amoled vs lcd display in stock

There is a constant debate on Amoled vs LCD, which is a better display? Where Amoled display offers some remarkable colors with deep black eye-soothing contrast ratio, LCD displays offer much more subtle colors with better off-axis angles for viewing & offers a much brighter picture quality.

While purchasing a new smartphone we consider various specifications like software, camera, processor, battery, display type etc. Among all the specifications display is something that most people are concerned about. 2 of the major competitors of smartphone display are AMOLED and LCD. Often in the LCD vs Amoled comparison, people get confused about which one to choose. In this article, we have explained a clear comparison of the Amoled vs LCD screen to find out which is actually better.

Amoled display is nothing but a part of OLED display which comes with some extra features. The first component is Light Emitting Diode (LED) and the second component is "O", here "O" stands for organic & together they make OLED. The real meaning derived from it is organic material placed with 2 conductors in every LED. And this is how light is produced.

The OLED display can generate light out of individual pixels. AMOLED displays contain Thin Film Translator (TLT) which makes the overall procedure of sourcing current to the correct pixel much quicker and smoother. The TXT further helps grab control for operating different pixels at a time. For example, some pixels could be absolutely switched off though others remain on in Amoled displays. This produces a deep black color.

Speaking about LCDs, it is relatively pretty much commonly found in today"s smartphones. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) offers a devoted black light that is white or rather slightly blueish in color. Mostly here we get a blue light that is passed through some yellowish phosphor filter which brings out the white light. The white light is subsequently passed through multiple filters and thereafter the crystal elements are again passed through blue, red & green filters. Note that LCD displays have both passive and active matrix which depends on the cost and requirement involved.

Since the process involved in LCDs is much more complex than Amoled & requires extra steps, when compared to AMOLED displays, LCDs are less battery friendly. In the technological era where energy efficiency is the first priority, Amoled displays are certainly going to be the future of display technology. But both of them come with a separate set of pros and cons and it is only by knowing the pros and cons you will be able to choose the right one.

Amoled display technology is mostly used in smartphones, media players & digital cameras. Amoled is mostly used in low power, cost-effective & large application sizes.

Cost is one of the major factors that act as a differentiator between the two display types. Amoled displays are comparatively more expensive than LCD displays because LCD displays are much cheaper to manufacture. So while buying a low-budget smartphone, the probability to get a Amoled display is pretty less.

The quality of a display is mainly measured according to the colors and sharpness it offers. Also while comparing two displays, only technology comparison won"t work because often displays behave inversely even if a manufacturer is using the very same technology. If you consider colors especially contrasting colors such as blue, red or green, Amoled will serve better throughout the day. This happens mainly because in the case of AMOLED displays, as mentioned above, every pixel present in it emit its own light whereas in LCD light comes out of the backlight. Therefore Amoled displays offer high-end saturation and vibrant colors compared to LCD displays.

As Amoled displays put out vibrant colors, you will find Amoled displays to be warmer in nature compared to LCD displays which has a more neutral whitish tint. In short, the pictures seen on Amoled displays are more eye-soothing compared to LCD displays where the pictures appear more natural.

In the Amoled vs LCD screen display comparison, another thing to consider is the brightness offered by both of them. Compared to LCD displays, Amoled displays have lesser brightness levels. This is mainly because of the backlight in LCD displays which emits a higher brightness level. Therefore if you are a person who spends most of the time outdoors and mostly uses your smartphone under the sun, then LCD is the right choice for you. Although certain leading brands are working on the brightness level in Amoled displays.

The display is one such thing that sucks your phone"s battery to a great extent. In Amoled displays, the pixels can get absolutely switched off thereby saving a lot of battery. Whereas LCD displays remain dependent on the back light, as a result even if your screen is completely black, the backlight remain switched on throughout. This is why even though Amoled displays are more expensive than LCD displays as they consume much less battery than LCD displays.

In the battle between LCD display vs Amoled display both come with separate pros and cons. Well if battery consumption and color contrast or saturation is a concern then the Amoled display is going to win over LCD display anyway. While purchasing a smartphone, customers today mainly focus on two features- lesser battery consumption and a high-quality display. Amoled display offers both the benefits- high-end vibrant display and less battery consumption. The only criteria where LCD displays win over Amoled is the brightness level. But with brands coming with the latest technologies, Amoled is certainly going to catch up with the brightness level with LCD displays. Also, the brightness difference in current Amoled display smartphones that are available in the market is hardly noticeable.

When we purchase a new smartphone we go through a list of specifications that includes the processor, software, cameras, display type, battery, etc. The display of the smartphone is something which has always been a concern for people. And smartphone technology has advanced so much in the past decade that you get several display technology options to choose from.

Today, a smartphone is not just a means to send and receive calls and texts. It has become a general necessity, so choosing the right technology should be your main priority. Coming back to displays, as we said there are plenty of display types available right now.

Two of the main contenders for display technologies that are widely available are AMOLED and LCD. Here in this article, we will be comprising AMOLED vs LCD and find out which one is better for you.

Starting with the AMOLED first, it is a part of the OLED display technology but with some more advanced features. To completely know about it must understand its all three components. The first one is LED, “Light Emitting Diode”. Then we have “O” which stands for organic and makes the OLED.

It actually means that organic material is placed with two conductors in each LED, which helps to produce the light. And the “AM” in AMOLED means Active Matrix, it has the capability to increase the quality of a pixel.

The AMOLED display is similar to the OLED in various factors like high brightness and sharpness, better battery life, colour reproduction, etc. AMOLED display also has a thin film transistor, “TFT” that is attached to each LED with a capacitor.

TFT helps to operate all the pixels in an AMOLED display. This display might have a lot of positives but there are a few negatives too let’s point both of them out.

A major issue with these displays is of burning of pixels. After showing a specific image or colour for a longer period of time, the pixel can get burned. And if there is a problem with a single pixel it will affect the entire display.

Low outdoor visibility, usually the AMOLED Displays are quote not bright in direct sunlight and outdoor readability could be a problem for some devices but average screen brightness.

The LCD stands for “Liquid Crystal Display”, and this display produces colours a lot differently than AMOLED. LCD display uses a dedicated backlight for the light source rather than using individual LED components.

The LCD displays function pretty simply, a series of thin films, transparent mirrors, and some white LED lights that distributes lights across the back of the display.

As we have mentioned, an LCD display always requires a backlight and also a colour filter. The backlight must have to pass through a thin film transistor matrix and a polarizer. So, when you see it, the whole screen will be lit and only a fraction of light gets through. This is the key difference comparing AMOLED vs LCD and this is what differentiates these two display technologies.

The LCD displays are cheaper compared to the AMOLED as there is only one source of light which makes it easier to produce. Most budget smartphones also use LCD displays.

LCD displays have bright whites, the backlight emits lots of light through pixels which makes it easy to read in outdoors. It also shows the “Accurate True to Life” colours, which means it has the colours that reflect the objects of the real world more accurately than others.

LCDs also offer the best viewing angle. Although it may depend on the smartphone you have. But most high-quality LCD displays support great viewing angles without any colour distortion or colour shifting.

The LCD displays can never show the deep blacks like AMOLED. Due to the single backlight, it always has to illuminate the screen making it impossible to show the deep blacks.

The LCDs are also thicker than other displays because of the backlight as it needs more volume. So, LCD smartphones are mostly thicker than AMOLED ones.

Both of these display technologies have their own Pros and Cons. Taking them aside everything ends up with the user preferences as people might have different preferences among different colours and contrast profiles. However, a few factors might help you to decide which one fits perfectly for you.

Let’s start with the pricing. Most AMOLED display smartphones always cost more than an LCD smartphone. Although the trend is changing a bit. But still, if you want to get a good quality AMOLED display you have to go for the flagship devices.

The colors are also very sharp and vibrant with the AMOLED displays. And they look much better than any LCD display. The brightness is something where LCDs stood ahead of the AMOLED display. So using an LCD display outdoors gives much better results.

The last thing is battery consumption, and there is no one near the AMOLED displays in terms of battery. As of now, all smartphones feature a Dark Mode and most of the apps and UI are dark black with a black background. This dark UI on smartphones doesn’t require any other light, it gives the AMOLED displays a boost in battery performance.

Looking at all these factors and comparing AMOLED vs LCD displays, the AMOLED displays are certainly better than the LCDs. Also, the big display OEMs, like Samsung and LG are focusing more the OLED technologies for their future projects. So, it makes sense to look out for AMOLED displays. That being said, if we see further enhancements in the LCD technology in terms of battery efficiency and more, there is no point to cancel them at this moment.

Apart from processors, which we discussed in our recent article MediaTek vs Qualcomm: Which smartphone processor should you choose? another notable factor in choosing a smartphone can be the display. Because, to be honest, the display is where we see all the magic happen, so it got to be on our priority list. Most often, the resolution numbers are directly proportionate to the quality, but, the technology used for those pixels is often where most of us get bemused. If we take smartphones, the two major technologies used are AMOLED and LCD. However, how exactly these displays differ and what should you choose?Let’s first find out how they work.

Let’s start with AMOLED displays. Now, a lot of you might have already guessed the technology here as AMOLED is actually a variant of the famous OLED display technology used in Televisions. To start with, LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and the O here adds up as Organic LED. Further, AM is an abbreviation for Active Matrix which actually helps to light up a particular pixel when needed. So we now know what actually AMOLED stands for, but how does it work?

As the name suggests, OLED displays generate light from individual pixels. In other words, each LED pixel when provided the adequate current can light up for itself. Further, all AMOLED displays also contain a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) which makes the whole process of sending the current to the right pixel a lot more smoother and quicker. Further, having an Active Matrix in place, the TFT also helps to grab the right control to operate various pixels. For example, in AMOLED displays, some pixels can be completely switched off while others are on, thus, producing deep blacks.

Samsung markets this technology as Super AMOLED because the South Korean giant actually blends in the capacitive touch screen right inside the display which not only makes the display thinner but also makes it a tad bit better in terms of responsiveness.

Coming to LCDs, which is relatively more common on smartphones, stands for Liquid Crystal Display. Unlike AMOLED displays where each pixel lights up for itself, LCD displays have a dedicated backlight which is white in colour or maybe with a blue tint because white light is basically the combination of all the other colours. In most cases, we have a blue light which is then passed through a yellow phosphor filter resulting in a white light.

This white light is then passed through a couple of filters (first vertical than horizontal) after which the crystal elements are passed through Red, Blue and Green filters forming sub-pixels which further form pixels spread across the entire display. Also, LCD displays can have both active and passive matrix depending on the requirement and the cost involved.

For comparison, the process here is a lot more complicated and requires a lot more steps to complete, hence, this is why LCD displays are relatively less battery friendly when compared to the AMOLED.

However, is one technology better than the other? Although AMOLED displays apparently points out to the future, both the display technologies have their own pros and cons which, in our opinion, will be enough for you to decide as to which one is better. So how exactly do they differ?

The first difference which I want to highlight is the cost of both the technologies. The probability of you finding an AMOLED display on a budget smartphone is a lot less than LCD displays. This is primarily because LCD displays are cheap to manufacture and procure while AMOLED or OLED displays, in particular, involve much higher cost.

Well, this is probably one of the important differences. A display’s quality is generally measured by the sharpness and colours it produces. Furthermore, to rate a display better only based on its technology might not be possible because displays tend to behave differently even when the same manufacturer uses the same technology. Nevertheless, if we consider colours specifically high contrasting colours like Red, Blue and Green, AMOLED displays will serve you much better all day. This is because, in an AMOLED display, each pixel emits it own light while in an LCD, the light is sourced from a backlight. In other words, AMOLED displays put up more vibrant colours and hit high bars in saturation.

While an AMOLED display has a much larger colour gamut, LCD displays will pop cleaner whites. This is why most of the AMOLED displays are warmer in nature as they come with a yellow or red tint to the whites.

The backlight on an LCD display helps it win in this department as AMOLED displays are often criticised to have low brightness levels. So if you are the one who is mostly out under the sun using your smartphone, an LCD display might be a much wiser choice. To contradict, AMOLED displays, especially Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays are slowly reaching there in terms of brightness.

There are tonnes of other things sucking your smartphone’s battery but the display generally top the charts, so battery consumption is important. Pixels on an AMOLED display can be completely shut off, so naturally, it saves more juice when you are operating on a black background as the pixels for that part of the displays will be switched off. LCD display, on the other hand, relies on a dedicated backlight which still remains switched on even if you are on a completely black screen. This is why features like Always On Display or Active Display on Moto smartphones make a lot more sense on an AMOLED display while it will definitely affect your battery stats on an LCD display. So think twice before using the ‘Always On’ display feature on your LCD display smartphones.

Taking in the majority of the pros and cons for both the displays, AMOLED panels will any day outperform an LCD panel if colour and battery consumption is a concern. Further, even though AMOLED panels struggle a bit with brightness levels, it slowly catching up and in our opinion and is hardly noticeable in most cases.

The world of mobile display technology is divided between those who prefer AMOLED screens and those who prefer LCD screens. OLED technology, closely related to AMOLED displays, is available on specific mobile devices. Since the two are based on fundamentally different technologies, distinct manufacturers will promote different advantages for their chosen display technology, AMOLED or LCD. AMOLED displays are becoming the standard for smartphones, whereas LCD screens are often kept for budget models.

First, let’s talk about AMOLED, similar to OLED displays but has a few more bells and whistles. One must be familiar with each of its three parts to grasp it fully. LED, short for “Light Emitting Diode,” is the first. The “O” in OLED refers to “organic,” which describes the material used to construct the device.

To put it another way, each LED has two conductors in which organic material is inserted to assist generate light. And the “AM” in AMOLED stands for Active Matrix, which may improve a pixel’s quality. High brightness and sharpness, improved battery life, accurate colour reproduction, etc., are all features shared by the AMOLED and OLED displays. A capacitor connects each LED in an AMOLED display to a thin film transistor (TFT).

TFT is used to control each pixel in an AMOLED screen. There are probably many benefits to this presentation, but because there are also some drawbacks, I’ll mention them.

The benefits of using best AMOLEDscreen include a higher contrast ratio and more vibrant colours, which contribute to a more satisfying video-viewing experience. Individual pixels may be activated or deactivated thanks to the included LEDs. The pixels in the black area of the picture will be disabled, revealing the most accurate black possible.

The use of individual LEDs improves the efficiency of the display. You may notice an increase in battery life as a result of the fact that specific pixels aren’t using any power at all.

LCD stands for “Liquid Crystal Display,” and its colour output differs from that of an AMOLED screen. Instead of employing separate LED lights for every pixel, an LCD screen has its own built-in backlight.

A backlight and colour filter are necessary components of every LCD panel, as we’ve discussed. A polarizer and a matrix of thin-film transistors are required stops for the backlight on its way to the display. This means that the whole screen will be illuminated, yet only a little amount of light will really reach the viewer. This is the main distinction between AMOLED and LCD, the two most common types of electronic displays now available.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have lower production costs than AMOLEDs since they need less expensive light sources. LCD screens are also often seen in low-priced cell phones.

LCDs’ whites are so luminous because the backlight pumps so much illumination into each pixel that text on these screens can be read even in direct sunlight. Aside from that, it displays “Accurate True to Life” colours, which are most faithful to how things seem in the real world.

LCDs also provide the widest field of vision. This may be dependent on the kind of smartphone you use. However, most modern LCD screens have wide viewing angles with little colour shifting or distortion.

Let’s talk about the cost to begin. The cost of a smartphone with an AMOLED screen is often higher than that of a smartphone with an LCD screen. This, is despite the fact that the tide is beginning to turn. Even still,thebest AMOLED screen of sufficient quality are now available on only the most expensive flagship handsets. AMOLED screens also provide very crisp and vivid colours. Additionally, they surpass the visual quality of any LCD screen. Compared to an LCD, an AMOLED screen isn’t nearly as bright. Therefore, an LCD screen performs much better when used in the open air.

Finally, we look at battery life, and no other display technology comes close to AMOLEDs in this regard. All modern smartphones include a “Dark Mode,” where the screen and app icons are black. There is no need for additional lighting while using this dark user interface, which is great for smartphones with AMOLED screens.

AMOLED screens are superior to LCD displays when compared using these criteria. In addition, major display original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Samsung and LG emphasise OLED technology for their next endeavours. Therefore, it is prudent to keep an eye out for AMOLED screens. However, if we witness more LCD technology improvements in battery economy and more, there is no need to cancel them at this time.

It can be argued that the display on your smartphone is its most important feature, as it is the principle way in which you interact with your device. A poor display means a poor user experience. As with all tech, it is easy to spot an under-performer, however the differences between a good display and a truly excellent display are harder to discern.

Roughly speaking there are two main types of displays used in smartphones: LCD and LED. These two base technologies have been refined and tweaked to give us AMOLED and IPS LCD. The former stands for Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, while the latter means In-Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display.

All of this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the marketing people, which means that plain old AMOLED or regular IPS LCD aren’t the terms used in the marketing fluff. Instead, we have Super AMOLED, Dynamic AMOLED, Super LCD, Super Retina OLED, Super Retina XDR, Infinity Display, and so on. But what’s any of that actually mean?

The LED part of AMOLED stands for Light Emitting Diode. It’s the same tech as you find on many home appliances that show that the power is on with a little red light. An LED display takes this concept, shrinks it down, and arranges the LEDs in red, green, and blue clusters to create an individual pixel.

The O in AMOLED stands for organic. It refers to a series of thin organic material films placed between two conductors in each LED. These produce light when a current is applied.

Finally, the AM part in AMOLED stands for Active Matrix, rather than a passive matrix technology. In a passive matrix, a complex grid system is used to control individual pixels, where integrated circuits control a charge sent down each column or row. But this is rather slow and can be imprecise. Active Matrix systems attach a thin film transistor (TFT) and capacitor to each sub-pixel (i.e. red, green, or blue) LED. The upshot is that when a row and column is activated, the capacitor at the pixel can retain its charge in between refresh cycles, allowing for faster and more precise control.

The image above is a close-up shot of the AMOLED display on the Samsung Galaxy S8. The RGB triangular pattern is clearly shown. Towards the bottom of the image, the green and red LEDs are off and the blue LEDs are on only slightly. This is why AMOLED displays have deep blacks and good contrast.

Super AMOLED is a marketing term from Samsung. It means a display that incorporates the capacitive touchscreen right in the display, instead of it being a separate layer on top of the display. This makes the display thinner.

Dynamic AMOLED is another marketing term from Samsung. It denotes Samsung’s next-generation AMOLED display which includes HDR10+ certification. According to Samsung, Dynamic AMOLED also reduces the harmful blue light emitted from the display, which helps reduce eye strain and helps lessen sleep disturbances if you’re using your phone late in the day!

As for Infinity Display (or Infinity-O Display), it is more marketing from Samsung. It means “a near bezel-less, full-frontal, edge-to-edge” display. However, it is still a Super AMOLED unit.

LCD displays work with a backlight that shines through some polarizing filters, a crystal matrix, and some color filters. Liquid crystals untwist when an electric charge is applied to them, which affects the frequency of the light that can pass through. Since the crystals can be twisted to varying degrees depending on the voltage used, a display can be built when they are used with polarized panels. A grid of integrated circuits is then used to control each pixel, by sending a charge down into a specific row or column. Colors are created by the use of red, green, and blue filters, known as sub-pixels, which are then blended by varying degrees to produce different colors.

The above image is of an LCD display from a Huawei Mate 8. Notice how the pixels are made up of equally-sized sub-pixels, one for each of the colors: red, green, and blue.

Like Super AMOLED, a Super LCD display also incorporates the touchscreen. There is no “air gap” between the outer glass and the display element, which means it has similar benefits to Super AMOLED.

Samsung isn’t the only company that is good at marketing, there is another! Apple has coined the term “Retina” for its displays. The term was first used for its smartphones with the launch of the iPhone 4, as it offered a significantly greater pixel density (over 300 ppi) when compared to the iPhone 3GS. Later came Retina HD, which applies to iPhones with at least a 720p screen resolution.

All Retina and Retina HD displays on the iPhone are LCD IPS displays. However, things have changed a bit with the iPhone X as it features an AMOLED display, now marketed under the term Super Retina. It’s still an AMOLED display. It just has extra adjectives. With the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro, Apple coined the term Super Retina XDR. The XDR part means Extended Dynamic Range, as they have better contrast ratios and higher peak brightness.

Not all Retina displays use OLED. Although the MacBook Pro is marketed with a “Retina” display, as you can see from the magnified image above, it is a regular LCD, even if it uses the latest Apple silicon.

Both technologies can be used to build displays with 720p, 1080p, Quad HD, and 4K resolutions. And OEMs have made handsets that support HDR10 using both LCD and AMOLED displays. So from that point of view, there isn’t much difference between the two.

When it comes to color, we know that the blacks will be deeper and the contrast ratios higher on AMOLED displays. But, overall color accuracy can be high on both types of display.

One of the main weaknesses of AMOLED displays is the possibility of “burn-in”. This is the name given to a problem where a display suffers from permanent discoloration across parts of the panel. This may take the form of a text or image outline, fading of colors, or other noticeable patches or patterns on the display. The display still works as normal, but there’s a noticeable ghost image or discoloration that persists. It occurs as a result of the different life spans between the red, green, and blue LED sub-pixels used in OLED panels.

Blue LEDs have significantly lower luminous efficiency than red or green pixels, which means that they need to be driven at a higher current. Higher currents cause the pixels to degrade faster. Therefore, an OLED display’s color doesn’t degrade evenly, so it will eventually lean towards a red/green tint (unless the blue sub-pixel is made larger, as you can see in the first image in this post). If one part of the panel spends a lot of time displaying a blue or white image, the blue pixels in this area will degrade faster than in other areas.

The theoretical lifespan of an AMOLED display is several years, even when used for 12 hours a day. However, there is anecdotal evidence that some displays suffer from burn-in quicker than others. Displays that show signs of burn-in after only a few months should be considered defective because they certainly aren’t normal.

While owners of devices with LCD screens might congratulate themselves for picking a smartphone that is immune to burn-in, there can be a problem with LCD panels called “image retention.” Put simply, liquid crystals can develop a tendency to stay in one position when left at the same voltage for extended periods. Thankfully this phenomenon is normally temporary and can usually be reversed by allowing the liquid crystals to return to their relaxed state.

Picking a winner can be hard as there are many factors to consider, not only about the display technologies but also about the other components in a handset. For example, if you are an AMOLED fan, then would you consider a device with large storage and a good processor, but with an LCD display? The same argument works the other way for LCD fans. Generally, you’ll be fine with either display type, so just pick the handset you like.

Higher-end devices typically sport AMOLED displays and mid-range/budget devices usually use LCD. But that isn’t set in concrete as there are plenty of high-end devices that have LCD displays. With OLED production costs dropping dramatically in recent years, more and more budget options will be offering OLED panels in the future.

Companies like LG and Samsung have seen this trend coming and are rapidly expanding their OLED (and flexible OLED) production capabilities. LCD might still have a bright future in televisions and other large-panel applications, but for now, it looks like mobile will be increasingly dominated by OLED screens.

What do you think? AMOLED or LCD? What about the terms like Retina vs Infinity Display? Are they meaningful to you? Please let me know in the comments below.

These days you really only have two choices of screens when you are buying a smartphone or tablet: LCD or AMOLED. Many of you probably can’t tell the difference between the two screen types, but both technologies have inherent strengths and weaknesses. LCD has been around for a while, but AMOLED phones are gaining popularity thanks to Samsung and other manufacturers. There isn’t a clear winner at this point in time, so here’s a look at both.

LCD, Liquid Crystal Display, has been a part of our lives for years now. Besides mobile devices, we see LCD screens being used with almost every computer monitor, and in the majority of TVs. While these screens are made of wondrous liquid crystals, they also require a couple panes of glass, and a light source. LCD screens produce some of the most realistic colors you can find on a screen, but might not offer as wide of a contrast ratio (darker darks and brighter brights) as an AMOLED screen.

Some common terms you will find associated with LCD displays are TFT and IPS. TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor, which makes the wiring of LCD screens more efficient by reducing the number of electrodes per pixel. One benefit of TFT displays is an improved image quality over standard LCD screens. Another popular LCD technology is In-Plane Switching, or IPS, which improves upon TFT by offering much wider viewing angles and color reproduction on LCD screens. IPS screens are able to achieve this by keeping all the liquid crystals parallel to the screen. IPS is generally preferable to standard TFT.

AMOLED, Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode, technology has grown in popularity in recent years, particularly among Samsung products. AMOLED screens consist of a thin layer of organic polymers that light up when zapped with an electric current. Due to this simple construction, AMOLED screens can be extremely thin and do not require a backlight. The benefit of losing a backlight is readily apparent: these screens are able to produce blacks so deep that the screen pixels can shut right off. Shutting off pixels can also save electricity and battery life in phones and tablets. Just keep your backgrounds close to black and you’ll save energy.

Sometimes when you read about AMOLED screens, you might hear people complaining about something called a “pentile” display. This is a feature of most color AMOLED screens. Instead of having just a single red, blue, and green sub pixel per actual pixel, pentile displays have a RGBG sub pixel layout which has two green sub pixels for each red and blue. The positive of this technology is that you are able to create a screen that is just as bright as normal screens with one third the amount of sub pixels. The negative of pentile screens is that they can appear grainy, or appear to be lower resolution due to the larger, more visible sub pixels. For a while, Samsung begun using a display type called Super AMOLED Plus, which does not use a pentile sub pixel layout and also improves viewability in direct sunlight — traditionally a weakness for AMOLED. Samsung equipped the Galaxy S II with a Super AMOLED plus screen, but then reverted back to Super AMOLED screens for the Galaxy S III, citing screen life as the reason for the switch.

There are pros and cons for each type of screen, and both screen technologies can produce vivid, beautiful displays. The only way to know for sure if the screen on your future device will satisfy you is to try it out for yourself. You will be able to easily see if the screen viewing angles, contrast ratio, and color reproduction will fit your needs after using the phone for just a few minutes.

AMOLED displays have been the main competitor more common LCD panels for years, and many would consider AMOLED the superior technology. Thanks to the actual pixels producing light and color, AMOLED screens can display true blacks for a near-infinite contrast ratio and are generally more power efficient due to their ability to turn individual pixels on or off at will.

However, LCDs have remained much more popular display options in devices such as notebooks and smartphones for one main reason: price. An LCD display is almost always cheaper than an AMOLED one, and manufacturers typically save on manufacturing costs by using an LCD. However, that pricing edge may be coming to an end. Digitimes reported last week that AMOLED displays are now almost as cheap as LCDs and are continuing to fall.

So when will we be getting notebooks with AMOLED screens at the same price as our old LCD ones? Well, not so soon. However, smartphone manufacturers may start making more and more devices with AMOLED panels. According to IHS Markit, a source that spoke with Digitimes, the “production cost for a 5.5-inch HD AMOLED panel has drifted to US$12.10 recently compared to US$12.20 for a 5.5-inch HP LTPS LCD panel.” This same estimates that in about 3 years 50% of smartphones will have an AMOLED panel due mainly to the increased output of AMOLED displays and the falling cost of producing the panels. TVs are another market ripe for a surge in the use of AMOLED; IHS Markit expects the shipment of AMOLED TVs to hit 1.5 million this year (about a 45% increase) and the market for AMOLED as a whole to grow 63% to $25.2 billion in revenue.

AMOLED’s here to stay, and it looks like it’ll be finding its way into more and more devices. Who knows? Maybe the Moto E 2019 will have an AMOLED display.

Future undoubtedly belongs to OLED, but for now LCD is more mature, cheaper and can be mass produced – all advantages, if you actually want to get a product to market. No wonder then that even Samsung’s own Galaxy Tab 7” tablet was outfitted with an LCD screen, while the new Samsung Wave IIreplaces the Super AMOLED of the original, for a Super LCD. AMOLED screens in larger sizes are cost-prohibitive, at least until real mass production is realized.

Apart from the major supply issues, the commercial AMOLED screens at first seemed to have some drawbacks such as being too reflective, which diminished their sunlight visibility. Moreover, despite the lab claims for power efficiency, battery life on smartphones with AMOLED screens was nothing to get excited about at first.

Then, in January 2010, Samsung announced the next generation of “Super" AMOLED screens. Super AMOLED is 20% brighter, 80% less reflective, and uses 20% less energy than regular AMOLED screens, thanks to having only two major components – the actual AMOLED emitting layer, and the tough but thin Gorilla Glass, sealed over it. The touchscreen coating Samsung has managed to apply as an only 0.001mm thin layer in-between, bringing the light-emitting layer closer to the glass, to show raw, vivid colors.

On the other hand, the IPS-LCD (in-plane-switching LCD) technology, has largely overcome the usual troubles with LCD screens, namely power consumption and viewing angles, plus it allows for smaller pixels, making possible the incredible resolution of the iPhone 4. The iPad and iPhone displays are mainly produced by LG, and exhibit much more contrast, compared to regular LCDs. It is probably the best the LCD world can offer, without being cost-prohibitive.

Asked about why Apple didn’t go with the emerging OLED screen technology for the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs said that the high-res IPS-LCD in the iPhone 4 is better than OLED. And he was right - at the time when millions of iPhones had to be produced, the only OLED technology that might have met Apple’s requirementsis Super AMOLED. Since it belongs to Samsung, it will not be until 2011 that the Koreans would be able to mass-produce such screens. Apple approached Samsung for their AMOLED screens, in the preparations to launch the iPhone 4, but the capacity just isn"t there. There are rumors that Cupertino is talking again with Samsung regarding the Koreans" new plant capacity for an eventual Super AMOLED display in the upcoming iPhone edition next summer.

Still, the more mature LCD technology managed to come up with an IPS-LCD screen for the iPhone, which hits AMOLED in a few areas where it hurts. A major advantage of Apple’s IPS-LCD is the so-called Retina Display technology, which has miniaturized pixels in order to cram a 640x960 resolution into the 3.5” display. At this resolution, only perfect vision can distinguish the individual pixels from a certain distance. That makes high-contrast situations, such as e-books and web pages look very crisp and legible.

Also, with one of the major advantages of OLED-based displays being their slender profile, Apple still managed to produce the thinnest smartphone on the market, helped by LG"s slim display. Despite LCD’s need for backlighting, the advancements in power management in the IPS-LCD brought along similar battery consumption on comparable chipsets for both phones. This is not easy to be explained, until we look at one table from the dawn of OLED-based screens a few years ago:

The fact of the matter is that LCD screens draw fairly constant power, no matter what images are shown on the screen. AMOLED, in its turn, needs the most powerful current applied to pixels that are showing white. Thus, while OLED displays are up to 90%+ more efficient when the background is black, when showing pure white, OLED screens can be consuming 3 times more power than an LCD display. This is why black menu backgrounds and colorful icons are recommended in user interfaces developed for AMOLED screens.

In a recent battery endurance test, consisting of websites display on several last-gen phones, it wasn’t the Super AMOLED phones that came ahead, but rather the Motorola DROID 2 and Motorola DROID X with their last-gen LCD screens. If the test had been on a looped video, the Super AMOLED phones would have probably given up the ghost last, since websites mainly use white backgrounds.

AMOLED screens also have shorter lifespan of the blue organic diodes, compared to the green and red ones, which might result in a shorter overall lifespan of the device. Using a PenTile matrix (developed by a company, whose IP Samsung bought not long ago), is one way to remedy this shortcoming. It arranges one green subpixel with double-width red or blue ones, thus showing only two colors per pixel, instead of the usual three. Some researchers claim this effectively lowers the interpolated 480x800 resolution of the Samsung Galaxy S, to actual 392x653, making text and web pages appear more pixelated. Recent advancements of the blue diodes" lifespan, however, puts it at over 30 000 hours, which means the screen will be around for many moons after you have moved on to another phone anyway.

Both handsets use Gorilla Glass, but the OLED-based screens are more withstanding to concussion due to less layers in them, and glass elements in general. On the other hand, OLED is easily damaged by water, that is why the Gorilla Glass is sealed over the touch coating of the AMOLED layer. Not that LCD would survive much water, but we are just nitpicking here, for comparison"s sake.

Very often your only connection with the world is your phone"s display. With the advent of smartphones, their screens are becoming windows to the information world, as you want to see it. Google"s Eric Schmidt called it the other day the era when you will never be alone, or bored. Some people don"t really care what screen they are looking at – they want to quickly check time, call, read messages and answer to email, without worrying too much about tidbits like resolution and color saturation. Others spend hours browsing rich websites, watching YouTube videos, or reading e-books on their smartphone screens.

The two existing mainstream technologies for smartphone displays are LCD and OLED. Their advanced iterations in those gizmos are IPS-LCD, as found in Apple’s iPhone 4, and Super AMOLED, as present in the Samsung Galaxy S. Therefore, after a brief overview of the technology behind them, we will compare the two flagship smartphones displaywise, try to pierce through the marketing fluff, and come up with a conclusion, more suited for real-life decision making. Bear in mind that these two technologies are future-proof, and will be utilized in smartphones for the next few years as well.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), has been around for a while. We won’t go as far back as 1888, when an Austrian botanist discovers liquid crystals, but rather mark 1972 and 1973 when the first LCD watch and calculator were introduced. Then rapid advancements followed, adding colors, and improving the viewing angles, brightness and efficiency of the then power-hungry technology, which requires backlighting. Most major display companies make LCDs, the technology is very mature, without much production and supply issues.

Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED) is a much newer development than LCD. Luminescence of organic materials when electric current is applied to them, was first observed in the 1950s by French researchers. Cambridge scientists reached the stage of efficient light emission from a green organic polymer in 1990, and the first commercial OLED devices came in the early 2000s, three decades after LCD ones. Below is a funny setup to explain the process of organic light emission, demonstrated on a pickle by Vladimir Bulovic from MIT:

A lot of the companies that were producing OLED screens, such as Sony, or Toshiba, have currently shelved their R&D and production plans due to cost-cutting. Thus Samsung is becoming the OLED industry juggernaut. The Koreans hold 98% of the world’s Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) market in 2010.

Simpler construction – the thin layer of organic polymers emits light itself, when electric current is applied, so no additional backlighting is needed. On top of that, production methods can incorporate all the elements needed close to one another, and OLEDs can even be printed on an industrial printer, if some of the ongoing research makes it up to commercial scale. Thus OLED displays can be extremely thin, even bendable. Illustrated below are the elements, constructing a typical LCD, and a typical AMOLED screen:

Higher contrast ratio – black color from OLED screens is indeed black, due to the simple fact that the pixel is off at that time, whereas the LCD backlighting is still on, producing greyish black. The contrast ratio of AMOLED displays is extremely high;

Faster response times – the organic diodes fire up and emit light immediately when current is applied, whereas with LCDs, some motion blur might be present with fast moving objects;

Wider viewing angles – LCD suffers from picture deterioration when viewed from certain angles, due to the nature of the direction in which light travels through the liquid crystals, while OLED screens’ brightness and color gamut are left intact up to almost 180 degrees of viewing;

Screen technology, quality, and visibility are just some of the most important factors to consider when choosing between AMOLED and LCD displays. Average consumers might not necessarily know the difference between these two types of devices or why one is preferable to the other. In this article, we’ll draw comparisons between LCD vs. AMOLED displays so you can decide which type of screen is the right choice for your personal or professional applications.

First, it’s important to note that AMOLED and Super AMOLEDs are both types of OLED display technology. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. This is a type of thin-film display technology that’s built directly into the screen. The electroluminescent materials, also known as the light emitting diodes, immediately light up when they contact electricity.

AMOLED is an acronym that stands for active-matrix light-emitting diodes. This is a step up from traditional OLEDs. The basic concept of lighting up crystal diodes using electricity is the same, but the execution is slightly different. Each pixel inside of AMOLED displays consists of individual thin-film transistor strips that light up when an electrical current runs through them.

Super AMOLED devices are also descendants of the OLED technological display family. Commonly used for smartphones, AMOLEDs feature innovative touch technology integrated directly into the screen rather than including a separate thin film on top of the screen.

If you frequently use electronic devices, chances are very high that you’ve most likely come across an LCD (liquid crystal display) in some capacity. Common applications for LCDs include electronic billboards, computer and laptop monitors, digital cameras, portable electronic games, and the list goes on. LCDs are flat-panel displays. They consist of liquid crystal films that are sandwiched between two thin polarized glass layers. Backlighting is used to activate the crystals and illuminate the screen to present the desired image to the user.

– No backlighting means the display powers off pixels when showing the black portions of an image– Brighter overall picture quality, colours are true to life

Screen size and technology– AMOLEDs eliminate the need for a backlighting layer, so the screens can be made thinner– LCDs feature a backlighting layer, they require a thicker design, and will always be bulkier than AMOLEDs

Display prices– Higher price point because they cost more to design and manufacture– Require more layers, but they use a slightly more affordable technology and have been around for years, which means all of the kinks have already been ironed out of the design and manufacturing process

That depends on what you need the device for and how much you are willing or able to spend. For basic and everyday applications, you’re probably better off purchasing a standard LCD device. But if you’re looking for enhanced picture quality with excellent colour contrast and have an expansive budget, then AMOLED is probably the right device for you.

At Nauticomp Inc., we’re always at the forefront of state-of-the-art commercial and industrial display design and manufacturing. Our devices are customizable and suitable for a wide range of applications from military ops to retail POS, and so much more. Contact us today to learn more.

When looking at smartphones and tablets, we often obsess over cores and gigs and screen sizes. While all those are important to weigh when evaluating a device, the component we see the most – that we interact with the most – is the screen. When talking about computers in days gone by, the fight was between LCD (liquid crystal display) and CRT (cathode ray tube) – with CRT eventually becoming all but a footnote in the annals of history. Today, the battle is between LCD and LED (light emitting diode) – more specifically between IPS and AMOLED.

IPS (in-plane switching) was developed primarily to help LCD overcome the limitations of “regular” TFT LCD. TFT (thin-film transistor) displays typically had slow response times which initially plagued PC gamers who require screens with fast response times, but this eventually became problematic to mainstream users when touchscreens became commonplace.

Viewing angles on TFT screens were okay when you were sitting directly in front of one, but smartphones and tablets required wider angles than TFT was able to provide. Additionally, color replication and sharpness on IPS LCDs were better than on the TFT predecessors and most competing technologies. If you want clean, bright whites, IPS is the panel for you!

AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) is an upgrade to OLED (organic light emitting diode). The technology uses organic compounds which produce (or “emit”) light when exposed to an electric current. In most cases, this eliminates the need for backlighting, which reduces power consumption and bulk.

Modern AMOLED displays also provide better viewing angles, surpassing IPS. If you want deep blacks, nothing beats an AMOLED panel! However, since AMOLED is more difficult to produce than IPS, costs are higher and images aren’t quite as sharp.

Since each “dot” is essentially its own colored light in an AMOLED display, colors are better and contrast is great! The brightness of each dot varies by its color, so considerations have to be taken to make each colored dot appear as bright as the other colors next to it. Due to this limitation, AMOLED screens aren’t as visible in daylight as IPS displays. Then, to add insult to injury, AMOLED dots degrade, reducing the color saturation of the panel over time.

Technological improvements never rest. Super AMOLED and Super IPS are already trying to solve the underlying shortcomings of each type of display. Every iteration of each panel will whittle away at the shortcomings and improve upon the strengths.

Which is better, AMOLED vs IPS? Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those “this one is clearly better than that one” comparisons. Each end user is going to bring their own likes and dislikes to the decision. The answer to the question is as unique as the person asking it.

Both screens are made up of Pixels. A pixel is made up of 3 sections called sub-pixels. The three sections are red, green and blue (primary colors for display tech).

The light is generated from a “backlight”. A series of thin films, transparent mirrors and an array of white LED Lights that shine and distribute light across the back of the display.

On some lower quality LCD screens, you can see bright spots in the middle or on the perimeters of screens. This is caused by uneven light distribution. The downside to using backlights, is that black is never true black, because no matter what, light has to be coming through, so it will never have as dark of a screen as an AMOLED screen. Its comparable to being able to slow a car down to 2 mph versus coming to a complete stop.

Each pixel is its own light source, meaning that no backlight is necessary. This allows the screen assembly to be thinner, and have more consistent lighting across the whole display.

Steven Van Slyke and Ching Wan Tang pioneered the organic OLED at Eastman Kodak in 1979. The first OLED product was a display for a car stereo, commercialized by Pioneer in 1997. Kodak’s EasyShare LS633 digital camera, introduced in 2003, was the first consumer electronic product incorporating a full-color OLED display. The first television featuring an OLED display, produced by Sony, entered the market in 2008. Today, Samsung uses OLEDs in all of its smartphones, and LG manufactures large OLED screens for premium TVs. Other companies currently incorporating OLED technology include Apple, Google, Facebook, Motorola, Sony, HP, Panasonic, Konica, Lenovo, Huawei, BOE, Philips and Osram. The OLED display market is expected to grow to $57 billion in 2026.

AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED is a type of display technology in which organic material compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matrix is the technology behind the addressing of individual pixels.

An AMOLED display consists of an active matrix of OLED pixels generating light (luminescence) upon electrical activation that have been deposited or integrated onto a thin-film transistor (TFT) array, which functions as a series of switches to control the current flowing to each individual pixel.

TFT backplane technology is crucial in the fabrication of AMOLED displays. In AMOLEDs, the two primary TFT backplane technologies, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si), are currently used offering the potential for directly fabricating the active-matrix backplanes at low temperatures (below 150 °C) onto flexible plastic substrates for producing flexible AMOLED displays. Brightness of AMOLED is determined by the strength of the electron current. The colors are controlled by the red, green and blue light emitting diodes.  It is easier to understand by thinking of each pixel is independently colored, mini-LED.

IPS technology is like an improvement on the traditional TFT LCD display module in the sense that it has the same basic structure, but with more enhanced features and more widespread usability compared with the older generation of TN type TFT screen (normally used for low-cost computer monitors). Actually, it is called super TFT.  IPS LCD display consists of the following high-end features. It has much wider viewing angles, more consistent, better color in all viewing directions, it has higher contrast, faster response time. But IPS screens are not perfect as their higher manufacturing cost compared with TN TFT LCD.

Utilizing an electrical charge that causes the liquid crystal material to change their molecular structure allowing various wavelengths of backlight to “pass-through”. The active matrix of the TFT display is in constant flux and changes or refreshes rapidly depending upon the incoming signal from the control device.

Thanks for the display technology development, we have a lot of display choices for our smartphones, media players, TVs, laptops, tablets, digital cameras, and other such gadgets. The most display technologies we hear are LCD, TFT, OLED, LED, QLED, QNED, MicroLED, Mini LED etc. The following, we will focus on two of the most popular display technologies in the market: TFT Displays and Super AMOLED Displays.

TFT means Thin-Film Transistor. TFT is the variant of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). There are several types of TFT displays: TN (Twisted Nematic) based TFT display, IPS (In-Plane Switching) displays. As the former can’t compete with Super AMOLED in display quality, we will mainly focus on using IPS TFT displays.

OLED means Organic Light-Emitting Diode. There are also several types of OLED, PMOLED (Passive Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) and AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode). It is the same reason that PMOLED can’t compete with IPS TFT displays. We pick the best in OLED displays: Super AMOLED to compete with the LCD best: IPS TFT Display.

If you have any questions about Orient Display displays and touch panels. Please feel free to contact: Sales Inquiries, Customer Service or Technical Support.