Sharp new designs

Sharp’s Aquos Designer’s Edition range (£6000) has been created by leading international product designer and architect, Toshiyuki Kita. The 37-inch widescreen LCD televisions have been designed with natural materials in mind – hence the black lacquer, tan leather and black oak finishes.

The idea was to get some of traditional Japan into a product of modern Japan, although Sharp’s slightly over-egging the pudding with talk of crafts “based on centuries of Japanese tradition”. The result is three rather nice looking, simply designed TVs that offer 1366 x 768-pixel resolution and an 800:1 contrast ratio.

The televisions can be placed on stands, or wall mounted, with the 170-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle ensuring good picture quality. To keep the Japanese minimalist vibe going, the Aquos TVs come with a separate AV centre for the TV tuner and various inputs and outputs (including a PC input). As you would expect, there’s Nicam stereo and SRS Focus Surround Sound.

Sharp