Sharp Aquos LC-40LE700E

Sharp's LE700 is a newcomer to the world of entry-level LED TVs.  That makes it a direct competitor of the Samsung B6000, one of today's best televisions and model that's hard to beat! 

Build Quality and Design: the bare minimum

There's no use pretending otherwise: to bring down the price of any kind of product, you need to make savings somewhere.  Sharp decided to cut some features, so there's no network port, and the multimedia player can only handle JPEG and MP3 files.  The on-screen menus haven't been updated for several generations now and are beginning to look seriously out-of-date.

Despite using LED backlighting, the frame is pretty thick and is almost 10 cm from front to back.  The Full HD screen is covered with a glossy surface which is rather susceptible to reflections.

Finally, and most worryingly, the stand doesn't rotate, meaning you can't easily move the TV round to face the viewers.  It's a shame, especially given that narrow viewing angles are one of LCD TVs' biggest weaknesses.

Image Quality: very narrow viewing angles

And the viewing angles on the 40LE700 really aren't very good.  Our test procedure measured angles of 45°, and, beyond around 35-40°, the quality of the image on screen really falls off.  The viewing angles are wide enough for around three to view viewers a good three metres away, but they'll need to looking right at the screen.

Apart from that though, the display is more than reasonable, with contrast that reaches 2000:1, a decent gamma curve and accurate colours.  The 100 Hz mode does a lot to reduce jerkiness without producing too many artefacts.  Unfortunately, it's hard to feel the benefits given how much ghosting there is--and there really is far too much for a 100 Hz TV.

Sound Quality: another poor performance

Like the vast majority of TVs, the 40LE700 produces disappointing audio.  The low mid-range and bass are both notable by their absence and, overall, the sound produced lacks presence.

Energy Consumption: a new winner!

Using less than 0.1 W while on standby and 68 W while switched on, the 40LE700 is now the most energy-efficient television we've tested so far.  Its overall energy consumption of 154 W/m² allows it to easily beat the Sony WE5, which was previously a leader in this field at 183 W/m².