The buzzword at Sharp’s CES 2012 press conference: big. Sharp spent no small amount of time showing its pride in its mammoth 80-inch LED backlit TV, calling attention to the fact that it sports as much viewing area as nine 32-inch LCD TVs and placing it on top of a Smart car. We agree that it’s one very impressive looking TV, but the LC-80LE844 was released in September, so it isn’t exactly new for CES.
What is new from Sharp? Twenty new Aquos TV models all outfitted with Sharp’s SmartCentral Internet app hub and built-in WiFi, right down to the entry-level 6/5 series. Sharp also includes BeamzIt, a free application that allows streaming of music, photos or video from iOS and Android devices.
All of Sharp’s top-of-the-line 9 series TVs will feature full array back-lighting with local dimming and what the company is calling Quad Pixel Plus II, essentially an advancement of its four-color pixel Quattron technology.
Apparently, Sharp aims to skip 4K altogether and jump right to 8K. Sharp said it will be showing off an 85-inch 8K display capable of 32 million pixels on the CES show floor. That’s roughly six times the resolution of HDTV, and an apparent attempt to cast rather big shadow over competitors like LG’s 84-inch 4K TV.