Review: Sharp 75-inch N8000U 4K Smart TV (LC-75N8000U)

It has actually been quite some time since we sat down with a Sharp TV. What used to be one of our favorite sources for models above 70-inches, Sharp has always been in an ongoing battle with Vizio for the  affordable TV market. However, things seem to have died down a little in the last few years as we received less intel from Sharp and didn’t run across anything to put our hands on.

Finally, our exposure has been renewed as we got to sit down with the N8000U to break it in and see what it can do. A massive 75-inches of screen, great for movies, games and more. It really turns heads as it’s not just big, but quite thin as well, making for a good solution for the wall.

About 60% of the TV is the kind of thin buyers are beginning to come to expect while the bottom 40% still packs all of your connection and chaos leaving wider profile. Thankfully, even with the bottom half, you are looking at 2.2-inches front to back. So couple this with a thin-profile mount and it looks perfect on the wall. Obviously not LG W Series perfect, but perfect enough and a fraction of the price.

The stand is a typical feet-style design and seems to hold the TV up well, despite the weight. The weight is up there, at more than 100lbs, so no matter how you approach displaying it (stand or wall), it is heavily advisable that you use at least two people to accomplish dragging it around.

Also something to note if mounting, you may find that some of the inputs such as HDMI may stick out. This happens with a lot of models as they don’t always take into face that you may be using a really low profile mount. The way around it is using 90 degree elbow adapters that can easily be found online for a small price. This helps by redirecting the cable downward vs outward.

Quality is up there and 4K looks mighty good. It isn’t quite to par with the Samsung and LG models that outweigh it in quality, but those also outweigh it in price (greatly in some cases). When I first laid my eyes on this screen, I first considered the 1080p Sharp models that we have covered in the past that were equal to or greater than the price of this one. This screen blows them away without a doubt. It also reminded me how 4K screens have finally hit that price point that’s comparable to what 1080p used to be.  If you aren’t looking for a discount bin model, then more than likely your next TV will be 4K. Thankfully, thanks to streaming solutions like Netflix, there is a pretty large selection of 4K material building now, which sells the shift towards”4K” all the better.

We did find ourselves breaking out the calibration disc to dial the screen in with. It took us a good 10 minutes or so to really get it somewhere, but we eventually came to a result we could all agree on. The outcome was a nice sharp picture with a good color range. Again, it’s not the best out there, but you are paying closer to $2K vs $8k+ for it.

We found some degradation (artifacts) in the image slightly towards the edges if you look real close. Thankfully, for a TV this size, you will (should) be sitting far enough from it that it wouldn’t be noticeable.  The blacks are pretty dark which made viewing it in a dark room fantastic and the colors made for great tests using a wide selection of Blu-ray movies.

Gaming looks real good on it, allowing you to get an eye full regardless of how far away your enemy is. There seems to be an average amount of delay, which didn’t seem to cause any handicaps out of the norm.

It does upscale content to 4K and does an ok job at doing so. The 1080p content we tested, sitting it side by side with a 60-inch Samsung 1080p, looked better on the Sharp 4K than the 1080p and this is despite it being 15-inches larger than it.

Ad – Buy Sharp’s 75-inch N8000U 4K Smart TV on Amazon 

All-in-all, when looking at price, this is a wonderful TV for those looking to keep cost down. Since we haven’t played with Sharp for awhile, we didn’t know what we were going to find this round. The result was exciting.

Smart Features:

Sharp has never been known for an amazing app market and this hasn’t changed. You do however have all of your favorite options to choose from. This should satisfy most everyone, so there isn’t too much to pick at there. You have Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube, Pandora, Facebook and more. Movies, TV, music and social media. All corners are covered, which won’t leave you thirsting for anything. (unless you have special content needs for things like anime).

Navigation is fast enough, preventing you from wanting to throw the remote around. The menus are not lagged, including the web browser, If you do find yourself taking advantage of browsers on your TVs, we would recommend a wireless keyboard for additional relief.

Connectivity:

Getting online isn’t an issue as you have both wired Ethernet as well as 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Given, this is expected anymore as any Smart TV has both of these options onboard (else, it just isn’t that smart as it claims to be). Keeping a connection is a smooth task as we never experienced any drop outs. We tend to bring the wireless source between 20-50 feet from a TV to see how it reacts, thus covering most home setups.

For inputs, you have four different HDMI options to choose from. Only two of these support 4K resolution, but that shouldn’t be an issue since hopefully you are using a receiver if you have enough devices in the mix of things. However, if you keep it simple with just a TV and find yourself with a cable box, Blu-ray player and let’s say an Xbox One S…you may run into a problem there if they are all 4K capable. HDMI #1 offers ARC (audio return channel). If you choose not to use ARC, you do get both analog and optical out for audio to send back to a receiver with.

Sound:

Thanks to the bulkier bottom half, there is space for speakers. This is something you begin to lose as the screen gets thinner and thinner. The Sharp actually puts out a decent amount of audio, allowing for both volume and a range that isn’t going to make you pull your hair out. Of course, it is still just a TV so I will recommend what we always do. If you need more than TV sound, then go with no less than a sound bar.

Our Conclusion

Yet another wonderful TV. It’s large and in charge and has a great picture to it. Best of all, it is 4K at the price of what a 1080p screen of the same size cost just a few years back. It’s not the best money can buy, but it will cost you a lot less than the best would. Great for all common living rooms as it fills so much space up on the wall. Great for movies, games and more. This proves Sharp is still around and doesn’t plan to back out of the game any time soon (hopefully).

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

Updates:

August 04, 2017: Refreshed the story with new links to fix any broken items.

Additional Images:

Specifications:

Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.