Sharp LC-60UD20 review

Sharp's back with a vengeance

Sharp LC-60UD20 review
Great Value

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Sharp LC-60UD20 review

Usability

The 60UD20 isn't the easiest TV to use. Its remote control isn't bad; it's large enough to provide big and well-spaced buttons, and it even has a stab at catering for the smart generation by including a big, boldly labelled Netflix button that takes you straight to the streaming giant's home 'page'.

Its onscreen menus, though, aren't the friendliest. Sharp uses a double axis menu approach wrapped around the top and right edges of a reduced version of the TV picture you're watching. This sounds sensible on paper, and it is nice to be able to still see your TV picture while you're making your adjustments. But the limited space available for the menus leads to excessive sub-menus, and the use of some rather small, spidery text.

Sound Quality

The 60UD20's basic audio quality is pretty strong. Despite the TV's skinny frame the speakers produce a soundstage large enough to sit well with the 60-inch screen, and it can go loud enough to keep action movies company without things starting to sound muddy or hissy.

The set is unusually good at reproducing the sort of subtle treble details that bring good soundtracks to life too, and while the 60UD20 can't go very deep with its bass, at least what bass you do get sounds clean and doesn't overwhelm the mid-range.

The only problem I have with the 60UD20's audio is that sometimes when watching programmes on the digital tuner or 3D Blu-rays I noticed dialogue slipping out of sync with pictures, leaving people's mouths moving distractingly independent of the words they were supposed to be speaking.

Value

With most premium-quality 65-inch 4K/UHD TVs costing north of £3000, the £2700 you need for the 60-inch 60UD20 doesn't seem like a bad deal. Sony does a 65-inch model, the 65X8505, for around the same money as the 60UD20, but its picture quality isn't as good.

We should say, though, that if you can cope with going smaller (not something we'd especially recommend if you want to optimise the benefits of 4K) you can get decent 55-inch 4K TVs now for as little as £1200.

John Archer

AV Technology Contributor

John has been writing about home entertainment technology for more than two decades - an especially impressive feat considering he still claims to only be 35 years old (yeah, right). In that time he’s reviewed hundreds if not thousands of TVs, projectors and speakers, and spent frankly far too long sitting by himself in a dark room.