The pundits were right. The prices of high-definition televisions seem to be almost in free-fall at the moment, and at the top end of the market, that means a 1080p, 52-inch display such as Sharp's Aquos LC52XD1E can be picked up for just shy of £1,800 at the time of writing.

At its best, it's a glorious display too. With a 1,200:1 contrast ratio, 450cd/m2 brightness, 176 degree viewing angle and a fast 4ms response time, its specs are already strong for an LCD screen. But it's only when you switch it on that you appreciate why.

We hooked up a couple of high definition movies at first to see the top end of the set's capabilities. The computer animated movie Happy Feet looked absolutely stunning, with a clarity and depth of detail that goes beyond what you'd expect. The vividness of the colours genuinely knocked us back, with solid blacks at the other end of the scale similarly strong. In live action, the darkness of Batman Begins has rarely looked better, and across a selection of HD DVD and Blu-ray discs we were really very impressed.

Ironically - and this is a growing problem for users of larger LCD displays - the majority of regular material we viewed on the screen looked a little worse than we were expecting. There were exceptions, courtesy of some good upscaling technology employed by Sharp (certainly DVDs looked good), but when hooked up to Sky and terrestrial broadcasts, the Aquos naturally amplified any imperfections with the broadcast signal.

Our Sky box was the worst offender, as Sharp's set is the latest to highlight the poor levels of definition that many channels are compromised down to in order to be squeezed into the available bandwidth. It got to the point where on-screen channel signifiers were simply too blocky to read. That's not a fault of the Sharp set, but if you're looking to use a large, high definition set in a living room, as rightly you would, then it's a sad fact that this needs to be a consideration.

On a brighter note, we also connected up a PC to the 15-pin VGA port at the back of the screen (no DVI connection, sadly, so it's out with the adapter if that's what you have), and had enormous fun with it. It certainly adds to gaming, and Command & Conquer 3 looked quite superb. We tried gaming in 1080p via a PlayStation 3 too, and again, it simply looked glorious. Some users, incidentally, appear to have complained of a slight banding issue when connected to a PC, but we couldn't replicate that problem in our tests.

Where Sharp has been a little tight is in the connectivity options around the back. You can hook the screen up using a tidy, well concealed selection of choices, which include two SCARTs, component, VGA (which, thanks to an included adapter cable, can also handle high definition component) and two HDMI. We'd argue that the person looking to spend a couple of thousand pounds on a high definition screen is likely to need, at some point, at the very least three HDMIs, and it's surprising that Sharp has been so reserved in its provision here.

If you also wanted to be picky, the remote control is good but not great, and the response time of the Aquos to its demands was a little more sluggish than we'd like. The on-screen set up is very good, though, and the menu system is both logical and easy to work through. One further minor note: the in-built sound system is good, but hardly premium quality, and to get the most from the LC52XD1E we'd recommend using it in conjunction with a good surround sound system.

These niggles aside, though, there's little doubt that the Sharp display delivers where it matters. The picture quality when allied to strong source material is blindingly good, and given how the price tag compares to other manufacturers' screens of similar size and resolution, it's also good value. £1,800's worth of value, that is, which isn't everyone's idea of a bargain, but nonetheless a keen comparative price for a very strong display.

On top form, the Aquos is capable of quite superb output, and while a few minor niggles do irritate, the end result is quite irresistible.