pixel 3a lcd screen free sample

I was very impressed by iFixit’s Pixel 3a Screen Replacement kit, but naturally I bought it for a reason. I have a Pixel 3a with a shattered screen I wanted to fix by following their instructions.

Well, “shattered” might be going a bit too far but it was definitely broken well beyond just “cracked”. Amazingly enough, the phone still ran in this state. As we can see here, the display works just fine. However, touch responsiveness isn’t great on account of all the cracks running throughout the screen. There are several scattered dead spots. Inconveniently, a few dead spots were where the keyboard would live which makes it a challenge to put in WiFi passwords and such. (* one workaround below)

Near the bottom of the screen, small bits are missing allowing us to see the phone internals within. Given this damage, I was amazed touch input still worked at all. My first order of business was to remove this impressively damaged screen. A suction cup was included in the iFixit kit to grab onto glass, but it could not get a good seal on this screen: too many cracks let in air and ruin the suction.

At certain locations, putting too much stress would damage the optically clear resin bonding the touch digitizer glass to the OLED screen. Bubbles would form, and the bonding is no longer optically clear. This would be a concern if I wanted to reuse this screen, but due to that same resin I could not.

It took me roughly half an hour of painstaking work to free the old screen from the adhesive holding it down all around the phone. Occasionally the “pain” is literal as small shards of glass stabbed into my hand. Fortunately, no blood was drawn.

After doing that comparison, I unplugged the old screen and plugged in the new one. I wanted to be sure the new screen will work before I roll up my sleeve for the tedious work of cleaning up.

If the new screen didn’t work, I didn’t want to waste my time on annoying tasks. Cleaning up remaining shards of glass, wipe up dirt, and my least favorite part of working with modern electronics: scraping off gummy bits of adhesive.

Once most of the adhesive was cleaned up (as much as I had patience for) I transferred this light gray piece of plastic camera surround. Then I followed the iFixit guide for applying custom-cut piece of new adhesive and installed the new screen in its home.

Left: a stack of plastic backings to protect adhesives and glass surfaces. Center: the old screen in one large and many small pieces. Right: the repaired phone with its shiny new intact screen!

For the most part, the Pixel 3a XL makes the right compromises to hit a more affordable price point. This is the same Pixel experience you get on the full-fat Pixel 3 right down to the image quality. An affordable phone, however, this is not. In markets like India, fierce competition makes the Pixel 3a XL hard to justify unless an excellent camera is your primary motivation to buy a premium smartphone.

This device is no longer widely available. The Google Pixel 3a XL is now unavailable to buy from most retailers. If you are looking for an alternative device, check out our list of the best Android phones you can buy and the best budget phones.

Last year wasn’t all that great for Google’s Pixel 3 lineup. Plagued by a myriad of issues and an increase in prices, the phones shipped lesser numbers than the already limited volumes of the Pixel 2 series. Now more than ever, Google needs a more affordable entryway into the Pixel family. Bringing the same core experience as the flagships, the new Pixel 3a and 3a XL are designed to appeal to the average buyer who doesn’t care about specifications as long as user experience is great.

I’ve spent a full week using the Google Pixel 3a XL as my primary smartphone. I used the phone on Airtel’s network in Delhi as well as in Goa. The phone ships with Android Pie and the March 5 security patch. Our Pixel 3a XL review unit was running build number PD2A.190115.029.

The Pixel 3A series represents a bold new effort by Google to democratize the Pixel experience. The phone distills the flagship experience to its basics, drops the cruft and offers a clean vision of what Google wants Android phones to be.

For a phone that costs almost half the price of the full-fledged Pixel flagships, Google has done a remarkable job at achieving parity as far as experience is concerned. At no point in my week with the phone did I feel the Pixel 3a XL offered a significantly worse experience compared to the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL.

Pricing, of course, is relative. This is not a budget smartphone. An affordable Pixel at best, it’s more expensive than many affordable flagships in competitive markets like India. Using the phone is an intuitive experience and the Pixel 3a XL simply melds into your day-to-day use. Truth be told, the Pixel 3a XL left me conflicted. This is a phone that offers a truly fantastic user experience but is incredibly hard to recommend in key markets because of the sheer value and specs competitors offer.Google Pixel 4a: Your buying guide

Even in June 2020, with the Pixel 4a in the offing, the Pixel 3a XL offers tremendous value to buyers and is worth looking at if you are in the market for a new phone.

Over three generations of hardware, Google has constantly cut design cruft away. As a result, the Pixel design language feels almost organic in nature. The 3a looks nearly identical to the Pixel 3-series in its minimalist approach to design.

Placed next to the Pixel 3 XL, the design of the Pixel 3a XL looks nearly identical. The major difference is the glass build has been switched out for polycarbonate. Like the more expensive models, the 3a XL too has a seamless transition between the glossy upper-third and the matte section.

You’ll find the same Pixel Imprint fingerprint sensor here as on the Pixel 3/XL, and the same single camera module. The Pixel Imprint fingerprint sensor continuously improves detection rate and security with repeated use. The Pixel 3a XL also includes the Titan M security module from the flagship Pixel phones. Titan M brings added security to the Pixel phones and is responsible for storing all biometric and lock code data.

Look towards the top of the phone and you’ll be in for a surprise. Google has backtracked from their decision to get rid of headphone jacks, at least for their budget models. The Pixel 3a has dual stereo speakers as well. There’s one in the earpiece, while the other is a downward-firing speaker along the bottom edge. The lower speaker, predictably, gets muffled every time you hold the phone in a landscape orientation. Speaker output is reasonably loud and while it doesn’t have the low-end output of some competing devices, highs sound clear and there is no crackling even at high volumes.

The front of the Pixel 3a XL is perhaps the most polarizing element of the design. The massive bezels along the top, bottom, and even the sides are not doing the phone any favors. In a world where manufacturers are going the extra mile to maximize screen real estate, the Pixel 3a XL proudly bears a positively ancient-looking forehead and chin. Google’s affordable Pixels definitely cannot compete with the stunning designs being put out by Android OEMs in this regard.

That said, there is something almost endearing about the design and the perfectly weighted build makes using the Pixel 3a XL a joy. The premium materials and excellent ergonomics go a long way in making sure that the Pixel 3a XL is comfortable to hold and use.

The Google Pixel 3a XL is equipped with a 6-inch OLED display. The screen looks tack-sharp and has all the traits of a great OLED panel, including vibrant colors and fantastic viewing angles. Our testing revealed peak brightness levels of just over 400nits, which isn’t all that great for a premium smartphone. While the screen was viewable outdoors, things weren’t ideal and a brighter screen would have definitely come in handy.

Set to adaptive mode, the display on the Pixel 3a XL is very accurate, with just a mild saturation boost that helps color pop. The implementation is very subtle, but should you want a more natural look, it’s possible to switch to an sRGB color profile. When switched over to natural, the display comes across as one of the most accurate panels around, with extremely neutral looking colors.

Google’s Pixel series has never really been about top-tier specifications. Even today, the top-end Pixel 3 ships with just 4GB of RAM and that’s exactly the amount of RAM you get on the Pixel 3a XL as well. This is paired with a Snapdragon 670 chipset. The phone is available in a single version with just 64GB of storage. This is way too low, and, after restoring my phone backup, I was left with under half that. While I don’t expect Google to add a microSD card slot to their phone, a higher storage variant would have been more than welcome.

No matter which way you look at it, the Pixel 3a XL does not offer the most value as far as specifications are concerned. However, a spec sheet does not make a phone. In my week with the phone, not once did I feel the phone was running out of steam. The entire experience has been polished to a sheen and I’m yet to run across a single stutter or lag. That’s exactly why you buy a Pixel smartphone.

There are, of course, some caveats to using a mid-tier chipset. Opening a large PDF took a few more seconds than I’m used to on a higher-end phone. Post-processing in the camera app takes a few more seconds than it would on the higher-end Pixels. This is, of course, to be expected when using a mid-range phone. The lack of the Pixel Visual Core also plays a role in increasing photo processing time in third-party apps.

RAM management continues to be iffy on the Pixel 3a XL. While the phone usually managed things well, there were a few occasions when the music player force closed when I launched an additional app or the Twitter app would load up from scratch. This is a direct result of the somewhat limited amount of RAM available on the phone.

While the regular Pixel 3 and 3 XL suffered from poor battery longevity, the Pixel 3a XL has been rather excellent. A large 3,700mAh battery cell paired with a lower-resolution display and a more frugal processor means that the phone comfortably lasts a full day of extensive use. During my week with the phone, I regularly got close to eight hours and above of screen-on time. At my briefing with Google, the company claimed improving battery life was a key goal while developing the Pixel 3a XL. My time with the phone seems to confirm their claim.

The bundled 18W USB-PD-compliant wall charger can speedily charge up the phone. Charging the phone fully from scratch took about 160 minutes, which is extremely slow as far as “fast-charging” solutions are concerned. Dropping wireless charging support as a cost-cutting measure might also be disappointing to some. It’s definitely a missed opportunity to promote the Pixel Stand alongside the phone.

A significant part of the appeal of the Google Pixel is its clean software build. The Pixel 3a XL is no exception. It ships with Android Pie out of the box and it guarantees three years of software updates. The phone has absolutely no bloat onboard. While you can read more about the software here in our Android Pie review, we’ll touch on some of the features exclusive to the phone.

An interesting feature that has carried down from the higher-end Google Pixels is Active Edge. Squeezing the sides of the phone triggers Google Assistant and lets you initiate searches and request without having to pull it up via a gesture.

Also unique and new to the Google Pixel 3a XL and the broader Pixel series is support for AR in Google Maps. Using the feature, you will be able to get direction information overlaid on top of a map of your surroundings. The phone is able to recognize buildings and surroundings and overlay visual signs over them. Unfortunately, this feature is not supported in India due to the lack of Street View data.

Call Screening is another feature unique to the Pixel series. In supported markets, the feature is able to recognize and live-transcribe calls from unknown numbers to reduce the number of spam calls. The Pixel 3a XL also gets the Now Playing feature that Google debuted with the Pixel 2 XL. Using an onboard database of a few thousand songs, the phone can recognize music playing around you and give you an easy-to-access history of all the tracks.

While the 3a retains most of the major software features of Pixel phones, there is one notable omission. The Pixel 3a XL does not ship with support for unlimited full-resolution image backups. We suspect that this was done to differentiate the budget Pixel from the premium device, but it is still very disappointing to see such a key element of the Pixel experience missing from the phone.

Over the last few months, Google has been quick to update the Pixel 3a XL along with the rest of the Pixel lineup. A big selling point for the phone is guaranteed updates, and true to its promise, Google brought the Android 10 update for the phone way back in September 2019. As of the time of the latest revision of this Pixel 3a XL review, the phone is up to date with the March 2020 security patch.

Google has also taken to adding fresh features via feature drops. This includes features like adding a boarding pass to Google Pay using a screenshot or the ability to access cards and passes by holding down the power button. Additionally, it is possible to schedule dark mode or change phone status using rules-based profiles.

One of the tent poles of the Pixel experience is a superior imaging experience. The Pixel 3a XL delivers that as well. The phone sports the same rear-camera module as the full-blown Pixel 3, and other than slower processing, there is practically no difference in image quality between the two phones. The rear sensor and all accompanying algorithms are exactly the same as on the Pixel 3 XL and the Pixel 3a XL.

However, the front camera is a step down from the dual-camera set up on the Pixel 3. The phone has a single 8MP camera with a fixed focus lens and 84-degree field of view. This is significantly lower than the 97 degrees offered by the wide-selfie camera on the Pixel 3. In other words, you won’t be getting as many people into the frame with the Pixel 3a series. The phone compensates for the lack of a “regular” camera by cropping into the frame.

The front-facing camera can capture great-looking shots but there is a noticeable reduction in quality compared to the selfies shot on the flagship Pixels. There is a bit more noise, the frame of view is lower and images are just a bit softer on details.

The Pixel 3a XL gets all the software goodies Google introduced on the Pixel 3, including Top Shot, Photobooth mode, and the much-vaunted Night Sight feature. Newly launched with the Pixel 3a XL is a Time Lapse feature that lets you easily capture, well, timelapses. The feature is quite straightforward and lets you shoot 10-second clips with images captured over 50 seconds, all the way up to 20 minutes.

Google’s HDR algorithms are some of the best in the industry and the Pixel 3a XL is able to capture images with excellent dynamic range. Shooting in strong sunshine, the phone managed to evenly light up the lifeguard while preserving the highlights on the water.

Close-up shots look great, with ample details and very natural-looking color rendering. There is a very slight saturation bump in the images, but it tends to give the final result an almost film-like character. While this is not the most versatile camera on the market (the Huawei P30 Pro would take the cake for that), the Pixel series is one of the most reliable shooters. It’s hard to get a bad shot with the camera of the Pixel 3a.

Low-light results are fantastic as well, with ample detail and limited noise. In adverse lighting conditions, the phone pops up a reminder to use the Night Sight mode. The latter stacks data from multiple images to reduce noise. The end result is a bright-looking image with limited noise. As it stands, Night Sight mode on the Google Pixel 3a XL is second only to the Huawei P30 Pro and its Super Spectrum sensor in its low-light image capturing ability. Here’s our Pixel 3 and Huawei P30 Pro camera comparison for a deep dive on both phones’ capabilities.

Video recording on the Pixel 3a XL goes all the way up to 4K at 30 frames per second. Fused stabilization using OIS and EIS does a very good job and the footage looks sharp and mostly free of noise. It is however not as versatile as the Huawei P30 Pro and the Galaxy S10 series, which offer more control and even HDR video recording.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 3a XL received astrophotography mode support late last year, which should make it even better for night-time long exposure photography.

12.2MP Dual-Pixel Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4µm pixels, 76-degree field-of-view, autofocus with dual-pixel phase detection, optical + electronic image stabilization

12.2MP Dual-Pixel Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4µm pixels, 76-degree field-of-view, autofocus with dual-pixel phase detection, optical + electronic image stabilization

It is incredibly hard to ascertain value to the Google Pixel 3a XL. Prices for the phone vary drastically depending on the market, but one thing is for sure, if specifications are a key buying criterion for you, the Pixel 3a XL will almost certainly not cut it.

The OnePlus 7 delivers a lot more punch as far as hardware is concerned for not much more money. In fact, in India you could net the top-end OnePlus 7 with 256GB of storage and still save some money over buying the Pixel 3a XL. Add to it other devices like the Redmi K20 Pro or Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, among others, and the Pixel 3a XL looks like anything but a value proposition.

Take away the spec sheet element though, and the Pixel 3a XL delivers an incredible experience for the average smartphone buyer. The camera is phenomenal and unmatched by any phone at Pixel 3a XL’s price point, and even higher.

Ultimately, it comes down to your smartphone usage patterns. If you find yourself playing a lot of games or pushing your phone’s hardware with a whole lot of apps, it’s hard to make a case for the Pixel 3a XL. For everyone else, Google finally has a really good option that gets you the core flagship experience at a fraction of the cost.

The Pixel 3a XL takes the best of what Google’s flagships have to offer and brings it to a much more palatable price point. For the most part, Google has made the right compromises in delivering a phone that provides a legitimately great user experience, over a beefed-up spec sheet and half-baked software.

This is a phone designed for regular people who just want a phone that can capture great memories, deliver solid battery life, and will last them a good few years. For me, the Pixel 3a XL  is definitely worth a recommendation. The Pixel 4a might be coming up soon, but that doesn’t mean that the Pixel 3a XL doesn’t continue to deliver on what it set to promise.

Even in May 2020, the Pixel 3a XL presents excellent value. It can often be got for much lower than the sticker price and delivers on its promise of excellent imaging, fast updates, and smooth and clean user experience. Arguably, it is one of the best devices that Google has made. While we’ve seen rumors of an upcoming Pixel 4a, you can’t go wrong with the 3a XL if all you want is a well-performing budget phone with a fantastic camera and support.

That wraps up our Google Pixel 3a XL review. Would you consider buying one? Or will you prefer something with a bit more grunt under-the-hood? Let us know in the comments section.

The Google Pixel 3 XL is known for sporting what is arguably the most invasive notch of any smartphone display, cutting in deep from the top edge of the frame in an effort to grant you a bigger screen overall – in my opinion it was the wrong call and it looks like Google thought the same when it came time to assemble the Pixel 3a XL.

Along with the standard Pixel 3a, the 3a XL is also one of only a handful of phones to boast an OLED display below the £500 price barrier. This is reason enough for media fans and photographers to appreciate what the 3a XL has to offer but the fact that it’s the larger of the two Pixel 3as also means it’s better-suited to enjoying videos.

Nits, being a measure of intensity divided by area is the best metric when assessing screen brightness. The use of an OLED panel means that, when showing black, the Pixel 3a XL’s screen emits no light at all, while LCD-based competitors, like the Moto G7 Plus, still produce a reading – LCDs can’t show true blacks. It’s also why the phone’s contrast ratio registers as infinite, as a ratio that includes zero has no inherent value in this context.

As for the other end of the spectrum, the Pixel 3a XL boasts impressive maximum brightness, especially for what could be considered an affordable OLED phone. This is surprising as, with adaptive brightness enabled, the phone usually appears too dim, especially when viewed outside – a quick push of the brightness should rectify things, however.

LCD panels typically shine brighter, which is true here too – based on similarly priced competitors. Breaking past 400 nits should be good enough for most situations though, and better yet, the 3a XL surpassed both the Pixel 3 XL and Pixel 3a in this department. It’s worth noting that unlike the standard Pixel 3 series, the 3a series doesn’t support HDR viewing.

Beyond good blacks and overall brightness, the Pixel 3a XL also boasts excellent colour gamut coverage for a phone of its standing. The most common sRGB standard is fully covered, while the DCI-P3 space, which is used by the digital film industry, is almost completely covered; something that flagship Pixel 3s are known to support in full.

The lower Adobe RGB gamut score holds less weight where the Pixel 3a XL is concerned but the phone’s score and subsequent adherence is still decent, especially for a sub-£500 handset.

OLED panels used to have an overtly cool inherent base colour temperature. With a reading of 6532K, the smaller Pixel 3a does a better job of meeting that ideal 6500K value, while the 3a XL reads surprisingly warm out-the-box, at 6354K.

In Union Repair store, we grade our iPhone screen into 5 different types of quality on the basis of different material assembled. The following is the full details of each condition.

It is with widely accept major complaint replacements for original parts, which keeps a right balance between price and quality. It has sustainable supplying chain in China, and all the components of the screen are copy quality. Typically, the LCD screen is from several different factories, the most popular 4 on China market are JK,AUO, LongTeng, and ShenChao. By comparing the brightness and sharpness of the LCD, we found JK is the best quality among them and the second best is AUO. No doubt, the other components on the screen are all copy.

It is better than After Market Basic cause it comes with original laminated flexes and the LCD panel. Other components like touch panel, frame(hot pressed), backlight, polarize lens, and OCA is all copy from different factories.

The core components (like LCD and flexes) is 100% original pulled from used iPhone while the frame and touch panel is copy. The touch panel and frame come together with cold pressed glue and assembled together with the LCD by the capable third-party factory which keeps its excellent quality.

No doubt, it is tear down from used iPhone with all the parts 100% original and working perfectly just like an original new screen, it has whatever the original new screen has. The only complaint about this quality is that some of the displays are with 1 or 2 scratches but still be welcome by our critical customers who are requiring good quality.

It is 100% original from Apple-authorized factories like Toshiba, Sharp, and LG. We get this kind of screen from the first level dealer. The touch panel of the screen is oleophobic coated which prevents from fingerprints when using your iPhone. And starting with iPhone 7g, the backlight from different authorized factories comes with a different code. Backlight from Sharp has the code begins with DKH/CON, from Toshiba begins with C11/F7C/FZQ, from LG begins with DTP/C3F.

The Pixel 7 offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed security updates through fall 2027—plus the best Android smartphone camera we’ve ever tested. It also has excellent build quality and costs half as much as Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Google’s Pixel smartphones have always offered the best Android software experience, but the Google Pixel 7 proves that Google is taking the hardware seriously, as well. It has a crisp 6.3-inch OLED screen and a solid wrap-around aluminum frame. The Pixel 7 also offers the best camera performance of any Android phone save for its sibling, the Pixel 7 Pro, and Google’s custom Tensor G2 processor holds its own against the high-end chips in other phones. In addition, the Pixel 7 is more likely to remain secure for years longer than most Android phones thanks to its five years of guaranteed monthly patches. And at $600, it costs hundreds less than other Android phones that won’t last as long or perform as well.

The Google Pixel 7 Pro is similar to the Pixel 7 but adds a larger OLED screen with a higher resolution and refresh rate, more expansive 5G support, and a 5x telephoto camera. These improvements bump the price up to $900, so the value isn’t quite as strong as with the Pixel 7. But the Pixel 7 Pro is a more capable phone with the same excellent software and five years of update support.

For quite a bit less, the Pixel 6a offers the same excellent version of Android as the Pixel 7 with updates through 2027, and it has the high-end Tensor processor that debuted in the Pixel 6. The camera is a step down from those in new flagship Pixels, but it’s still better than those in some phones costing hundreds more.

The Google Pixel 6a is priced $150 lower than the Pixel 7 but still has almost every feature you might expect from a high-end phone. The Pixel 6a runs on Google’s clean, fast version of Android 13, with five years of guaranteed security updates. It also offers camera performance that surpasses what you can get from phones that may cost twice as much, though it’s not as good in that regard as the Pixel 7. On top of that, the Pixel 6a’s screen lacks the high refresh rate of the Pixel 7 and Samsung Galaxy S22 displays, so it doesn’t scroll as smoothly and isn’t as bright.

A fast processor, a huge screen, class-leading camera hardware, and even a stylus make the Galaxy S22 Ultra the most full-featured Android phone available. But you should buy it only if it’s on sale.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is essentially a Galaxy Note by another name. It has the biggest, brightest screen of any smartphone you can buy, and the included S Pen can help you take notes, mark up documents, and create art in ways you can’t do on any other phone. It offers the best build quality of any Android phone, with a custom aluminum-alloy frame that wraps around the edges, and the matte glass repels fingerprints. The S22 Ultra also has the best camera hardware in a phone, including a 10x “periscope” zoom lens and manual controls for more experienced photographers. Its primary drawback is its high regular price of $1,200—for $300 less, the Pixel 7 Pro is better at most things. While the S22 Ultra has better camera hardware, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro’s camera software helps them produce great photos without the need for fine-tuning. The S22 Ultra is ideal if you demand maximum versatility from your phone, but you should buy it only on sale—we recommend purchasing when it’s closer to $1,000, or if you have an older Samsung phone to trade in.

How much does it cost to replace a Pixel screen? It depends on your model and selected repair option. Here’s a comparison of the Google Pixel screen repair cost for different models and options.

Google Pixel screen repair options and costs Google Pixel screen replacement costs vary by model and the repair option you choose. Here’s what to expect.

Warranty repair: $0 All new Pixels are covered by Google’s 12-month warranty, which offers free repairs for covered malfunctions and defects. Of course, a cracked screen is usually a result of accidental damage, which isn’t covered by the warranty. If you believe your Pixel screen was cracked due to a manufacturing defect, you can make your case to Google. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay for repair.

Google Preferred Care: $29 to $129 If you purchased Google Preferred Care with your Pixel, your deductible will range between $29 and $129. You’ll get a $50 discount if you take it to a walk-in center instead of mailing it in for repair (walk-ins are serviced at UBreakIFix locations). Google Preferred Care coverage costs $89 for Pixel 3a and 3a XL phones and $129 for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones.

Professional Google Pixel repair: $99 to $280 Professional screen replacement costs vary by model and repair shop, but in general you can expect to pay between $99 and $280 – on the low end for older Pixel models and on the high end for recent flagships. It’s a good idea to shop around to get the best deal. For example, My Broken Phone charges $159 to replace a Pixel 3a XL screen, but UBreakIFix charges $120. However, UBreakIFix charges $280 to repair a Pixel 3 XL screen, but My Broken Phone will do it for $199.Google Pixel ModelUBreakIFixMy Broken Phone

DIY Google Pixel repair: $40 to $220 If you have the skills, you can repair your own Google Pixel screen with an LCD and digitizer assembly from sites like iFixit, Repairs Universe and DirectFix. Find step-by-step instructions on sites like YouTube and iFixit.Google Pixel ModelEstimated Replacement Screen Price

$45 to $130 If you go the DIY route, be forewarned that if you make a mistake you could cause additional damage that’s expensive to fix, plus void any warranties and insurance policies. You’ll also need the right tools, though you can find toolkits for as little as $5. Some parts stores even sell Google Pixel screen replacement kits complete with the LCD/digitizer assembly and tools.

Even if you can see the larger model of the Pixel 3a series on the pictures – you can use the instruction for your Google Pixel 3a as well, because the devices are constructed in the same way. You can find the matching replacement display for the Pixel 3a in our store.

Glass substrate with ITO electrodes. The shapes of these electrodes will determine the shapes that will appear when the LCD is switched ON. Vertical ridges etched on the surface are smooth.

A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directlybacklight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome.seven-segment displays, as in a digital clock, are all good examples of devices with these displays. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made from a matrix of small pixels, while other displays have larger elements. LCDs can either be normally on (positive) or off (negative), depending on the polarizer arrangement. For example, a character positive LCD with a backlight will have black lettering on a background that is the color of the backlight, and a character negative LCD will have a black background with the letters being of the same color as the backlight. Optical filters are added to white on blue LCDs to give them their characteristic appearance.

LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including LCD televisions, computer monitors, instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, and indoor and outdoor signage. Small LCD screens are common in LCD projectors and portable consumer devices such as digital cameras, watches, calculators, and mobile telephones, including smartphones. LCD screens have replaced heavy, bulky and less energy-efficient cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays in nearly all applications. The phosphors used in CRTs make them vulnerable to image burn-in when a static image is displayed on a screen for a long time, e.g., the table frame for an airline flight schedule on an indoor sign. LCDs do not have this weakness, but are still susceptible to image persistence.

Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned between two transparent electrodes, often made of Indium-Tin oxide (ITO) and two polarizing filters (parallel and perpendicular polarizers), the axes of transmission of which are (in most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. Without the liquid crystal between the polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter would be blocked by the second (crossed) polarizer. Before an electric field is applied, the orientation of the liquid-crystal molecules is determined by the alignment at the surfaces of electrodes. In a twisted nematic (TN) device, the surface alignment directions at the two electrodes are perpendicular to each other, and so the molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist. This induces the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and the device appears gray. If the applied voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in the center of the layer are almost completely untwisted and the polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized perpendicular to the second filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel will appear black. By controlling the voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer in each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying amounts thus constituting different levels of gray.

The chemical formula of the liquid crystals used in LCDs may vary. Formulas may be patented.Sharp Corporation. The patent that covered that specific mixture expired.

Most color LCD systems use the same technique, with color filters used to generate red, green, and blue subpixels. The LCD color filters are made with a photolithography process on large glass sheets that are later glued with other glass sheets containing a TFT array, spacers and liquid crystal, creating several color LCDs that are then cut from one another and laminated with polarizer sheets. Red, green, blue and black photoresists (resists) are used. All resists contain a finely ground powdered pigment, with particles being just 40 nanometers across. The black resist is the first to be applied; this will create a black grid (known in the industry as a black matrix) that will separate red, green and blue subpixels from one another, increasing contrast ratios and preventing light from leaking from one subpixel onto other surrounding subpixels.Super-twisted nematic LCD, where the variable twist between tighter-spaced plates causes a varying double refraction birefringence, thus changing the hue.

LCD in a Texas Instruments calculator with top polarizer removed from device and placed on top, such that the top and bottom polarizers are perpendicular. As a result, the colors are inverted.

The optical effect of a TN device in the voltage-on state is far less dependent on variations in the device thickness than that in the voltage-off state. Because of this, TN displays with low information content and no backlighting are usually operated between crossed polarizers such that they appear bright with no voltage (the eye is much more sensitive to variations in the dark state than the bright state). As most of 2010-era LCDs are used in television sets, monitors and smartphones, they have high-resolution matrix arrays of pixels to display arbitrary images using backlighting with a dark background. When no image is displayed, different arrangements are used. For this purpose, TN LCDs are operated between parallel polarizers, whereas IPS LCDs feature crossed polarizers. In many applications IPS LCDs have replaced TN LCDs, particularly in smartphones. Both the liquid crystal material and the alignment layer material contain ionic compounds. If an electric field of one particular polarity is applied for a long period of time, this ionic material is attracted to the surfaces and degrades the device performance. This is avoided either by applying an alternating current or by reversing the polarity of the electric field as the device is addressed (the response of the liquid crystal layer is identical, regardless of the polarity of the applied field).

Displays for a small number of individual digits or fixed symbols (as in digital watches and pocket calculators) can be implemented with independent electrodes for each segment.alphanumeric or variable graphics displays are usually implemented with pixels arranged as a matrix consisting of electrically connected rows on one side of the LC layer and columns on the other side, which makes it possible to address each pixel at the intersections. The general method of matrix addressing consists of sequentially addressing one side of the matrix, for example by selecting the rows one-by-one and applying the picture information on the other side at the columns row-by-row. For details on the various matrix addressing schemes see passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs.

LCDs are manufactured in cleanrooms borrowing techniques from semiconductor manufacturing and using large sheets of glass whose size has increased over time. Several displays are manufactured at the same time, and then cut from the sheet of glass, also known as the mother glass or LCD glass substrate. The increase in size allows more displays or larger displays to be made, just like with increasing wafer sizes in semiconductor manufacturing. The glass sizes are as follows:

Until Gen 8, manufacturers would not agree on a single mother glass size and as a result, different manufacturers would use slightly different glass sizes for the same generation. Some manufacturers have adopted Gen 8.6 mother glass sheets which are only slightly larger than Gen 8.5, allowing for more 50 and 58 inch LCDs to be made per mother glass, specially 58 inch LCDs, in which case 6 can be produced on a Gen 8.6 mother glass vs only 3 on a Gen 8.5 mother glass, significantly reducing waste.AGC Inc., Corning Inc., and Nippon Electric Glass.

In 1922, Georges Friedel described the structure and properties of liquid crystals and classified them in three types (nematics, smectics and cholesterics). In 1927, Vsevolod Frederiks devised the electrically switched light valve, called the Fréedericksz transition, the essential effect of all LCD technology. In 1936, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph company patented the first practical application of the technology, "The Liquid Crystal Light Valve". In 1962, the first major English language publication Molecular Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals was published by Dr. George W. Gray.RCA found that liquid crystals had some interesting electro-optic characteristics and he realized an electro-optical effect by generating stripe-patterns in a thin layer of liquid crystal material by the application of a voltage. This effect is based on an electro-hydrodynamic instability forming what are now called "Williams domains" inside the liquid crystal.

In the late 1960s, pioneering work on liquid crystals was undertaken by the UK"s Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern, England. The team at RRE supported ongoing work by George William Gray and his team at the University of Hull who ultimately discovered the cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals, which had correct stability and temperature properties for application in LCDs.

The idea of a TFT-based liquid-crystal display (LCD) was conceived by Bernard Lechner of RCA Laboratories in 1968.dynamic scattering mode (DSM) LCD that used standard discrete MOSFETs.

On December 4, 1970, the twisted nematic field effect (TN) in liquid crystals was filed for patent by Hoffmann-LaRoche in Switzerland, (Swiss patent No. 532 261) with Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt (then working for the Central Research Laboratories) listed as inventors.Brown, Boveri & Cie, its joint venture partner at that time, which produced TN displays for wristwatches and other applications during the 1970s for the international markets including the Japanese electronics industry, which soon produced the first digital quartz wristwatches with TN-LCDs and numerous other products. James Fergason, while working with Sardari Arora and Alfred Saupe at Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute, filed an identical patent in the United States on April 22, 1971.ILIXCO (now LXD Incorporated), produced LCDs based on the TN-effect, which soon superseded the poor-quality DSM types due to improvements of lower operating voltages and lower power consumption. Tetsuro Hama and Izuhiko Nishimura of Seiko received a US patent dated February 1971, for an electronic wristwatch incorporating a TN-LCD.

In 1972, the concept of the active-matrix thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid-crystal display panel was prototyped in the United States by T. Peter Brody"s team at Westinghouse, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Westinghouse Research Laboratories demonstrated the first thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD).high-resolution and high-quality electronic visual display devices use TFT-based active matrix displays.active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AM LCD) in 1974, and then Brody coined the term "active matrix" in 1975.

In 1972 North American Rockwell Microelectronics Corp introduced the use of DSM LCDs for calculators for marketing by Lloyds Electronics Inc, though these required an internal light source for illumination.Sharp Corporation followed with DSM LCDs for pocket-sized calculators in 1973Seiko and its first 6-digit TN-LCD quartz wristwatch, and Casio"s "Casiotron". Color LCDs based on Guest-Host interaction were invented by a team at RCA in 1968.TFT LCDs similar to the prototypes developed by a Westinghouse team in 1972 were patented in 1976 by a team at Sharp consisting of Fumiaki Funada, Masataka Matsuura, and Tomio Wada,

In 1983, researchers at Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) Research Center, Switzerland, invented the passive matrix-addressed LCDs. H. Amstutz et al. were listed as inventors in the corresponding patent applications filed in Switzerland on July 7, 1983, and October 28, 1983. Patents were granted in Switzerland CH 665491, Europe EP 0131216,

The first color LCD televisions were developed as handheld televisions in Japan. In 1980, Hattori Seiko"s R&D group began development on color LCD pocket televisions.Seiko Epson released the first LCD television, the Epson TV Watch, a wristwatch equipped with a small active-matrix LCD television.dot matrix TN-LCD in 1983.Citizen Watch,TFT LCD.computer monitors and LCD televisions.3LCD projection technology in the 1980s, and licensed it for use in projectors in 1988.compact, full-color LCD projector.

In 1990, under different titles, inventors conceived electro optical effects as alternatives to twisted nematic field effect LCDs (TN- and STN- LCDs). One approach was to use interdigital electrodes on one glass substrate only to produce an electric field essentially parallel to the glass substrates.Germany by Guenter Baur et al. and patented in various countries.Hitachi work out various practical details of the IPS technology to interconnect the thin-film transistor array as a matrix and to avoid undesirable stray fields in between pixels.

Hitachi also improved the viewing angle dependence further by optimizing the shape of the electrodes (Super IPS). NEC and Hitachi become early manufacturers of active-matrix addressed LCDs based on the IPS technology. This is a milestone for implementing large-screen LCDs having acceptable visual performance for flat-panel computer monitors and television screens. In 1996, Samsung developed the optical patterning technique that enables multi-domain LCD. Multi-domain and In Plane Switching subsequently remain the dominant LCD designs through 2006.South Korea and Taiwan,

In 2007 the image quality of LCD televisions surpassed the image quality of cathode-ray-tube-based (CRT) TVs.LCD TVs were projected to account 50% of the 200 million TVs to be shipped globally in 2006, according to Displaybank.Toshiba announced 2560 × 1600 pixels on a 6.1-inch (155 mm) LCD panel, suitable for use in a tablet computer,

In 2016, Panasonic developed IPS LCDs with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, rivaling OLEDs. This technology was later put into mass production as dual layer, dual panel or LMCL (Light Modulating Cell Layer) LCDs. The technology uses 2 liquid crystal layers instead of one, and may be used along with a mini-LED backlight and quantum dot sheets.

Since LCDs produce no light of their own, they require external light to produce a visible image.backlight. Active-matrix LCDs are almost always backlit.Transflective LCDs combine the features of a backlit transmissive display and a reflective display.

CCFL: The LCD panel is lit either by two cold cathode fluorescent lamps placed at opposite edges of the display or an array of parallel CCFLs behind larger displays. A diffuser (made of PMMA acrylic plastic, also known as a wave or light guide/guiding plateinverter to convert whatever DC voltage the device uses (usually 5 or 12 V) to ≈1000 V needed to light a CCFL.

EL-WLED: The LCD panel is lit by a row of white LEDs placed at one or more edges of the screen. A light diffuser (light guide plate, LGP) is then used to spread the light evenly across the whole display, similarly to edge-lit CCFL LCD backlights. The diffuser is made out of either PMMA plastic or special glass, PMMA is used in most cases because it is rugged, while special glass is used when the thickness of the LCD is of primary concern, because it doesn"t expand as much when heated or exposed to moisture, which allows LCDs to be just 5mm thick. Quantum dots may be placed on top of the diffuser as a quantum dot enhancement film (QDEF, in which case they need a layer to be protected from heat and humidity) or on the color filter of the LCD, replacing the resists that are normally used.

WLED array: The LCD panel is lit by a full array of white LEDs placed behind a diffuser behind the panel. LCDs that use this implementation will usually have the ability to dim or completely turn off the LEDs in the dark areas of the image being displayed, effectively increasing the contrast ratio of the display. The precision with which this can be done will depend on the number of dimming zones of the display. The more dimming zones, the more precise the dimming, with less obvious blooming artifacts which are visible as dark grey patches surrounded by the unlit areas of the LCD. As of 2012, this design gets most of its use from upscale, larger-screen LCD televisions.

RGB-LED array: Similar to the WLED array, except the panel is lit by a full array of RGB LEDs. While displays lit with white LEDs usually have a poorer color gamut than CCFL lit displays, panels lit with RGB LEDs have very wide color gamuts. This implementation is most popular on professional graphics editing LCDs. As of 2012, LCDs in this category usually cost more than $1000. As of 2016 the cost of this category has drastically reduced and such LCD televisions obtained same price levels as the former 28" (71 cm) CRT based categories.

Monochrome LEDs: such as red, green, yellow or blue LEDs are used in the small passive monochrome LCDs typically used in clocks, watches and small appliances.

Today, most LCD screens are being designed with an LED backlight instead of the traditional CCFL backlight, while that backlight is dynamically controlled with the video information (dynamic backlight control). The combination with the dynamic backlight control, invented by Philips researchers Douglas Stanton, Martinus Stroomer and Adrianus de Vaan, simultaneously increases the dynamic range of the display system (also marketed as HDR, high dynamic range television or FLAD, full-area local area dimming).

The LCD backlight systems are made highly efficient by applying optical films such as prismatic structure (prism sheet) to gain the light into the desired viewer directions and reflective polarizing films that recycle the polarized light that was formerly absorbed by the first polarizer of the LCD (invented by Philips researchers Adrianus de Vaan and Paulus Schaareman),

A pink elastomeric connector mating an LCD panel to circuit board traces, shown next to a centimeter-scale ruler. The conductive and insulating layers in the black stripe are very small.

A standard television receiver screen, a modern LCD panel, has over six million pixels, and they are all individually powered by a wire network embedded in the screen. The fine wires, or pathways, form a grid with vertical wires across the whole screen on one side of the screen and horizontal wires across the whole screen on the other side of the screen. To this grid each pixel has a positive connection on one side and a negative connection on the other side. So the total amount of wires needed for a 1080p display is 3 x 1920 going vertically and 1080 going horizontally for a total of 6840 wires horizontally and vertically. That"s three for red, green and blue and 1920 columns of pixels for each color for a total of 5760 wires going vertically and 1080 rows of wires going horizontally. For a panel that is 28.8 inches (73 centimeters) wide, that means a wire density of 200 wires per inch along the horizontal edge.

The LCD panel is powered by LCD drivers that are carefully matched up with the edge of the LCD panel at the factory level. The drivers may be installed using several methods, the most common of which are COG (Chip-On-Glass) and TAB (Tape-automated bonding) These same principles apply also for smartphone screens that are much smaller than TV screens.anisotropic conductive film or, for lower densities, elastomeric connectors.

Monochrome and later color passive-matrix LCDs were standard in most early laptops (although a few used plasma displaysGame Boyactive-matrix became standard on all laptops. The commercially unsuccessful Macintosh Portable (released in 1989) was one of the first to use an active-matrix display (though still monochrome). Passive-matrix LCDs are still used in the 2010s for applications less demanding than laptop computers and TVs, such as inexpensive calculators. In particular, these are used on portable devices where less information content needs to be displayed, lowest power consumption (no backlight) and low cost are desired or readability in direct sunlight is needed.

A comparison between a blank passive-matrix display (top) and a blank active-matrix display (bottom). A passive-matrix display can be identified when the blank background is more grey in appearance than the crisper active-matrix display, fog appears on all edges of the screen, and while pictures appear to be fading on the screen.

Displays having a passive-matrix structure are employing Crosstalk between activated and non-activated pixels has to be handled properly by keeping the RMS voltage of non-activated pixels below the threshold voltage as discovered by Peter J. Wild in 1972,

STN LCDs have to be continuously refreshed by alternating pulsed voltages of one polarity during one frame and pulses of opposite polarity during the next frame. Individual pixels are addressed by the corresponding row and column circuits. This type of display is called response times and poor contrast are typical of passive-matrix addressed LCDs with too many pixels and driven according to the "Alt & Pleshko" drive scheme. Welzen and de Vaan also invented a non RMS drive scheme enabling to drive STN displays with video rates and enabling to show smooth moving video images on an STN display.

Bistable LCDs do not require continuous refreshing. Rewriting is only required for picture information changes. In 1984 HA van Sprang and AJSM de Vaan invented an STN type display that could be operated in a bistable mode, enabling extremely high resolution images up to 4000 lines or more using only low voltages.

High-resolution color displays, such as modern LCD computer monitors and televisions, use an active-matrix structure. A matrix of thin-film transistors (TFTs) is added to the electrodes in contact with the LC layer. Each pixel has its own dedicated transistor, allowing each column line to access one pixel. When a row line is selected, all of the column lines are connected to a row of pixels and voltages corresponding to the picture information are driven onto all of the column lines. The row line is then deactivated and the next row line is selected. All of the row lines are selected in sequence during a refresh operation. Active-matrix addressed displays look brighter and sharper than passive-matrix addressed displays of the same size, and generally have quicker response times, producing much better images. Sharp produces bistable reflective LCDs with a 1-bit SRAM cell per pixel that only requires small amounts of power to maintain an image.

Segment LCDs can also have color by using Field Sequential Color (FSC LCD). This kind of displays have a high speed passive segment LCD panel with an RGB backlight. The backlight quickly changes color, making it appear white to the naked eye. The LCD panel is synchronized with the backlight. For example, to make a segment appear red, the segment is only turned ON when the backlight is red, and to make a segment appear magenta, the segment is turned ON when the backlight is blue, and it continues to be ON while the backlight becomes red, and it turns OFF when the backlight becomes green. To make a segment appear black, the segment is always turned ON. An FSC LCD divides a color image into 3 images (one Red, one Green and one Blue) and it displays them in order. Due to persistence of vision, the 3 monochromatic images appear as one color image. An FSC LCD needs an LCD panel with a refresh rate of 180 Hz, and the response time is reduced to just 5 milliseconds when compared with normal STN LCD panels which have a response time of 16 milliseconds.

Samsung introduced UFB (Ultra Fine & Bright) displays back in 2002, utilized the super-birefringent effect. It has the luminance, color gamut, and most of the contrast of a TFT-LCD, but only consumes as much power as an STN display, according to Samsung. It was being used in a variety of Samsung cellular-telephone models produced until late 2006, when Samsung stopped producing UFB displays. UFB displays were also used in certain models of LG mobile phones.

In-plane switching is an LCD technology that aligns the liquid crystals in a plane parallel to the glass substrates. In this method, the electrical field is applied through opposite electrodes on the same glass substrate, so that the liquid crystals can be reoriented (switched) essentially in the same plane, although fringe fields inhibit a homogeneous reorientation. This requires two transistors for each pixel instead of the single transistor needed for a standard thin-film transistor (TFT) display. The IPS technology is used in everything from televisions, computer monitors, and even wearable devices, especially almost all LCD smartphone panels are IPS/FFS mode. IPS displays belong to the LCD panel family screen types. The other two types are VA and TN. Before LG Enhanced IPS was introduced in 2001 by Hitachi as 17" monitor in Market, the additional transistors resulted in blocking more transmission area, thus requiring a brighter backlight and consuming more power, making this type of display less desirable for notebook computers. Panasonic Himeji G8.5 was using an enhanced version of IPS, also LGD in Korea, then currently the world biggest LCD panel manufacture BOE in China is also IPS/FFS mode TV panel.

In 2015 LG Display announced the implementation of a new technology called M+ which is the addition of white subpixel along with the regular RGB dots in their IPS panel technology.

Most of the new M+ technology was employed on 4K TV sets which led to a controversy after tests showed that the addition of a white sub pixel replacing the traditional RGB structure would reduce the resolution by around 25%. This means that a 4K TV cannot display the full UHD TV standard. The media and internet users later called this "RGBW" TVs because of the white sub pixel. Although LG Display has developed this technology for use in notebook display, outdoor and smartphones, it became more popular in the TV market because the announced 4K UHD resolution but still being incapable of achieving true UHD resolution defined by the CTA as 3840x2160 active pixels with 8-bit color. This negatively impacts the rendering of text, making it a bit fuzzier, which is especially noticeable when a TV is used as a PC monitor.

In 2011, LG claimed the smartphone LG Optimus Black (IPS LCD (LCD NOVA)) has the brightness up to 700 nits, while the competitor has only IPS LCD with 518 nits and double an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display with 305 nits. LG also claimed the NOVA display to be 50 percent more efficient than regular LCDs and to consume only 50 percent of the power of AMOLED displays when producing white on screen.

This pixel-layout is found in S-IPS LCDs. A chevron shape is used to widen the viewing cone (range of viewing directions with good contrast and low color shift).

Vertical-alignment displays are a form of LCDs in which the liquid crystals naturally align vertically to the glass substrates. When no voltage is applied, the liquid crystals remain perpendicular to the substrate, creating a black display between crossed polarizers. When voltage is applied, the liquid crystals shift to a tilted position, allowing light to pass through and create a gray-scale display depending on the amount of tilt generated by the electric field. It has a deeper-black background, a higher contrast ratio, a wider viewing angle, and better image quality at extreme temperatures than traditional twisted-nematic displays.

Blue phase mode LCDs have been shown as engineering samples early in 2008, but they are not in mass-production. The physics of blue phase mode LCDs suggest that very short switching times (≈1 ms) can be achieved, so time sequential color control can possibly be realized and expensive color filters would be obsolete.

Some LCD panels have defective transistors, causing permanently lit or unlit pixels which are commonly referred to as stuck pixels or dead pixels respectively. Unlike integrated circuits (ICs), LCD panels with a few defective transistors are usually still usable. Manufacturers" policies for the acceptable number of defective pixels vary greatly. At one point, Samsung held a zero-tolerance policy for LCD monitors sold in Korea.ISO 13406-2 standard.

Dead pixel policies are often hotly debated between manufacturers and customers. To regulate the acceptability of defects and to protect the end user, ISO released the ISO 13406-2 standard,ISO 9241, specifically ISO-9241-302, 303, 305, 307:2008 pixel defects. However, not every LCD manufacturer conforms to the ISO standard and the ISO standard is quite often interpreted in different ways. LCD panels are more likely to have defects than most ICs due to their larger size. For example, a 300 mm SVGA LCD has 8 defects and a 150 mm wafer has only 3 defects. However, 134 of the 137 dies on the wafer will be acceptable, whereas rejection of the whole LCD panel would be a 0% yield. In recent years, quality control has been improved. An SVGA LCD panel with 4 defective pixels is usually considered defective and customers can request an exchange for a new one.

Some manufacturers, notably in South Korea where some of the largest LCD panel manufacturers, such as LG, are located, now have a zero-defective-pixel guarantee, which is an extra screening process which can then determine "A"- and "B"-grade panels.clouding (or less commonly mura), which describes the uneven patches of changes in luminance. It is most visible in dark or black areas of displayed scenes.

The zenithal bistable device (ZBD), developed by Qinetiq (formerly DERA), can retain an image without power. The crystals may exist in one of two stable orientations ("black" and "white") and power is only required to change the image. ZBD Displays is a spin-off company from QinetiQ who manufactured both grayscale and color ZBD devices. Kent Displays has also developed a "no-power" display that uses polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLCD). In 2009 Kent demonstrated the use of a ChLCD to cover the entire surface of a mobile phone, allowing it to change colors, and keep that color even when power is removed.

In 2004, researchers at the University of Oxford demonstrated two new types of zero-power bistable LCDs based on Zenithal bistable techniques.e.g., BiNem technology, are based mainly on the surface properties and need specific weak anchoring materials.

Resolution The resolution of an LCD is expressed by the number of columns and rows of pixels (e.g., 1024×768). Each pixel is usually composed 3 sub-pixels, a red, a green, and a blue one. This had been one of the few features of LCD performance that remained uniform among different designs. However, there are newer designs that share sub-pixels among pixels and add Quattron which attempt to efficiently increase the perceived resolution of a display without increasing the actual resolution, to mixed results.

Spatial performance: For a computer monitor or some other display that is being viewed from a very close distance, resolution is often expressed in terms of dot pitch or pixels per inch, which is consistent with the printing industry. Display density varies per application, with televisions generally having a low density for long-distance viewing and portable devices having a high density for close-range detail. The Viewing Angle of an LCD may be important depending on the display and its usage, the limitations of certain display technologies mean the display only displays accurately at certain angles.

Temporal performance: the temporal resolution of an LCD is how well it can display changing images, or the accuracy and the number of times per second the display draws the data it is being given. LCD pixels do not flash on/off between frames, so LCD monitors exhibit no refresh-induced flicker no matter how low the refresh rate.

Color performance: There are multiple terms to describe different aspects of color performance of a display. Color gamut is the range of colors that can be displayed, and color depth, which is the fineness with which the color range is divided. Color gamut is a relatively straight forward feature, but it is rarely discussed in marketing materials except at the professional level. Having a color range that exceeds the content being shown on the screen has no benefits, so displays are only made to perform within or below the range of a certain specification.whit