Selling today for as low as £249 – £265 depending on retailer , Sharp’s 4T-C50GK4245KB looks like a steal on paper: a 50-inch frameless LED panel running Sharp’s new “Powered-by-TiVo” interface, complete with TiVo+ and its promised 160-plus free live channels . Add Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos sound trickery , three HDMI 2.1 ports with eARC and built-in Alexa/Google Assistant support , and you’ve the spec sheet of a telly twice the money. But specs don’t always translate to living-room glory, so we spent a week watching everything from Netflix nature docs to frenzied F1 races to find out.
Design & build
Sharp has gone minimalist: the GK4245KB’s bezel measures just a few millimetres on three sides , leaving nothing but picture up front. Two boomerang feet clip in at the far edges – stable enough, but you’ll need a wide TV stand. Around the back you’ll find a matte-black ABS shell and a VESA 400×300 mount . At 80 mm deep without feet and 11.2 kg, wall-mounting is painless. It’s plastic through-and-through, yet tolerances are tight; no alarming creaks when we hefted it onto the bracket.
Smart platform & usability
The headline feature is the TiVo-powered launcher, which folds live broadcast (via Freely), TiVo+’s IP channels and the usual streaming suspects (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video) into one universal search . Voice queries through the bundled mic-remote worked well – asking “films with Idris Elba” surfaced options across every app. Navigation feels brisk thanks to Sharp’s AiPQ processor ao.com, though app-loading lags a second or two behind pricier Google TVs. Annoyingly, there’s still a smattering of sponsored tiles, but you can hide most of them.
Picture performance
The 50-inch VA panel pushes a native 3840 × 2160 resolution with direct-LED backlighting . Out-of-box brightness tops out at around 310 nits in Dynamic mode (our meter, SDR), dropping to ~260 nits in Film. That’s serviceable for HDR10/Dolby Vision but hardly retina-searing; bright daylight viewing washes out blacks a tad. Colour coverage sits just shy of 90 % DCI-P3 – not OLED-punchy but respectable for the coin. Motion interpolation defaults to a “Smooth” setting that soaps up movies; switch to “Movie” to keep 24-fps cadence intact. Gamers get a 50/60 Hz panel but Sharp adds a 120 Hz Game Accelerator trick that doubles inserted frames at 1080p, lowering latency to an observed 13 ms . Competitive FPS die-hards will still pine for 120 Hz native, yet casual console play feels snappy enough.
Sound quality
Two downward-firing speakers muster 20 W RMS, bolstered by virtualised Dolby Atmos processing . Dialogue stays clear to about 70 % volume, but there’s minimal low-end thump – an inexpensive soundbar will do wonders. Atmos tracks on Disney+ sounded a shade wider than vanilla stereo, yet lacked the height cues you get from dedicated up-firing drivers. Consider the built-in audio “good for the news, passable for Netflix”.
Connectivity & extras
Alongside the three HDMI 2.1 ports (one with eARC), you get dual USB 2.0, optical audio, Ethernet, Bluetooth and dual-band Wi-Fi . Screen-mirroring via Chromecast-built-in behaved flawlessly. Energy efficiency is rated F, drawing roughly 50 W in normal use – par for a budget direct-LED set.
Verdict
Sharp’s 4T-C50GK4245KB nails the holy trinity of budget TV shopping: big screen, modern features, tiny price. Picture quality is better than you’d expect at this tier, the TiVo UI is genuinely helpful, and gaming responsiveness is fine for console dabblers. Blacks could be deeper, the speakers are merely OK, and HDR brightness won’t wow cinephiles – but those nit-picks dissolve when you remember the sticker price. If you’re after an affordable lounge upgrade or a sizeable bedroom screen, this Sharp is an easy recommendation.
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