a 15,000:1 contrast ratio. This range consists of three sets: the 42-inch LC-42D92U, the 46-inch LC-46D92U and the 52-inch LC-52D92U. Other important features are a wide viewing angle, 4ms response time, three HDMI sockets, two component inputs and one DVI connection.

The mid-range sets are all still 1080p, but have a slightly lower contrast ratio of 10,000:1 and drop the DVI input. There are two models in this range: the 46-inch LC-46D82U and the 53-inch LC-52D82U.

The budget range can only display 720p. It features a total of six screens: LC-52D43U (52 inches); LC-46D43U (46 inches); LC-42D43U (42 inches); LC-37D43U (37 inches); LC-32D43U (32 inches); and the LC-26D43U (26 inches). These sets all feature HDMI, component, S-video and composite inputs, but there is no word yet on how many of each.

Sharp has also announced two gaming screens -- the 32-inch LC-32GP1U and the 37-inch LC-37GP1U. These both have HDMI and component inputs and a button on the remote to allow easy access to gaming mode, which is supposed to reduce motion blur during action sequences. Obviously we'll test this as soon as we can with a long session on the Xbox 360.

In a final bid to appeal to the 'My LCD is bigger than yours' crowd, the company also unveiled a 108-inch LCD. Scheduled to come out this summer for an as-yet unspecified price, this giant's sure to make a splash... for the handful of people who can actually lift the thing. -IM