Design:

There design of Sharp Aquos LC60LE630X is surprisingly bland in comparison to the designs of modern TVs that we’ve seen. But the good thing here is that neither there’s too much to talk about, nor is there anything seriously wrong with the design. The Aquos LC60LE630X is a generous looking LCD TV with a black frame and a mould that many of the other TVs in the market also have.

Among some of the highlights that we found about the build of Aquos LC60LE630X there was the on-screen font, which was pretty thin and sinewy, pretty much like what we’ve seen in the Modern vector. The fonts there look like of the times of Windows 3.1. But the good thing about this font is that it allows for a lot of information and options to be displayed here on screen, but at the same time it cheapens the overall feeling of Sharp and more importantly it could be problematic for the people who have sight problems.

Making it even worse for the Aquos LC60LE630X was the layout of the remote. We think that no attention was given to the ease of use while manufacturing the remote and even the look of the remote doesn’t makes it look like something bought from an electronic store.

Features:

The features are one of the brought huge disappointments to us, especially because there were no input ports, which in the modern times of entertainment portability is a must, though Sharp Aquos LC60LE630X does have space for that on the right edge. Positioned on the rear end of the screen there is three HDMI ports, 1 component input, 2 sets of complex inputs, a D-Sub jack, a USB port and a RS-232 port.

The MKV and DivX files from a USB drive played decent on the Aquos LC60LE630X. But the problem here is that if you stop that and want to play that after some time, the TV will not be able to resume form where you left. Neither will it let you skip across to a special point of the video that you intend to watch.

Performance:

The lusterless screen of the Sharp Aquos LC60LE630X might catch and disperse light, making some part of the screens duller than the others, we think that the screen here is still a lot better than the lustrous screens; at least we can say that in nicely lit conditions.

The problem here is that the colors displayed on the screens doesn’t have that punch and is difficult in rectifying, because the calibration here is tricky. Also even a small change in any particular setting results in a heavy change overall.

Despite many of the ups and downs, we’d say that the Sharp Aquos LC60LE630X is a pretty decent performing TV, at least in nicely lit conditions, but turning the lights off hampers the performance of the system significantly.

Conclusion:

The Sharp Aquos LC60LE630X 60-in LCD TV will fill the viewing space in most of rooms of your house, but the mediocre performance and dull screen in dark light aren’t something that you’d want in your LCD TV.

But first let’s throw some light on the Xoom 2. Motorola entered the tablet race earlier this year with Xoom 2’s precursor the Motorola Xoom, which also was the first device to features Google’s tablet-centrical Android 3.0 Honeycomb Operating System. And the company is back with their faster, slimmer and a tad disappointing offering Motorola Xoom 2 to challenge the undisputed champ in the tablet world, the Apple iPad 2.

While some of the hardcore Android fanatics will be upset with the Motorola Xoom 2 being compared with the market leader in the tablet world the Apple iPad 2, a lot of other will be disappointed by knowing that this Gingerbread tab didn’t fared well in our testing for the second time in a row. These all are some of the reasons that stops us from recommending it to our readers.

Designing:

We will be honest and will say that the Motorola Xoom 2 undoubtedly is a lot more visible and attractive than its precursor with its angular cornering offering it an exclusive look. The 10.1-in Xoom 2 still hasn’t got that additional spark, which we normally see in these devise, and that’s what stops it from being as stunning as some of its rivals like the Sony Tablet S.

The Xoom 2 undoubtedly has shed in excess of 100 gm in terms of weight in comparison to its previous model, but despite that all the Xoom 2 feels rather heavy and a tad extraterrestrial in the hand. Because of its small 8.8 mm of width, the slanted edges and 10.1-in form its tough to put the Xoom 2 in any shelf of Android tablet and the additional heft here is unevenly distributed all through the revamped design, and gives it an uncomfortable and almost unwieldy presence.

Characteristics:

The Motorola Xoom 2 offers incredible web browsing experience, and hence we can say that the web credentials of the system are pretty smooth. The touch keypad here is pretty comfy with nicely spaced and user friendly touch keyboard, which allows rather simple URL input. The extensive display screen here offers crunchy images and vivid, vivacious and comprehensive depiction of images.

Motorola has given their Xoom 2 corning Gorilla glass which keeps it protected from the rigors of everyday routine, and along with it the Xoom 2 has also been given the splash-guard nano technology, which we saw with the newly fangled Motorola RAZR, offering protection against spilling.

The water repelling technology works nice and allows decent amount of liquid removed from the gadget without causing any enduring damage.

The functionality and purpose of cameras on the rear end of modern tablets is still under scanner, but without worrying about that Motorola has fitted their Xoom 2 with a 5-MP rear camera. The camera suffers from poor shutter speed and less than crunchy edges.

Performance:

Motorola Xoom 2 comes with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and has a 1 GB RAM. All those advanced and upgraded models results in zippy performance for the tablet. Switching amid the menus was pretty smooth, and so was opening and running apps. But that’s it, that was the only highlight, and apart from this, else everywhere the device was ludicrously sluggish.

Even turning the tablet between landscape and portrait mode took more than normal and there was noticeable amount of delay for the device.

Though the in-built speakers for the system are capable of delivering decent amount of volume and quality, there were significant amount of glitches with the 3.5 mm audio port of the system.

Verdict:

The Motorola Xoom 2 is a strong performer in the market, but it isn’t any revolutionary offering from Motorola to give Apple any concerns about the rein of their iPad 2. Even the overall performance and user experience of the device isn’t all that great.

After the announcement that late CEO and Co-Founder of Apple, Steve Jobs had “solved” the mysterious concept of an app-using TV, it seems that around 3 Apple iTV will be entering the market very soon.

For the iTV Apple will be heading towards the Japanese LCD making firm Sharp, as oppose to their convenient and normal Chinese manufacturing range. Apple will be making use of the Skills of Sharp, and if the rumors are to be believed Sharp even will be manufacturing OLED screens for Apple too.

There also are talks of integrations of Siri, after Steve Jobs’ very own explanation of the probable product in life story of the Apple co-founder by Walter Isaacson.

Apple is known to ask heavy price for their products, and on the basis of that you could expect what the iTV could be priced. Whether anything like iTV is coming our way or not still remains to be seen, but if and whenever it comes, we’re pretty sure it will be one fine offering.

Samsung SyncMaster T27A950 tilts back by 20 degrees and there isn’t any ergonomic option other than that. Look of this display is all metallic chrome on the panel’s back and it accentuates the smooth finish of the monitor. There aren’t any connections, ports or screw holes for VESA and hence the aesthetics aren’t ruined at all.

Base stand of the Samsung SyncMaster T27A950 has all the connections and port. On the back, there are 2 USB ports, audio optical port, and connection for include component/composite dongle. All are back facing and quite easy to access. I was disappointed to see that this monitor doesn’t have any DVI ports included but the manufacturer has attempted to make up for this by giving two ports of HDMI. You can switch the each of the HDMI port to graphics optimization or video through OSD or on screen display.

Samsung SyncMaster T27A950 has a quite comprehensive remote and through this, the access to OSD functions is much easier as compared to actual array of OSD. Apart from the inclusion of the Smart Hub, OSD here comes with a lot of features that the Samsung HDTV users are used to. Backlight control, contrast, sharpness, and brightness controls can be accessed through the picture options. There is access to the RGB gain and the offset settings along with other picture settings. The sound options run from the settings of equalization to the auto volume to the 3D sound for speakers that are built in. The design here is quite unique and I guess a lot of other manufacturers will start following it.

Smart Hub gives access to streaming video, apps, and games and you get Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, Netflix, etc. Video can also be streamed through AllShare enabled device like Samsung smartphones directly to T27A950D. There is the Ethernet port on the monitor along with CPU built in for this. Connection to any wireless router is done through USB Samsung wireless adapter but there isn’t any Wi-Fi included.

Smart Hub here is quite similar to the one which Samsung has put in their HDTVs. I reviewed SmartHub some time ago and found that it was quite easy to navigate. Apps were getting downloaded pretty quickly and I didn’t have any problems in installation either. But I couldn’t get Netflix to work here.

In past few years, the consumers have been seeking out of the deals for high-priced electronic goods for the holiday season and there are plenty of Websites out there which offer heavy discounts on electronics goods to lure the shoppers. Consumer Electronics Association said that half of all the shoppers wanted to buy tech based products and it second only to garments. More shoppers were visiting the stores this year as compared to last year for holiday shopping.

It is also said that people might take a break during work for holiday shopping online. Websites noted an increase by 18 percent in the site traffic on Sunday and it is expected to go up even more in Monday.

The top five products were Samsung 55 inches LED TV, Canon Rebel T3i, Microsoft Xbox 360 4 gig bundle along with Kinect motion, Leap Frog LeadPad Explorer Learning Table, and Sharp Aquos LC-60LE6300U, a 60 inches LED TV. The cost of latter product is $1,699 but it is on sale at Best Buy for $999.99.

The connectivity options on the Sony Bravia KDL-32EX523 are fairly standard. The highlight here is the presence of four HDMI ports. There is Wi-Fi adapter included inside the panel and by doing this, the manufacturer has freed one USB port.

There are some limits to the features on the Sony Bravia KDL-32EX523 as it isn’t a high end TV. Similarly, there are some reductions in the performance too. The real shortcomings here are shadow detail, uniformity, color accuracy, and the off-axis performance. But these weaknesses aren’t unforgivable considering the price point of the panel. For best performance, I would recommend bright lighting around.

In my calibration tests, I found fine tuning on the Sony Bravia KDL-32EX523 iss a bit difficult. The problem here is that the settings are quite coarse and picture of the TV can get thrown out with even a tiny change. During my tests, I could improve default picture but it wasn’t drastic. There are settings here which you can use but you will also get image that is pretty close to the TV by just choosing Cinema 1 under option of Cinema ‘scene’.

At deep blacks, the Sony Bravia KDL-32EX523 was somewhere in the middle. The black here was deeper than other 2 Sony TVs and it was also better than some of the LG TVs out there. Samsung LND630 (which I tested some time ago) was a bit better than the Sony TV here.

For testing I watched a couple of movies and saw that the TV can lose its shadow detail easily. This TV isn’t spectacular in terms of color accuracy but again, you can’t expect the world at this price point. Things remain relatively faithful in the bright scenes but the dark ones suffer. I have tested some Sony TVs before this and they have shown some blue push during tests. However, this wasn’t seen on the 32EX523. There is a dearth of picture controls and hence it is not possible to play with the blue blacks much. The color was more natural when I went on higher spectrum but I did see that the TV kicked out blues in the brighter areas.

The design of Sony TVs is largely unchanged for 2011 just like Apple iPhone 4S. Perhaps the only way to tell the two TVs apart is through the model number. EX523 also comes with lower gun metal bezel and black surrounds. This makes the TV look a bit ‘understated’.

Due to the edge lighting, this TV is quite slim and there is a swivel at the base for times when you aren’t watching this TV from your couch. The controllers of this TV have a concave look along with a bit of inward curve. Maybe the manufacturer borrowed some design cues of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. Just like the previous clickers, the remote of the Sony Bravia KDL-46EX523 comes with dedicated buttons for media like Netflix.

Sony has redesigned the XMB or Xross Media Bar and it gives you easy access to the network media content, settings, and the streaming services. Menu is a modified version of existing XMB interface with right hand orientation and it lets you watch the program in picture-in-picture display on the Sony Bravia KDL-46EX523. This is pretty intuitive and you will get along with it fast even if you haven’t used any Sony devices before.

For me, the streaming media services have always been more important than 3D and the Internet suite on the Sony Bravia KDL-46EX523 is quite appealing. You can get devices like Roku here for adding streaming to any television but some guys might appreciate having it integrated inside the TV. The Netflix buttons tremendously simplifies the task and if you yearn for 3D, get the EX720.

The EX523 series is the successor for the EX520 and for me; it was hard to find what has changed in the two models. The big difference is Wi-Fi onboard. 520 had just optional Wi-Fi but it is incorporated on the 523 which makes feature like Netflix more compelling. Apart from Netflix, this TV has other services like Pandora, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant. There is also the Sony Entertainment Network aka Qriocity for videos and music subscription. Vudu isn’t there though. The custom interfaces it offers for the services like Netflix and Amazon aren’t as good as default versions found on other TVs.

If you are looking for 3D TV that is least expensive, I would recommend you to take a look at the Vizio E3D320VX. There are two 3D glass pairs provided with this TV to give you better value for money as compared to the other plasma TVs out there.

Vizio E3D320VX is not really good in terms of style. The middle part has a dimple below the display and this interrupts speaker grille to give the TV a kinda chunky look. Stand does not support swiveling either. On the bright side, I loved the remote styling. There is a full QWERTY keyboard provided on the back for navigating through apps and for typing passwords. I expect more manufacturers to include such keyboards on their remotes as well because it isn’t too costly. I was disappointed to see that there is no Bluetooth support for this TV and hence the clicker will need to be in line of sight while you type.

Vizio E3D320VX has built in Wi-Fi and hence you won’t be dealing with long wires to bring Internet to this TV. There is Vizio platform and you also get goodies like Vudu, Amazon Video on Demand, Netflix, etc. Pandora too is available and the manufacturer has skipped YouTube but it won’t be badly missed.

Vizio E3D320VX comes with Rhapsody app which I really liked but it works only for Rhapsody subscribers. You get to stream un limited music through it. There are some other apps too. I didn’t like the interface much. On the bottom, there is one strip containing all the items and you will need to scroll loads. Application Discovery is not as good as compared to other TVs in market.

I liked the connectivity options provided on Vizio E3D320VX. You get two HDMIs on the back and third is on side for easy access. Inputs are labeled pretty well – best, better, and good for the people who don’t know much about the quality of input. You can also simply plug in to HDMI for getting best quality.

Vizio E3D320VX has a good collection of features but I was disappointed to see that picture quality in 2D isn’t that good. The black levels are relatively low and they wash out darker parts of picture. This makes the image looks flatter with lot lesser pop as compared to other TVs.

Vizio E3D320VX isn’t good in video processing either. This product can not handle 1080p/24 sources well. But I liked color accuracy and matte screen does a good job of reflecting any ambient lighting. Uniformity too is a bit better than some other LED televisions that I have reviewed previously.

Vizio E3D320VX 3D quality is mixed bag. There is passive 3D onboard which is bright and the cross talk too is less as compared to the active 3D. However, I saw some visible lines structure in some of the flat fields. The quality of image was a bit soft as compared to other televisions in the market but I liked the 3D quality owing to its sharpness.

The Vizio E3D420VX is the least expensive 3D TV in the market right now. The manufacturer gives two pairs of 3D glasses which makes this TV overall better value than the cheaper plasmas that are available.

In terms of styling, the Vizio E3D420VX isn’t really good. There is a dimple in the middle below the screen and this interrupts the speaker grille altogether due to the chunky look. The stand doesn’t swivel either. On the flip side the design of the remote is pretty good. The manufacturer has given a full QWERTY keyboard on the back side which comes handy in navigation of apps and typing the passwords. I wish that more manufacturers would include this in their TV; it won’t add too much to the price. The only drawback is that this TV doesn’t have Bluetooth support so you will have to keep the clicker in the line of sight with TV while typing.

Vizio E3D420VX comes with Wi-Fi built in for accessing all the Internet features; you won’t have to connect a wire for using the Internet. There is also the application platform of Vizio and you get Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, Vudu, and all the other major services. There is also Pandora; you don’t get YouTube but this isn’t a big miss in my opinion.

I liked the Rhapsody app on the Vizio E3D420VX which only works for the Rhapsody subscribers for letting you stream unlimited music. There are also a few other apps. However, I felt that the interface wasn’t that great. There is a strip along the bottom and it doesn’t show a lot of items so you have to scroll a lot. The Application Discovery too isn’t as advanced as a lot of the other TVs in the market.

Connectivity on the Vizio E3D420VX is pretty darn good; there are two HDMIs and the third one is located on the side. I also liked that the inputs are labeled good, better, best for people who aren’t familiar with the input quality. Basically you can just plug in HDMI and you will be fine.

The features of the Vizio E3D420VX are pretty good but on the down side the picture quality isn’t all that great in 2D. The biggest flaws are the relatively low black levels which wash out the darker parts of the picture and make the entire image look a little bit flatter with less pop as compared to some of the other competing entry level TVs.

Video processing on the Vizio E3D420VX is also a weak point, this TV can’t handle 1080p/24 sources very well. On the bright side, the color accuracy is pretty good and I liked the matte screen which rejected the ambient light well. The uniformity here too is better than other LED TVs I have previously seen.

3D video quality on the Vizio E3D420VX was a mixed bag; it does have passive 3D which is brighter and has less cross talk as compared to active 3D in general. On the downside I did see some visible line structure in text in some flat fields and I also thought that the image quality was a little bit softer than the other TVs in the market but again, the 3D was pretty sharp.

Apple has added a Thunderbolt display here which is a super fast connection and there is also some other new functionality inside.

The design of the Apple Thunderbolt Display is the same as that of the Cinema Display that we saw in the year 2010. The IPS screen is 27 inches big and it has a resolution of 2,560×1,440 pixels and the big resolution doesn’t degrade the quality either. The design of the chassis is aesthetically appealing and there is also the Thunderbolt feature inside.

The chassis of the monitor including the back and the food stand is made of smooth aluminum gray finish just like the Cinema Display. Similar to its predecessor, this monitor also contains ambient light sensor, build in microphone and camera, 2.1 built in speakers, and on the lower back side, there are three USB 2.0 ports.

Apple Thunderbolt Display is 2.25 inches in full depth and the width is 25.6 inches. Bezel is quite flush with the screen and is 1.1 inches wide on the left and right sides. Distances from the bezel’s bottom to desktop is around 3.6 inches. Foot stand here is 7.4 inches big and its depth is 8.2 inches. When I knocked it from the sides, this monitor didn’t wobble much and this is mostly due to the width and flatness of foot stand. The display is also quite heavy with its weight of 24 pounds.

The main differences here on the Apple Thunderbolt Display include Gigabit Ethernet port, FireWire port, and the Thunderbolt connection. PCs don’t have support for Thunderbolt connections and hence this monitor won’t work with them. Fortunately, it will run with the Macs that are running on Windows through the Boot Camp. Noteworthy here is that there is no support for hot swapping to Mac that is running Windows through Boot Camp. You will have to restart the computer for the display that is already connected for it to run smoothly. Also, there isn’t any support for non-Thunderbolt Macs.

Apple Thunderbolt Display comes with a 20 degrees back tilt and this is the only ergonomic option that it has. There isn’t any screen height adjustment and you won’t find swivel or pivot either. Options for calibration include color temperature, brightness, contrast controls, and gamma. You can access the interface for the latter through expert mode from Display Calibrator Assistant. If you plug in a MacBook Air to this display, you will be able to take full advantage of the Ethernet port too.

For testing, I connected the 27 inches Apple Thunderbolt Display through the Thunderbolt port and connected it to MacBook having Windows 7 on Boot Camp. The transfer speeds were relatively faster through the Thunderbolt connectivity.

In my display tests, I noticed that the black text was looking clear on a white background and there weren’t any problems of color tint. Text was quite legible down to the ‘eight’ font level. For movie tests, I saw some 1080p full HD movie trailers here and was pretty impressed with the deep blacks that the monitor had to offer. Color was popping up well from the display and the dark details too were visible in the dark scenes. This display can hit the really low levels of black in the scenes of dark movie with out losing any details that are incorporated inside them.

While evaluating the games on this monitor, the 2 most important features for me were color and vibrancy. If any monitor can show the games with good vibrancy and brightness, then it is a good display. Also, if the colors are popping with depth and fullness, then the games look awesome.

While testing on the Apple Thunderbolt Display, I used a 2,560×1,440 pixels resolution and saw that this monitor is certainly good in terms of presentation. The saturation amount for the games was perfect. I also didn’t see any streaking evidence in the game and the monitor reacted fast to my character presses. There wasn’t any perceivable lag.

Apple Thunderbolt Display comes with IPS panel and the viewing angles are quiet wide from all the sides. The glossy screen attracts plenty of reflections but this isn’t a problem unless the display is in the direct sun light or if you are viewing a totally dark screen. The deeper contrast is quite good for viewing games and movies on a glossy monitor.

The power consumption of the Apple Thunderbolt Display is higher than others I have tested. It had a power draw on 106.05 watts in the On mode. Compared to this, the Dell UltraSharp U2711 consumes just 93.72 watts. In my standby/sleep test, this monitor used 13.7 watts compared to the Dell’s 1.19 watts. My formula says that you will have to shell out $41.17 per year for running this monitor and the Dell display will put you back by $28.78 a year.

The manufacturer is giving a one year warranty with the Apple Thunderbolt Display and it covers backlight too. However, I was disappointed to see that it just covers 90 days of toll free support through telephone. There is an AppleCare package offered for $249 which offers three years of warranty from the purchase date and this might be necessary to you considering the proprietary nature of the monitor. The support cost and warranty duration isn’t as good as that provided by other manufacturers.

To conclude, I would say that the lack of PC support on the Apple Thunderbolt Display is a big disappointment but the added connection features (like Thunderbolt and Ethernet port) and the stellar performance make it functional and powerful for people who are using Thunderbolt Macs.

Pros

Apple Thunderbolt Display comes with a gorgeous screen and it has all the features of the Apple Cinema Display. There are other goodies onboard too like Ethernet port, FireWire, and Thunderbolt.

Cons

Apple Thunderbolt Display doesn’t have option of native compatibility with the PCs or older Macs which don’t have Thunderbolt support.

Verdict

The Apple Thunderbolt Display has an incredible performance and the monitor is really beautiful looking with super fast connection. I will recommend this monitor if you are having a Thunderbolt Mac.