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Sharp readies “Quattron” LCD TVs with an extra primary color

Consumer Reports News: March 25, 2010 12:23 PM

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Backed by a TV ad campaign that stars George Takei—a.k.a Sulu from Star Trek—Sharp is rolling out its new line of TVs with Quattron technology, which adds an extra color—yellow—to the standard red, green and blue primary colors found on other TV sets.

As we reported during our CES TV coverage, Sharp originally called its four-color initiative “QuadPixel,” but now refers to it as "Quattron quad pixel technology." By adding the extra color, Sharp says, a TV's color gamut can be expanded from millions to trillions of colors, resulting in more natural, truer images, and the ability to more accurately display hard-to-depict colors, such as brassy gold.

Quattron will be a key element in three new Aquos LE-series LCD TV lines that start arriving this month. All the Quattron sets, which use edge LED backlights to help achieve their super-slim (1.6 inch) depths, meet Energy Star 4.0 guidelines. The LE810- and LE820-series 120Hz models are available this month, while sets in the flagship LE920 series—including a giant 68-inch model—will hit in May. TVs in the LE920 series have Sharp's AquoMotion 240Hz technology, and all the new sets include an updated AquosNet online service that now supports streaming movies from Netflix.

Here’s the lineup of the new Quattron technology, with expected retail prices:

LE810 Series:

LC-60LE810UN - $3,500
LC-52LE810UN - $2,600
LC-46LE810UN - $2,100
LC-40LE810UN - $1,800

LE820 Series:

LC-60LE820UN - $4,000
LC-52LE820UN - $3,000
LC-46LE820UN - $2,500
LC-40LE820UN - $2,100

LE920 Series:

LC-68LE920UN - $6,500
LC-60LE920UN - $4,500
LC-52LE920UN - $3,500

According to Sharp, the combination of Quattron and its new X-Gen LCD panel enables these sets to offer deeper blacks while greatly lowering energy consumption. Of course, we’ll be testing these claims when we get a set in our TV test labs.

—James K. Willcox