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At 52in across, the 52X20E is currently the largest LCD TV on Sharp's books - enough to ensure it's hitting the ground running in TrustedReviews' home cinema-loving opinion. Especially when we think back to the stunning standard of HD playback served up by the 46in Sharp LCD we tested, the LC-46LX2E.

If similar standards of HD quality can be attained by the 52X20E on its larger screen, then this could be one of our more pleasant afternoons in the test room.

The first thing to say about the 52X20E is that it sure packs a lot of screen. The unusual slenderness of its glossy black bezel really emphasises just how far 52 inches of TFT panel goes. The distinctive Sharp ‘silver wave' along the bottom edge ensures that the sight of so much screen acreage is anything but unattractive, though.

The 52X20E's connections are pretty much on the money, too. Which is to say they include three HDMIs (all built to the v1.3 standard), a component video input, a D-Sub PC port, a digital audio output, and an RS-232C port thrown in as an added system-integration bonus.

As you'd expect of such a king-sized screen, the 52X20E is a Full HD affair. And its other core specs look good too, with a healthy - though not earth-shattering - dynamic contrast ratio of 10,000:1, a fast response time of 4ms, and Sharp's TruD image processing to reduce judder.

As ever with an LCD TV we need to qualify the claimed contrast ratio by saying that it's only achievable by automatically reducing the TV's brightness output when dark scenes are detected, in order to boost black level response - something that rival plasma technology does not have to do to achieve its generally superior contrast levels.

But while this fact means that plasma still generally has the edge on black levels, it certainly doesn't mean that dynamic contrast systems can't deliver very likeable black level results if they're done right.

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