- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Design
- Picture Quality
- Motion
- Inputs
- Sound Quality
- Smart Features
- Sizes and Variants
- Compared
- Conclusion
- Discussions
Sharp N7000U
TV REVIEW
The Sharp N7000U is a mid-range 4k LCD TV. It is a rebranded Hisense, similar to the H8C but with a different backlight. It offers average picture quality, which degrades very quickly at even a slight angle. It doesn't have any features to improve the picture quality in dark scenes or the motion performance. Although the smart platform works well, it has a number of bugs which makes it difficult to make the most out of the TV's features.
| Design | 6.5 |
| Picture Quality | 7.0 |
| Motion | 6.4 |
| Inputs | 7.5 |
| Sound Quality | 6.9 |
| Smart Features | 7.0 |
- Good native contrast ratio
- Low motion blur
- Picture quality degrades very rapidly at an angle
- Can't get very bright
- Firmware is buggy
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Design
The design is simple, and from the front the TV looks very similar to the Hisense H8C. It isn't a bad looking TV, but certainly won't be the centerpiece of any room.
Picture Quality
- 11% Contrast
- 6% Local Dimming
- 6% SDR Peak Brightness
- 6% HDR Peak Brightness
- 6% Gray Uniformity
- 7% Viewing Angle
- 4% Black Uniformity
- 2% Gradient
- 4% Pre Calibration
- 1% Post Calibration
- 6% 480p Input
- 9% 720p Input
- 11% 1080p Input
- 6% 4k Input
- 4% Color Gamut
- 4% Color Volume
- 1% Image Retention
- 5% Reflections
- <1% 3D
Picture quality is average for the Sharp N7000U. The contrast ratio is good, providing good performance in a dark environment, but the final picture quality is affected by the bad uniformity (black and grey), the poor peak brightness and the terrible viewing angle. It can display fairly well a 10 bit gradient but the range of color is not wide and is just enough for SDR TV.
- 100% Native Contrast
The native contrast ratio is good for the N7000U TV. It is high enough to provide good performance in a dark room.
Note that the native contrast after the calibration was 2512:1, significantly lower than what we got out of the box. This is due to the big correction needed to bring back the gamma curve to our 2.2 calibration goal. Thus for this TV, we recommend that you do not use our white balance and color space values
There is no local dimming option on this TV. There is something called 'Dynamic Backlight Control', but it is more a 'Frame dimming' feature than local dimming. This dims the whole screen at once depending of what is shown on screen. This is clearly visible while watching our test video, where you see the screen brightness dim a lot when passing from a bigger to a smaller white square or circle. We turned this feature off since it is not really effective and dims the screen and the smaller square and circle too much.
The peak brightness is bad for the Sharp TV. At around 200cd/m² it is very low and will not be sufficient to fight glare if your TV is situated in a bright room with a lot of lights of big sunny windows.
We took the measurement with 'Dynamic Backlight Control' off, since it is not really a local dimming but more a frame dimming feature, that dims the whole screen when it is turned on. With 'Dynamic Backlight Control' on, we got only 58cd/m² for the 2% and 180cd/m² for the 10%.
This TV does not support HDR.
Update 01/23/2018: There have been numerous reports that HDR has been enabled on HDMI ports 3 and 4 via a firmware update, though we are unable to confirm this as we no longer have this TV in our lab. The HDR scores have been updated where possible.
- 40% 50% Std. Dev.
- 40% 50% DSE
- 10% 5% Std. Dev.
- 10% 5% DSE
The gray uniformity is below average for this Sharp TV. There are large bands on the top and bottom part of the screen which are darker, and the center of the screen is a bit brighter. Also the center of the screen is warmer than both sides. Luckily, dirty screen effect is not too obvious since the bands are pretty large and also horizontal, making them a bit less visible when there is some panning shot in content like sport.
- 20% Color Shift
- 40% Brightness
- 40% Black Level
The Sharp N7000U has a very bad viewing angle. In fact, the viewing angle is so bad that even when sitting straight in front of the TV, you can notice both sides of the TV already start losing color and contrast, this can also be noticed on our black uniformity picture. When viewed from the side, the image loses a lot of color saturation and contrast, leaving you with a washed out image.
Update: We have changed the methodology of testing. Since this is an old TV which we don't have anymore, we extrapolated the results.
- 100% Native Std. Dev.
The black uniformity is very bad for this Sharp TV. It is even worse than most of the IPS TVs that we reviewed this year. This can be linked to the poor viewing angle of this TV, making both sides of the TV lose contrast even when viewed from straight on. This can explain why on our test picture, you see both sides looking less dark than the rest of the screen. Besides that, some clouding can be seen, but nothing that could cause problems when watching normal content. This is probably worse than the Hisense H8C due to the edge-lit backlight in the Sharp.
The Sharp N7000U can display our test gradient image without any real problems and has only a few issues with up to 10 bit color depth. Some little banding imperfections can be seen in the dark blue, dark green and also in the dark part of the grayscale, but we did not notice any banding problems while watching normal content.
- 50% White Balance dE
- 50% Color dE
Prior to calibration the gamma is quite high, causing some black crush. The colors are quite good but their balance in the white is a bit off.
- 50% White Balance dE
- 50% Color dE
The TV did not respond well to calibration. It is not possible to adjust the contrast or brightness very much without introducing clipping. Trying to lower the gamma curve by decreasing the luminosity of high IRE points didn't work well, so we had to raise the black level. This caused a loss of contrast, and as such we do not recommend following our calibration settings but you can find them here.
- 25% DCI P3 xy
- 25% DCI P3 uv
- 25% Rec 2020 xy
- 25% Rec 2020 uv
Doesn't support a wide color gamut. Displays only enough colors for Rec. 709 content. Has no options to enable a wide color gamut.
Has a semi gloss finish which works quite well to diffuse direct reflections. Should not be an issue with a few indirect reflection, and doesn't display any rainbowing.
The N7000U doesn't support any 3D functions.
Motion
- 72% Motion Blur
- 7% Image Flicker
- 14% 24p Playback
- 7% Motion Interpolation
The response time is low, resulting in only a short trail following moving objects which is great. Unfortunately movies played from any source experience a slight judder, but for most people this isn't an issue and is unnoticeable. The TV has a 60Hz panel, which is able to interpolate lower refresh rate content up to 60fps for those who like the soap opera effect.
- 80% Response Time
- 20% Overshoot
Backlight uses PWM to flicker at 160Hz, which causes some strange artifacts to follow fast movement. This is because the backlight flicker isn't a multiple of the panel's refresh rate. The response time is quite good though, and results in very little motion blur following moving objects which is great.
- 40% PWM Dimming Frequency
- 40% BFI Frequency
- 20% BFI In Game Mode
The N7000U isn't able to remove 24p judder from any source. As such, movies played from any device or the inbuilt apps experience slight 3:2 pulldown judder. Most people aren't sensitive to this so it isn't an issue.
The TV can interpolate 30fps content up to the panel's native refresh rate of 60Hz. It doesn't support any refresh rates higher than this.
Inputs
The N7000U has good input lag so gamers should be find the performance good enough for most casual games. Those looking to use this TV as a PC monitor will also be pleased since it can support the most demanding 4k resolutions and with a high level of detail.
Input lag with a 1080p resolution is good and should provide good performance for any casual gamer out there. Unfortunately, with interpolation turn on or with a 4k resolution, the input lag goes up over 50ms and thus making this TV not the best choice for any gamer looking to game in 4k, even for the most casual game.
- 20% 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
- 20% 1080p @ 120Hz
- 20% 4k @ 30Hz @ 4:4:4
- 20% 4k @ 60Hz
- 20% 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4
The EDID of the TV is set incorrectly to 'Hisense HDMI', and with a native resolution of 1080p. It is necessary to ignore the EDID to force 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 or 4k @ 30Hz @ 4:4:4, but then it is correctly supported on HDMI 3 and HDMI 4 with the 'Game' picture mode. HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 don't support HDMI 2.0. Although it is possible to send a 1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 signal, it is not correctly displayed by the TV. This can be seen in the comparison images below.
Although the Sharp N7000U is advertised to support HDR10, we were unable to get it to work. It was unable to play any BluRays from our Samsung K8500, and the Xbox One S didn't detect HDR support. We also tried to send HDR infoframes through the HDFury Integral and were unable to get the TV to process it as a HDR signal.
Update 01/23/2018: There have been numerous reports that HDR has been enabled on HDMI ports 3 and 4 via a firmware update, though we are unable to confirm this as we no longer have this TV in our lab. The HDR scores have been updated where possible.
Sound Quality
Sound quality is average. Frequency response is average, and consistent across different volumes. Harmonic distortion is quite good, but the TV can't get very loud. As with most TVs, a cheap soundbar would be an improvement.
Note: Sound Quality test for TVs reviewed before 2017 was performed at 75dB, 85dB, and Max SPL. Starting 2017, the target SPL levels have been changed to 70dB, 80dB, and Max dB SPL.
- 8% Std. Dev. @ 70
- 15% Std. Dev. @ 80
- 22% Std. Dev. @ Max
- 18% Max
- 37% Low-end Cutoff
Average frequency response performance. The response remains consistent at different volumes, and no pumping or compression is present. However, this TV doesn't get very loud and doesn't produce a lot of bass either.
- 20% Distortion @ 70
- 40% Distortion @ 80
- 40% Distortion @ Max
Decent harmonic distortion performance. The overall amount of harmonic distortion is relatively low, and remains mostly consistent even at maximum volume. But since this TV doesn't get very loud, not producing a lot of distortion is not difficult a task.
Smart Features
The Opera smart platform works well, and is smooth and easy to use. It has many of the popular apps such as Netflix and Amazon Video, and provides access to the Opera TV Store to download a wide variety of other apps. It allows playing photos or videos directly off a USB drive, which is great. Unfortunately it isn't all good, as we experienced a number of bugs during testing which made the TV sometimes problematic to use. On two occasions the HDMI ports stopped displaying a signal, and a factory reset was required.
The basic remote included with the TV is almost exactly the same as the one included with the Hisense H8C. It features the Sharp logo instead of the Hisense one, and has almost the same model number.
Differences between Sizes and Variants
We tested the 50" (50N7000U). For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 43" (43N7000U), 55" (55N7000U), 60" (60N7000U) and 65" (65N7000U).
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Sharp N7000U doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | Model |
| 43" | 43N7000U |
| 50" | 50N7000U |
| 55" | 55N7000U |
| 60" | 60N7000U |
| 65" | 65N7000U |
Compared to other TVs
The Sharp N7000U is a mid-range TV, with average picture quality. There are other competing TVs around the same price range which offer similar or better performance, and so it is hard to recommend this TV over the competition. It is almost the same as the cheaper Hisense H8C, but with slightly worse picture quality.
The Samsung KU6300 is often our top recommendation for a mid-range TV due to the good picture quality and motion handling. It also offers low input lag for gamers and chroma subsampling support for those who are looking for a PC monitor. It is priced the same as the Sharp N7000U so there's really no reason not to choose the Samsung KU6300.
The LG UH6100 is available in a smaller range of sizes but at a lower price. It uses a different type of panel which has worse picture quality when viewed in front, but provides a much better image when viewed at an angle. Unfortunately it uses an alternative pixel structure which is less accurate. For those with wide seating the LG UH6100 is the way to go.
The Hisense H8C is a very similar TV, despite the different branding. It has better picture quality, mostly due to the better uniformity and higher peak brightness. It is a good pick for an all-round TV and at a price lower than the Sharp N7000U it is a better choice for those on a stricter budget.
The Vizio D Series 4k 2016 is a budget TV available in a wide range of sizes. It has excellent gaming performance due to the low input lag and great motion handling. It has above average picture quality, however this degrades quite rapidly when viewed at an angle. As a PC monitor the Sharp N7000U is a better choice due to chroma subsampling support, but for other uses the Vizio D Series 4k 2016 is a better pick.
Conclusion
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Update 01/23/2018: There have been numerous reports that HDR has been enabled on HDMI ports 3 and 4 via a firmware update, though we are unable to confirm this as we no longer have this TV in our lab. The HDR scores have been updated where possible.
Update 01/23/2018: There have been numerous reports that HDR has been enabled on HDMI ports 3 and 4 via a firmware update, though we are unable to confirm this as we no longer have this TV in our lab. The HDR scores have been updated where possible.
