Sharp LC-52XS1U-S

Display Size & Technology
The LC-52XS1U-S is a 52-inch LCD. LCDs are often a lot brighter than plasma TVs, and they're also a lot more energy efficient. They also generally offer a poorer contrast ratio and have weak blacks. The TV is also available in a 65-inch size, under the moniker, 'LC-65XS1U-S.'

The display on the LC-52XS1U-S certainly looked bright.

Format & Resolution
The LC-52XS1U-S runs 1080p, which is the top-of-the-line HD quality right now. It runs a 1920x1080 resolution, which is a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Brightness, Blacks & Contrast Ratio
The LC-52XS1U-S has a an absurdly high manufacturer-stated contrast ratio: 1,000,000:1. Manufacturers typically fudge contrast ratios, but one this high has some serious PR spin being put on it. We're guessing the blacks and whites were measured separately, with different settings enabled for each. The blacks were probably measured with the backlight turned off and everything turned down, while the whites were measured with every setting turned all the way up. Not only is it unrealistic to expect this sort of contrast ratio during normal viewing, it's impossible, since the settings that max out the white have to be tuned the opposite way to max out black. If this isn't the case, then some setting is very blown out, so much so that the picture quality would plummet. When we test for contrast, we have a standardized method that ensures picture quality doesn't suffer. If you want a better number for contrast – a result that can be directly compared to another TV's result for an easy comparison – keep checking this site to see if we've gotten this TV in for lab testing.

Refresh Rate & Motion
There was some very, very slight motion blurring on the  LC-52XS1U-S. The video seemed very smooth, however. This being said, we were watching a model on the show floor that was playing back a video we hand't seen before. Perhaps the minute motion blurring was intentional, perhaps it wasn't and the TV simple doesn't handle motion as well as the highest tier of TVs out there, or maybe it was our own fallible eyes lying to us. Regardless, we think we'll trust our own lab testing, whenever we're able to get the LC-52XS1U-S into our labs for testing.

Viewing Angle
The manufacturer-stated viewing angle is 176º. We didn't see a gigantic leap between off-center and staring at the screen from an extreme angle. Colors did get a bit washed out from any other angle but dead-on, however. They didn't get much worse as we walked around the screen, however. Really, the initial drop was the most significant, and even then the changes were negligible.

Color
We didnt' ahve a problem with the LC-52XS1U-S's ability to showcase color. Colors looked vibrant and consistently emphasized throughought the screen. Really, we didn't have any pWe didn't see any issues with the LC-52XS1U-S's color representation. They seemed vibrant and weren't inconsistent throughout the screen. Changing the viewing angle did desaturate the picture slightly, but as we mentioned earlier, it didn't seem to be an issue.