Picture quality

The Elite deserves the first 10 we've ever given to an LCD-based TV for picture quality, and outperforms every TV, plasma or otherwise, we've tested in the last three years. The only TV that's better is the long-discontinued Pioneer Kuro, and in our direct comparisons between the two it was still a close call.

The Sharp Elite has the best black levels and contrast available anywhere, and good enough off-angle performance to still beat non-Kuro plasmas from most normal seating positions. Blooming is essentially nonexistent, uniformity is almost as good as plasmas', video processing is superb, and 3D is very good. Color accuracy in greenish/blue areas is perhaps the Elite's biggest weakness, but colors still looked excellent overall and the inaccuracies we noticed, along with screen reflections and some brightness variations across the screen, aren't serious enough to push the Elite down into 9 territory. Its picture is that much better to our eyes than any of the flagship plasmas from Panasonic or Samsung.