Sharp Intros IT-23M1U LCD HDTV Monitor

While Sharp’s continues pushing its home Aquos LCD TV line, they’ve also been quietly gaining accolades on their ‘desktop’ LCDs with TV support. The new 23″ IT LCD looks pretty impressive!

As it is meant to be a cross between a TV and a desktop panel, its resolution is targeted toward the HDTV marketplace – that is to say it’s an 1366x768 HD display, and not the higher 1900x1200 resolution that the more desktop targeted 23″ displays might have.

It’s a serious monitor, with a 550:1 contrast ratio, and 500 nits brightness, plus a viewing angle of 176 degrees along both the horizontal and vertical. The backlight is rated at 50,000 hours, which will last a mighty, mighty long time! In addition, for serious graphics and video folks, the monitor is rated as sRGB compliant and has a ICC profile for color correction.

As a serious multi-format display, the IT-23M1U packs both standard LCD inputs, DVI-D and VGA-analog, plus a composite jack, S-video jack, progressive component inputs (this IS a hi-def monitor after all!), and audio jacks supplying sound to the integrated 10W stereo speakers – and they’ve even added Dolby virtualization technologies for improved surround effects. Throw in a NTSC tuner, remote control, stretch modes to best fit video signals to the screen, a 16ms response rate for great gaming and movie playback, and PIP/split-screen to work and play at the same time, and this is one awesome display.

At a street price of around $1400, it’s extremely competitive with other 23″ LCD HDTVs of this quality. Obviously, it’s hard to compare to something like the HP L2335 which has portait rotation and 1900x1200 resolution, but that’s a desktop targeted display, with no speakers, no tuner, no remote control. This is the type of display that will do extremely well in smaller rooms, dens, bedrooms, apartments, etc., where space is an issue.

Read on for the full press release.