Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U HD TV Review: Great Bargain HD Set

Our Verdict

The Precipitous Aquos LC-50N5000U is an attractive 1080p TV with basic smarts and a solid HD picture that make information technology a practiced bargain.

For

Solid 1080p picture
Admirable exterior design
Plenty of volume

Against

No 4K or HDR back up
Basic smart-TV features

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U is an attractive 1080p TV with basic smarts and a solid Hard disk motion picture that make it a adept bargain.

Pros

+
Solid 1080p picture
+
Beauteous exterior design
+
Plenty of volume

Cons

-
No 4K or HDR back up
-
Bones smart-TV features

The Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U is more than just a pretty confront. The HD TV (1080p) delivers a pleasing picture for its sub-$450 price, a respectable array of connections, and basic smart-TV functions.

Similar other deal sets, the 50-inch Aquos LC-50N5000U doesn't back up 4K/ultra-Hard disk drive or HDR (high dynamic range), simply its performance with Blu-ray discs and Hd broadcasts will please most people, thank you to the LCD TV's total-assortment LED backlight. Shoppers should note that the Sharp Goggle box make in the U.Southward. is endemic by Chinese manufacturer Hisense, so it shouldn't be a surprise to find that this 50-inch LCD HD Television is comparable in many ways to the Hisense 50H5C. The Abrupt Goggle box's superior design, sound levels and subtly tweaked picture show set it apart from the Hisense fix.

Design: Good-Looking

Handsomely adorned with a brushed argent chassis, the Aquos LC-50N5000U looks annihilation just cheap. Rather than using a center pedestal, it sits on legs situated on both ends of the fix for stable tabletop positioning.

In this class of sub-$500 TVs, the Aquos LC-50N5000U also has a reasonable set of connections. At that place are three HDMI ports to handle a cablevision/satellite box, game panel and disc player. Information technology too has congenital-in Wi-Fi for making an easy online connection.

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Performance: Cool but respectable

The Sharp Aquos set comes with six different video preset modes, including Vivid, Standard, Energy Saving, Game, Sport and Theater. I found the best, most accurate mode was the Theater setting, which I used for the majority of our tests. In our TV benchmarks, the Abrupt ready was cool, drifting toward overemphasizing the blues rather than the reds.

Confronting the comparable Hisense 50H5C set, there were some perceptible differences in picture performance. In the dystopian scenes from Mad Max: Fury Road, the Sharp Aquos picture looked more than orange, in keeping with the desert backgrounds, compared to the more yellow tinge of the Hisense set. And the cooler tuning of the Sharp set revealed bluer skies, which looked greenish on the Hisense Television set.

Compared to the larger 55-inch budget models — the LG 55LH5750 and the Vizio E55-D0 — the Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U sat somewhere in between the two. Information technology used softer transitions than the dissimilarity-heavy Vizio, yet looked cooler than the warmer, more reddish LG set.

In space scenes from the pic Gravity, the astronauts' spacesuits confirmed the overall impression that the Precipitous model delivers whiter whites. The Earth's oceans also looked more cyan on the Sharp Goggle box than on the Hisense set up, which tended to bear witness them as aquamarine.

Best of all, the Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U did an splendid job with hard scenes that included flashing lights and rapid action. When Sandra Bullock'due south grapheme in Gravity went spinning out into space, the lights from her helmet did not generate the sort of flashing and halo effects that I've seen on other sets. And in the James Bond chase scenes from Skyfall, at that place were no sudden dropouts or any excessive blurring.

Audio: Loud enough

When testing various soundtracks, I constitute the Sharp LC-50N5000U delivered respectable volume levels — certainly loud enough for the average living room — before its built-in speakers began to distort. The TV includes several preset audio modes, including Standard (which sounded flat), a late-nighttime listening mode that muted the lower bass, and a speech manner designed to focus on dialogue (which was just partially successful).

The best modes for Boob tube and moving picture watching were the Theater and Music settings, which were very similar. Both attempt to boost the apparent dynamic range of songs and soundtracks, merely the top end is compressed, particularly on female vocals that lacked treble. The focus of the sound here is on the midrange, just it'south better than near in this toll segment.

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Interface: Rudimentary

The smart-Tv set features of the Sharp Aquos set up (identical to those of the Hisense 50H5C) are rudimentary at best. The monochromatic menus lead to an apps department with larger, more than colorful icons. Apps include Pandora, Twitter, Facebook and the Opera web browser. At that place'south also support for popular services such every bit Amazon Video, Netflix and YouTube, and you can order movies such every bit Cafe Lodge to rent for $4.99 from Vudu.

In total, the Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U supports only 22 apps, which is quite a paltry selection compared with those offered by other smart TVs. There's no HBO Become or Offset apps, for example. On the other paw, you lot can become all that and more by adding a $40 Roku device.

Bottom Line

Although it lacks 4K and HDR support, the Sharp Aquos LC-50N5000U's overall features and picture functioning make it a practiced choice for playing standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It would as well brand for an ideal second ready for the den or home office.

John R. Quain has been reviewing and testing video and sound equipment for more than 20 years. For Tom'south Guide, he has reviewed televisions, HDTV antennas, electric bikes, electric cars, likewise every bit other outdoor equipment. He is currently a correspondent to The New York Times and the CBS News television program.