oled screen vs lcd screen in stock

OLED displays have higher contrast ratios (1 million : 1 static compared with 1,000 : 1 for LCD screens), deeper blacks and lower power consumption compared with LCD displays. They also have greater color accuracy. However, they are more expensive, and blue OLEDs have a shorter lifetime.

OLED displays offer a much better viewing angle. In contrast, viewing angle is limited with LCD displays. And even inside the supported viewing angle, the quality of the picture on an LCD screen is not consistent; it varies in brightness, contrast, saturation and hue by variations in posture of the viewer.

There are no geographical constraints with OLED screens. LCD screens, on the other hand, lose contrast in high temperature environments, and lose brightness and speed in low temperature environments.

Blue OLEDs degrade more rapidly than the materials that produce other colors. Because of this, the manufacturers of these displays often compensate by calibrating the colors in a way that oversaturates the them and adds a bluish tint to the screen.

With current technology, OLED displays use more energy than backlit LCDs when displaying light colors. While OLED displays have deeper blacks compared with backlit LCD displays, they have dimmer whites.

LCDs use liquid crystals that twist and untwist in response to an electric charge and are lit by a backlight. When a current runs through them, they untwist to let through a specific amount of light. They are then paired with color filters to create the display.

AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) is a different form of OLED used in some mobile phones, media players and digital cameras. It offers higher refresh rates with OLEDs and consume a lot less power, making them good for portable electronics. However, they are difficult to view in direct sunlight. Products with AMOLED screens include Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, HTC Legend and PlayStation Vita.

For all the new technologies that have come our way in recent times, it’s worth taking a minute to consider an old battle going on between two display types. Two display types that can be found across monitors, TVs, mobile phones, cameras and pretty much any other device that has a screen.

In one corner is LED (light-emitting diode). It’s the most common type of display on the market, however, it might be unfamiliar because there’s slight labelling confusion with LCD (liquid crystal display).

For display purposes the two are the same, and if you see a TV or smartphone that states it has an ‘LED’ screen, it’s an LCD. The LED part just refers to the lighting source, not the display itself.

In a nutshell, LED LCD screens use a backlight to illuminate their pixels, while OLED’s pixels produce their own light. You might hear OLED’s pixels called ‘self-emissive’, while LCD tech is ‘transmissive’.

The light of an OLED display can be controlled on a pixel-by-pixel basis. This sort of dexterity isn’t possible with an LED LCD – but there are drawbacks to this approach, which we’ll come to later.

In cheaper TVs and LCD-screen phones, LED LCD displays tend to use ‘edge lighting’, where LEDs sit to the side of the display, not behind it. The light from these LEDs is fired through a matrix that feeds it through the red, green and blue pixels and into our eyes.

LED LCD screens can go brighter than OLED. That’s a big deal in the TV world, but even more so for smartphones, which are often used outdoors and in bright sunlight.

Brightness is generally measured as ‘nits’ – roughly the light of a candle per square metre. Brightness is important when viewing content in ambient light or sunlight, but also for high dynamic range video. This applies more to TVs, but phones boast credible video performance, and so it matters in that market too. The higher the level of brightness, the greater the visual impact.

Take an LCD screen into a darkened room and you may notice that parts of a purely black image aren’t black, because you can still see the backlighting (or edge lighting) showing through.

You’ll often see a contrast ratio quoted in a product’s specification, particularly when it comes to TVs and monitors. This tells you how much brighter a display’s whites are compared to its blacks. A decent LCD screen might have a contrast ratio of 1,000:1, which means the whites are a thousand times brighter than the blacks.

Contrast on an OLED display is far higher. When an OLED screen goes black, its pixels produce no light whatsoever. That means an infinite contrast ratio, although how great it looks will depend on how bright the screen can go. In general, OLED screens are best suited for use in darker rooms, and this is certainly the case where TVs are concerned.

OLED panels enjoy excellent viewing angles, primarily because the technology is so thin, and the pixels are so close to the surface. You can walk around an OLED TV or spread out in different spots in your living room, and you won’t lose out on contrast. For phones, viewing angles are extra important because you don’t tend to hold your hand perfectly parallel to your face.

Viewing angles are generally worse in LCDs, but this varies hugely depending on the display technology used. And there are lots of different kinds of LCD panel.

Perhaps the most basic is twisted nematic (TN). This is the type used in budget computer monitors, cheaper laptops, and very low-cost phones, and it offers poor angled viewing. If you’ve ever noticed that your computer screen looks all shadowy from a certain angle, it’s more than likely it uses a twisted nematic panel.

Thankfully, a lot of LCD devices use IPS panels these days. This stands for ‘in-plane switching’ and it generally provides better colour performance and dramatically improved viewing angles.

IPS is used in most smartphones and tablets, plenty of computer monitors and lots of TVs. It’s important to note that IPS and LED LCD aren’t mutually exclusive; it’s just another bit of jargon to tack on. Beware of the marketing blurb and head straight to the spec sheet.

The latest LCD screens can produce fantastic natural-looking colours. However, as is the case with viewing angles, it depends on the specific technology used.

OLED’s colours have fewer issues with pop and vibrancy, but early OLED TVs and phones had problems reining in colours and keeping them realistic. These days, the situation is better, Panasonic’s flagship OLEDs are used in the grading of Hollywood films.

Where OLED struggles is in colour volume. That is, bright scenes may challenge an OLED panel’s ability to maintain levels of colour saturation. It’s a weakness that LCD-favouring manufacturers enjoy pointing out.

Both have been the subject of further advancements in recent years. For LCD there’s Quantum Dot and Mini LED. The former uses a quantum-dot screen with blue LEDs rather than white LEDs and ‘nanocrystals’ of various sizes to convert light into different colours by altering its wavelength. Several TV manufacturers have jumped onboard Quantum Dot technology, but the most popular has been Samsung’s QLED branded TVs.

Mini LED is another derivation of LED LCD panels, employing smaller-sized LEDs that can emit more light than standard versions, increasing brightness output of the TV. And as they are smaller, more can be fitted into a screen, leading to greater control over brightness and contrast. This type of TV is becoming more popular, though in the UK and Europe it’s still relatively expensive. You can read more about Mini LED and its advantages in our explainer.

OLED, meanwhile, hasn’t stood still either. LG is the biggest manufacturer of large-sized OLED panels and has produced panels branded as evo OLED that are brighter than older versions. It uses a different material for its blue OLED material layer within the panel (deuterium), which can last for longer and can have more electrical current passed through it, increasing the brightness of the screen, and elevating the colour volume (range of colours it can display).

Another development is the eagerly anticipated QD-OLED. This display technology merges Quantum Dot backlights with an OLED panel, increasing the brightness, colour accuracy and volume, while retaining OLED’s perfect blacks, infinite contrast and potentially even wider viewing angles, so viewers can spread out anywhere in a room and see pretty much the same image. Samsung and Sonyare the two companies launching QD-OLED TVs in 2022.

And for smartphones there’s been a move towards AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens for Android screens, while Apple has moved towards OLED for its smartphones and tried Mini LED with its iPad Pro. Technologies are consistently evolving with Superand Dynamic AMOLED versions available, more performance is being eked out.

While LED LCD has been around for much longer and is cheaper to make, manufacturers are beginning to move away from it, at least in the sense of the ‘standard’ LCD LED displays, opting to explore the likes of Mini LED and Quantum Dot variations.

OLED has gained momentum and become cheaper, with prices dipping well below the £1000 price point. OLED is much better than LED LCD at handling darkness and lighting precision, and offers much wider viewing angles, which is great for when large groups of people are watching TV. Refresh rates and motion processing are also better with OLED though there is the spectre of image retention.

If you’re dealing with a limited budget, whether you’re buying a phone, a monitor, a laptop or a TV, you’ll almost certainly end up with an LCD-based screen. OLED, meanwhile, incurs more of a premium but is getting cheaper, appearing in handheld gaming devices, laptops, some of the best smartphones as well as TVs

Which is better? Even if you eliminate money from the equation, it really comes down to personal taste. Neither OLED nor LCD LED is perfect. Some extol OLED’s skill in handling darkness, and its lighting precision. Others prefer LCD’s ability to go brighter and maintain colours at bright levels.

How do you decide? Stop reading this and go to a shop to check it out for yourself. While a shop floor isn’t the best environment in which to evaluate ultimate picture quality, it will at least provide an opportunity for you to realise your priorities. Whether you choose to side with LCD or OLED, you can take comfort in the fact that both technologies have matured considerably, making this is a safe time to invest.

There are plenty of new and confusing terms facing TV shoppers today, but when it comes down to the screen technology itself, there are only two: Nearly every TV sold today is either LCD or OLED.

The biggest between the two is in how they work. With OLED, each pixel provides its own illumination so there"s no separate backlight. With an LCD TV, all of the pixels are illuminated by an LED backlight. That difference leads to all kinds of picture quality effects, some of which favor LCD, but most of which benefit OLED.

LCDs are made by a number of companies across Asia. All current OLED TVs are built by LG Display, though companies like Sony and Vizio buy OLED panels from LG and then use their own electronics and aesthetic design.

So which one is better? Read on for their strengths and weaknesses. In general we"ll be comparing OLED to the best (read: most expensive) LCD has to offer, mainly because there"s no such thing as a cheap OLED TV (yet).

At the other side of light output is black level, or how dark the TV can get. OLED wins here because of its ability to turn off individual pixels completely. It can produce truly perfect black.

The better LCDs have local dimming, where parts of the screen can dim independently of others. This isn"t quite as good as per-pixel control because the black areas still aren"t absolutely black, but it"s better than nothing. The best LCDs have full-array local dimming, which provides even finer control over the contrast of what"s onscreen -- but even they can suffer from "blooming," where a bright area spoils the black of an adjacent dark area.

Here"s where it comes together. Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and the darkest a TV can be. OLED is the winner here because it can get extremely bright, plus it can produce absolute black with no blooming. It has the best contrast ratio of any modern display.

One of the main downsides of LCD TVs is a change in picture quality if you sit away from dead center (as in, off to the sides). How much this matters to you certainly depends on your seating arrangement, but also on how much you love your loved ones.

A few LCDs use in-plane switching (IPS) panels, which have better off-axis picture quality than other kinds of LCDs, but don"t look as good as other LCDs straight on (primarily due to a lower contrast ratio).

OLED doesn"t have the off-axis issue LCDs have; its image looks basically the same, even from extreme angles. So if you have a wide seating area, OLED is the better option.

Nearly all current TVs are HDR compatible, but that"s not the entire story. Just because a TV claims HDR compatibility doesn"t mean it can accurately display HDR content. All OLED TVs have the dynamic range to take advantage of HDR, but lower-priced LCDs, especially those without local-dimming backlights, do not. So if you want to see HDR content it all its dynamic, vibrant beauty, go for OLED or an LCD with local dimming.

In our tests comparing the best new OLED and LCD TVs with HDR games and movies, OLED usually looks better. Its superior contrast and lack of blooming win the day despite LCD"s brightness advantage. In other words LCD TVs can get brighter, especially in full-screen bright scenes and HDR highlights, but none of them can control that illumination as precisely as an OLED TV.

OLED"s energy consumption is directly related to screen brightness. The brighter the screen, the more power it draws. It even varies with content. A dark movie will require less power than a hockey game or ski competition.

The energy consumption of LCD varies depending on the backlight setting. The lower the backlight, the lower the power consumption. A basic LED LCD with its backlight set low will draw less power than OLED.

LG has said their OLED TVs have a lifespan of 100,000 hours to half brightness, a figure that"s similar to LED LCDs. Generally speaking, all modern TVs are quite reliable.

Does that mean your new LCD or OLED will last for several decades like your parent"s last CRT (like the one pictured). Probably not, but then, why would you want it to? A 42-inch flat panel cost $14,000 in the late 90"s, and now a 65-inch TV with more than 16x the resolution and a million times better contrast ratio costs $1,400. Which is to say, by the time you"ll want/need to replace it, there will be something even better than what"s available now, for less money.

OLED TVs are available in sizes from 48 to 88 inches, but LCD TVs come in smaller and larger sizes than that -- with many more choices in between -- so LCD wins. At the high end of the size scale, however, the biggest "TVs" don"t use either technology.

You can get 4K resolution, 50-inch LCDs for around $400 -- or half that on sale. It"s going to be a long time before OLEDs are that price, but they have come down considerably.

LCD dominates the market because it"s cheap to manufacture and delivers good enough picture quality for just about everybody. But according to reviews at CNET and elsewhere, OLED wins for overall picture quality, largely due to the incredible contrast ratio. The price difference isn"t as severe as it used to be, and in the mid- to high-end of the market, there are lots of options.

For the convenience of understanding, we reduce some layers, after removing the vertical and horizontal polarizer and the positive and negative circuit, only left to luminous plate, liquid crystal layer and color filter. and then we can see the lcd display module’s layer work as a shutter.

arrays, which have become one of the distinguishing features of OLED screens. The main cause for OLED screen life time is the blue pixel. Since the luminous efficiency of blue pixels is much lower

to reduce the blue pixel current to improve the oled life time. This is also the diamond arrangement and so on. The original pixel arrangement scheme was Samsung"s RGB

When you see a phone, tablet, or TV these days, it"s probably either using an LCD or an OLED display. These two display technologies have been developing over the years, and they now exist in every corner of our everyday lives.

There are a lot of differences between LCD and OLED technology, but what are these? Here is a dive into the science behind these two technologies and what makes them different from one another.

LCD stands for "Liquid Crystal Display". The basic science behind LCD technology can be complicated because different types exist. In order to keep things simple, this article will only discuss the science behind the most basic and straightforward type of LCD: the calculator LCD.

The polarization of light plays a huge role in LCD technology. Intrinsically, light vibrates in many different areas. When light hits a polarization filter, most of it gets blocked except for light vibrating on a specific plane. So, if light hits a vertical filter, all but the light vibrating on the vertical plane gets blocked.

When a current is introduced to the liquid crystal, the process is interrupted. The vertically-polarized light passes through the liquid crystal unchanged. This means that it gets blocked when it hits the horizontal polarization filter. This results in a black spot. That black spot would be the numbers you then see on the screen.

OLED stands for "Organic Light Emitting Diode". One differentiator compared to an LCD is that OLEDs emit their own light. LCD displays, on the other hand, require a light source—like a backlit panel, LEDs, or ambient light.

Each technology has its advantages over the other. To help you decide whether you"d rather buy a device with an LCD or OLED screen, we"ve discussed the main benefits for each below.

When it comes to cost, LCD wins. A lot of device manufacturers put LCD panels in their less-expensive devices, since the average price of installing an LCD is less than doing so with an OLED panel. The price will, however, differ depending on the type of LCD panel inserted.

Another win for LCD comes in the form of heat resistance. When exposed to high temperatures, pixels in LCD panels go black for a period of time. However, they fully recover to working order in little time. If exposed to the same heat, pixels on some OLED panels turn a white color and never recover.

OLED takes the prize in terms of contrast. One main draw of OLED is that each pixel can be turned on and off individually. This means that if there"s a scene where we see a lot of black elements, those pixels can shut off completely, giving a true blackness.

For LCD panels to display an image, there is a flat panel behind the layers that provides the light for the screen. In black scenes, that light still leaks through, which means that the contrast isn"t as high. What also drives people away is the notorious LCD screen burn-in issue. There are, however, some methods to fix LCD and plasma screen burn-in.

OLEDs can also produce more vibrant colors. LCDs just can"t match the punchy saturated colors on an OLED panel. A lot of people prefer OLED screens for that reason.

There are two sides to this equation. It seems that LCD has more practical advantages. They are cheaper to install and they can survive better under intense heat. When it comes to lifestyle features like more vibrant colors and better contrast, OLED comes out on top. Whether you go for OLED or LCD, both technologies will go on to power displays for many years to come.

Chances are, the screen that you"re reading this article on is either an LED, OLED, or an LCD display. These are just three of the many display types out there in the wild. On the surface, they all seem the same. But deep down, they couldn"t be more different.

So, when it comes to OLED vs. LCD—or OLED vs. LED—what are the differences? Here"s a look at these three display technologies, what makes them different, and which one is the best.

LCD stands for "liquid crystal display". The early roots of LCD displays stretch back to 1888 when German scientist, Friedrich Reinitzer, discovered an odd substance. It was a liquid that had the molecular structure of a solid. It was later named "liquid crystal."  After decades of study, someone eventually saw the potential for this strange substance to be used for displays.

The first LCD displays to be used on consumer devices were on digital clocks back in 1968. The technology developed over the following years, being put into numerous other devices.

LCD display panels are divided into layers. The backmost layer is a light source. This is a translucent sheet that disperses light from bulbs at the bottom of the display.

OLED stands for "organic light emitting diode." During the 1970s, scientists were experimented with organic materials that can emit light. In 1987, scientists at Eastman Kodak developed an OLED display that consumed a low amount of energy. And in 2007, Sony unveiled the world"s first OLED television: the Sony XEL-1.

On the other side of the OLED, the electrons flow from the cathode. The electrons then flow to the emissive layer, where they meet the holes. Since the electrons are sent through a voltage, they are "excited", meaning that they have an excess of energy.

When they meet the electron holes, they have to lose that excess energy in order to relax to the ground state for that atom. They release that energy in the form of photos (light particles). From there, the light travels through the red, blue, and green sub-pixels, just like with an LCD display.

LED displays are virtually indistinguishable from LCD displays. The only difference is in how the two types of displays get their light. Instead of using a translucent sheet, LED displays use individually LEDs. There are three primary arrangements of LEDs in the displays.

Full array LED displays have the LEDs arranged evenly throughout the display. This is the preferred arrangement on higher-end TVs. There are a lot of LEDs behind the panel, which means that local dimming is possible.

A display is usually judged by its ability to create vibrant colors. This is an area where OLEDs come out on top. Compared to OLED displays, LCD displays often appear washed out and not as saturated. This is why OLED displays are becoming more popular in the smartphone market.

OLED displays can also produce images with higher contrast than the other two technologies. Since all of the OLEDs on the panel can be turned on and off individually, darker areas of the display can go as dark as they need to.

Full array LED displays come in right behind OLED displays because, like in the case of OLED displays, the LEDs in an LED display can be controlled individually. Full array LED displays use a method called "local dimming", a technique of shutting off LEDs completely in areas that are darker.

LCD displays come in last place because in order for any pixels to be visible, the entire back panel has to be lit. This means that completely black areas are impossible to achieve.

In terms of price, LCD displays are typically cheaper. High definition LCD displays can run you no more than a few hundred dollars. Since LED displays offer better contrast over LCD, you can expect there to be an added price premium.

When it comes to power consumption, OLED scores a win. Since the OLEDs are powered individually, the display only gives power to the ones that need it. Pixels can be turn off completely when there are blacks in the picture.

Full array LED displays come in second place because of the local dimming functionality. Certain LEDs can be completely turned off when the scene calls for blacks. Even though they have this feature, more energy is consumed per LED because the light has to pass through all of the layers of the LCD before reaching the viewers" eyes.

LCDs are the least power efficient. Regardless of the presence of blacks in the scene, the entire panel needs to be lit. This means that the light source is shining at 100% the entire time.

Each display technology has its benefits and its drawbacks. LCD displays are for people who want to save more money, while LED displays are for people who would like to spend more for a bit more contrast in their picture. You"ll spend more on the TV, but it will have a less significant impact on your electricity bill.

OLED displays are for those who want the best of all worlds. They produce the best contrast with the most vivid colors. You will be paying the most for the actual device, but the more power efficient display technology will help even out some of that cost.

Competition and innovation are hallmarks of the consumer electronics market which has experienced practically uninterrupted growth for decades. Many consumers own a range of electronic devices (laptop, smartphone, tablet, TV, etc.), each of which is available in a plethora of options: brands; grades, formats; technologies. This technological array is further complicated by marketing terms that try to differentiate between competing products. Acronyms like OLED and LCD are rife in the electronics sector, but what is the actual difference between the two?

The inordinate popularity of smart consumer devices continues to drive growth in the global display market, currently valued in the region of $135 billion. Screens based on LEDs (light-emitting diodes) used to be the industry-standard, but trends towards device miniaturization, portability, improved efficiency, and greater picture quality gradually fuelled OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels. Over the next few years, the OLED market is expected to expand by a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 14.27%.

Currently, OLED televisions outperform traditional LED products on several fronts. They come in a versatile range of formats: panels as large as 88-inches satisfy the demands of premium TV displays; while smaller AMOLED (active-matrix OLED) screens set the benchmark of picture quality in the smartphone industry. Foldable OLED devices have finally begun to enter the consumer electronics market too, fulfilling a long-standing promise from proponents of the technology.

Traditional LED TVs are based on liquid crystal display (LCD) screen technology; a tried-and-tested panel structure. On an LCD screen, images are produced by a thin layer of liquid crystal solution overlaid on a transistor grid which uses small electrical charges to set the individual crystals to an open/closed state. This produces a pattern of light and dark pixels, but the light itself is produced by a bank of LEDs arranged at the edges of the screen or in a backlit array.

The best possible picture on LCD screens is produced using a full-array LED backlight with local-dimming which yields the widest possible contrast. However, LCDs comprise multiple sequential layers within the panel (color filters, polarizers, etc.) which are necessary for producing fully-saturated images but may inhibit picture uniformity and viewing angles. This also makes LED TVs thicker and heavier, rendering them undesirable for applications where reduction of thickness or weight is important.

OLEDs circumvent each of these issues by eschewing a backlight in favor of a self-emissive panel of organic carbon-based material. This allows each subpixel onscreen to be controlled independently. Alongside greater dynamic ranges and energy efficiency, the unique characteristics of OLED panels allow for significantly fewer layers in the screen matrix. Consequently, OLED TVs are typically thinner and lighter in weight than conventional LCDs, but cost significantly more to produce than LCD displays.

Avantama is one of the industry-leading formulators for consumer electronics applications, generating solutions for today’s cutting-edge displays and devices. If you would like more information about our full portfolio of nanoparticle inks and dispersions for OLED manufacturing, simply contact a member of the Avantama team today.

Earlier today, Nintendo announceda model refresh of the Nintendo Switch, its hybrid gaming console. While the latest Nintendo Switch model is not the product we were hoping for, it does come with a few significant changes, most notably the newer Switch will include an OLED display.

But what does that mean exactly? Well, previous Nintendo Switch models used an LCD display. While it does not sound like a significant upgrade, there are a few benefits from switching from an LCD to an OLED display.

The big difference between LCD and OLED screens are that they use different methods to light up and display an image on the screen. The screen, whether a TV or a tablet, uses display pixels; the image you see on a screen is produced by combining blue, green, and red subpixels to generate colors you see on a screen, but require to be lit up for the color combinations to appear.Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) Images

LCD or Liquid-crystal displays use one or more backlights which is essentially a panel as large as the actual gadget"s screen, to create a constant white light anytime you power on the screen, thus evenly lighting everything. However, the caveat with LCDs is that it draws a lot of power, which can be a downside for devices like smartphones that use an LCD, such as the original Nintendo Switch, yet LCDs are also inexpensive.

OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes), however, do not rely on backlights. Instead, it has self-lit pixels. The pixels in OLED display work on a pixel-by-pixel basis, meaning it will only light up where there is an image to display, thus creating a better contrast than an LCD and has a lower power consumption. But the OLED displays are pricier than LCDs and do not get as bright as an LCD.

Both displays have their advantages and disadvantages, so the main takeaway for the new Nintendo Switch replacing the LCD with an OLED is that the device should provide deeper blacks, better contrast, a lower power draw, increased brightness, and improved image quality.

With a lower power consumption, that would mean, in theory, that the Nintendo Switch with an OLED screen should have a better battery performance. However, both Switch iterations are powered by a 4310mAh Lithium-ion battery, with both sharing the same battery life expectancy before it needs a charge. But as Nintendo notes, the battery life varies on the games you play.Loading

The main takeaway is that the Nintendo Switch OLED screen may not be enough to warrant an upgrade for some. But the change to an OLED may be enough for people who are looking for a thinner bezel display, with a display that will provide better colors and contrast. That"s on top of improved battery life compared to the launch version, an updated dock, and other small improvements.

Unfortunately, the new Nintendo Switch model will not feature an improved processor, meaning that it won"t be able to output in 4K. It will also use the same Joy-Cons as before — suggesting that persistent issues like Joy-Con drift will not be addressed with this new model. That makes the OLED screen the main selling point for this new version of the Switch, which at $350 may be too much for existing Switch owners.

If you’re designing a display application or deciding what type of TV to get, you’ll probably have to choose between an OLED or LCD as your display type.

LCDs utilize liquid crystals that produce an image when light is passed through the display. OLED displays generate images by applying electricity to organic materials inside the display.OLED and LCD Main Difference:

graphics and images visible. This is the reason you’re still able to see light coming through on images that are meant to be dark on an LCD monitor, display, or television.

OLEDs by comparison, deliver a drastically higher contrast by dynamically managing their individual pixels. When an image on an OLED display uses the color black, the pixel shuts off completely and renders a much higher contrast than that of LCDs.OLED vs LCD - Who is better at contrast?

Having a high brightness level is important if your display is going to be used in direct sunlight or somewhere with high ambient brightness. The display"s brightness level isn"t as important if it’s going to be used indoors or in a low light setting.OLED vs LCD - Who is better at Brightness?

Have you ever looked at a screen from an angle and noticed that the images became washed out or shadowy? The further away you get from the “front and center” view, the worse the image appears to be. This is an example of viewing angles in action – the wider the viewing angle, the better the images on screen will appear as you view them from different vantage points.

This means the display is much thinner than LCD displays and their pixels are much closer to the surface of the display, giving them an inherently wider viewing angle.

You’ll often notice images becoming distorted or losing their colors when tilting an LCD or when you view it from different angles. However, many LCDs now include technology to compensate for this – specifically In-Plane Switching (IPS).

LCDs with IPS are significantly brighter than standard LCDs and offer viewing angles that are on-par with OLEDs.OLED vs LCD - Who is better at Viewing Angles?

LCDs have been on the market much longer than OLEDs, so there is more data to support their longevity. On average LCDs have proven to perform for around 60,000 hours (2,500) days of operation.

With most LCDs you can expect about 7 years of consistent performance. Some dimming of the backlight has been observed but it is not significant to the quality of the display.

OLEDs are a newer technology in the display market, which makes them harder to fully review. Not only does OLED technology continue to improve at a rapid pace, but there also hasn’t been enough time to thoroughly observe their performance.

You must also consider OLED’s vulnerability to image burn-in. The organic material in these displays can leave a permanent afterimage on the display if a static image is displayed for too long.

So depending on how your OLED is used, this can greatly affect its lifespan. An OLED being used to show static images for long periods of time will not have the same longevity as one displaying dynamic, constantly moving images.OLED vs LCD - Which one last longer?

There is not yet a clear winner when it comes to lifespans between LCD and OLED displays. Each have their advantages depending on their use-cases. It’s a tie!

For a display application requiring the best colors, contrast, and viewing angles – especially for small and lightweight wearable devices – we would suggest an OLED display.

OLED displays have higher contrast ratios (1 million : 1 static compared with 1,000 : 1 for LCD screens), deeper blacks and lower power consumption compared with LCD displays. They also have greater color accuracy. However, they are more expensive, and blue OLEDs have a shorter lifetime.

OLED displays offer a much better viewing angle. In contrast, viewing angle is limited with LCD displays. And even inside the supported viewing angle, the quality of the picture on an LCD screen is not consistent; it varies in brightness, contrast, saturation and hue by variations in posture of the viewer.

There are no geographical constraints with OLED screens. LCD screens, on the other hand, lose contrast in high temperature environments, and lose brightness and speed in low temperature environments.

Blue OLEDs degrade more rapidly than the materials that produce other colors. Because of this, the manufacturers of these displays often compensate by calibrating the colors in a way that oversaturates the them and adds a bluish tint to the screen.

With current technology, OLED displays use more energy than backlit LCDs when displaying light colors. While OLED displays have deeper blacks compared with backlit LCD displays, they have dimmer whites.

LCDs use liquid crystals that twist and untwist in response to an electric charge and are lit by a backlight. When a current runs through them, they untwist to let through a specific amount of light. They are then paired with color filters to create the display.

AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) is a different form of OLED used in some mobile phones, media players and digital cameras. It offers higher refresh rates with OLEDs and consume a lot less power, making them good for portable electronics. However, they are difficult to view in direct sunlight. Products with AMOLED screens include Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, HTC Legend and PlayStation Vita.

If you are about to buy a new cell phone, you should carefully consider what you expect from the display. Depending on the technology used – LCD or OLED – you will have to deal with different display characteristics. This blog article offers you decision support and background information on both screen technologies.

Even though you will have come across some terms like TFT and AMOLED during your research, there are basically only two types of displays: LCDs and OLEDs. There are various subtypes and developments of both technologies, such as the Retina display or Super AMOLED.

The difference between LCD and OLED screens lies in how the individual pixels are made to light up. For an LCD, additional backlighting is needed fto generate an image. With an OLED panel, this is not necessary due to self-luminous diodes.

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. In this screen technology, the image is generated by liquid crystals. An LCD panel always consists of several “layers”, such as the display glass, the electrode layer for voltage generation and the backlight. The image-producing layer consists of liquid crystals.

Each liquid crystal forms a pixel. In turn, this consists of a total of three subpixels: red, green and blue. The liquid crystals and thus each subpixel are individually controlled and regulated by electrical voltage. As a result, a wide range of colors including black and white can be generated for each pixel. The liquid crystal layer must be backlit to produce the colors. This means that the display can never darken completely – which is why there is no real deep black in an LCD.

The abbreviation OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. The name already gives an idea of how this type of screen works: Unlike LCDs, a backlight is not necessary because the diodes can light up themselves. Each diode is therefore its own small light source consisting of red, green and blue subpixels. Depending on which image is to be shown on the display, the intensity of the illumination is changed by electrical voltage. This allows a wide variety of colors to be produced. White is created by the combination of red, green and blue pixels. As a result, it usually appears somewhat darker than on an LCD. On the other hand, black image elements are created by simply leaving the diodes completely off. Thus, the black value of OLED displays is especially good.

Like the LCD, an OLED display also consists of several layers. In addition to the light-emitting diodes, semiconductor layers are needed to control and regulate the diodes.

If it is important to you that your smartphone is inexpensive – both in purchase and repair – you should rather go for an LCD. Replacement screens with this technology, such as the iPhone 11, iPhone Xr or Samsung Galaxy A21s, are available at a low price.

If you do not want to miss out on brilliant colors, you should rather opt for an OLED display. The iPhone X and the Galaxy S10, for example, are equipped with them. Be careful when buying replacement parts, though: Many retailers offer you particularly low prices by selling you an LCD instead of an OLED – without telling. Therefore, do not let yourself be lured by a low price, but carefully read the product description to find out more about the replacement screen.

In our store, you can choose between OLED and LCD technology for some Apple displays. This way, you can decide for yourself which variant fits your needs and budget.

OLED is the display technology that has everyone talking. Considering the inky shadows, vivid highlights, and lifelike colors that these panels can produce, it’s no wonder. For 2022, we’re offering this coveted display tech across a wide range of our ProArt Studiobook, Zenbook, and Vivobook families of laptops. From our affordable everyday laptops to our premium, luxury machines, you’ll find an OLED-equipped laptop that fits your needs and budget. So what sets these displays apart from the competition? Here, we’ll break down the LCD vs. OLED debate so that you can pick the best laptop for your needs.

If you bought a high-end smartphone in recent years, you likely already have an example of this premium panel tech ready to hand. Ever wonder why photos and videos seem to look better on your phone than your old laptop? That could be because OLED displays excel at producing lifelike images with vibrant colors and striking contrast.

Both LCD and OLED displays create the image on your screen using millions of individual pixels. However, on standard LCDs, those pixels are illuminated by an always-on backlight, usually an array of large LEDs, that light up the entire screen at once. It’s an efficient arrangement, but it hinders a display’s ability to produce inky shadows, since the black pixels still have some light behind them. On an OLED display, however, there is no backlight—instead, each pixel acts as its own light source, and can be turned on or off independently of the others. This means that black portions of an image can be truly black, because there’s no light source shining through behind them.

OLED panels also excel at displaying vibrant, lifelike colors. Typically, they offer wide color gamut coverage comparable with the color production of expensive studio-grade monitors. Between the intense colors, inky shadows, and striking highlights, OLED panels deliver an image that leaps off the screen. For media of all kinds, you’ll see the difference right away.

For folks who often use their laptops in well-lit rooms full of natural light, a display with a high peak brightness is crucial. Our Vivobook Pro 16X OLED, for example, offers a 550-nit peak brightness so that you can comfortably use the laptop wherever, whenever.

But a display’s low-light performance matters, too. You probably turn down the brightness when you’re in a dimly lit bedroom to conserve battery life—and so it doesn’t sear your eyes when you open a website with a white background. Unfortunately for LCD displays, their contrast and color production often suffer at low brightness levels, leading to a washed-out image where it’s hard to distinguish one color from another. An LCD might only cover 11% of the DCI-P3 color gamut at its lowest brightness setting. To make matters worse, many LCDs introduce distracting, annoying flicker at low brightness levels due to their use of pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques.

OLED panels, on the other hand, shine in this scenario. Much more than LCDs, they can deliver the vibrant colors and striking contrast that makes your content immersive and text easy to read. ASUS OLED panels maintain 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage at both high and low brightness levels, giving you accurate, lifelike colors across the board. Our OLED panels are certified for flicker-free performance by TÜV Rheinland, too. For comfortable use in a wide range of scenarios, OLED panels are the way to go.

When many of us think about using our laptop, we imagine ourselves sitting directly in front of the screen. While this is how folks commonly use a laptop, it’s not the entire story. You’ve probably watched a movie on your laptop with a loved one, collaborated with a classmate on a project, or followed an online recipe as you cooked dinner. Look at an LCD display from a sharp angle, as you likely had to do in any of these instances, and you’ll often see an ugly, color-shifted image.

This is another circumstance where OLED panels stand out from the other options. While some types of LEDs, notably IPS panels, offer wide viewing angles, OLED displays tend to offer wider viewing angles than even the best LEDs. With an OLED-equipped laptop, you’ll always have a clear view of the screen, even in those regular moments when you’re not looking at it straight-on.

An LCD display has a single, always-on backlight that emits broad-spectrum white light similar to what you see during the daytime. That’s fine during typical working hours, but prolonged exposure to blue wavelengths in the evening hours can disrupt your circadian rhythm and make it harder for you to fall asleep.* That’s why we offer a range of Eye Care monitors that give you tools for reducing your exposure to blue light.

Another option is an OLED display. Since each pixel in an OLED panel is its own light source, these displays automatically emit less blue light than LCD options under almost all conditions—about 70% less, compared with standard LCD displays.** You’ll be much more able to browse your TikTok feed or catch a show before bedtime without throwing off your sleep schedule. And your eyes will get fatigued more slowly when you use your PC, making you better able to finish a creative project while you’re still feeling the inspiration.

There are LCD displays that deliver a credible HDR experience, but OLED displays are a more natural fit for the content. The infinite contrast of an OLED display lets you have a brightly shining pixel right next to a perfectly black one, perfect for displaying high-contrast scenes. Bright stars in the infinite blackness of space, fireworks bursting across a night sky, and the sun setting behind a natural landscape never looked so good as they do on an OLED display. Look for laptops with Dolby Vision support and a VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black or DisplayHDR 500 True Black certification to ensure the best experience.

That said, you certainly can get an LCD display that’s primed and ready for HDR. Our ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 includes a display option with a full-array local-dimming (FALD) backlight comprising 512 Mini LEDs that approximate the contrast ratio that an OLED panel can achieve. On top of that, it offers an 1100-nit peak brightness and a VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification. That increased high-end luminance means that you can see more detail in bright images than you would on an HDR display with lower peak brightness.

When you’re watching an action movie, cheering on your favorite athletes during March Madness, playing a round of Fortnite with your friends, or simply tracking the movement of your mouse cursor across the screen as you get some work done, the clarity of moving objects on your display matters. The key spec here is response time. Each pixel on any display takes a small but noticeable amount of time to transition from one color to the next. On a display with poor response time, this appears as a distracting blur that resolves and goes away when the image stops moving. Our OLED panels offer an exceptional 0.2ms response time that gives you absolute clarity in moving images. Comparable LCD displays can take up to 10ms to switch colors.

It’s not just the sharpness of any given image that’s improved by low response time. The accuracy of any given pixel is affected, as well. A typical 60Hz panel refreshes the content on the screen every 16.67 milliseconds. If a pixel takes 10ms to transition to the correct color, then it only actually spends 6.67ms displaying the correct color. A pixel that only needs 0.2ms to transition to the correct color displays that color for almost the entirety of the refresh cycle. Whether you’re watching an action-packed movie, cheering on your favorite sports team, or digging into a great nature documentary, you’ll see a clear image throughout instead of blurry motion.

However, not all LCD displays are built the same. Purchase a gaming laptop equipped with one of our ROG Nebula Displays, and you’ll enjoy a speedy 3ms response time. What’s more, LCD panels are capable of reaching refresh rates that OLED can’t currently match. Our ROG Strix SCAR laptops, for example, can be equipped with a lightning-quick 360Hz display. If you’re shopping for a laptop primarily for fast-paced competitive gaming, a high-refresh-rate LCD display is likely a better fit for you. Click here to read about our different families of gaming laptops.

As you read articles about OLED displays and watch reviews on YouTube, you might notice people talking about “burn-in.” More accurately known as image retention, this is a type of image distortion that can occur when users display static images or on-screen elements at peak brightness levels uninterrupted for many hours, if not days, at a time. Most folks simply don’t use their monitors in this way, so in real-world usage, you can purchase a laptop with an OLED display with the confidence that you’re unlikely to encounter image retention issues. For additional peace of mind, check out the results of a long-term uniformity test conducted by a trusted independent media outlet.

To provide an additional layer of protection against image retention, we include a suite of ASUS OLED Care settings in the easy-to-use MyASUS app. Pixel refresh launches a special screen saver when your display has been idle for 30 minutes that refreshes your screen pixels and optimizes picture quality. Pixel shift moves display pixels almost invisibly to help make sure that static images aren’t constantly displayed on your desktop. And we make it easy to adjust your Windows taskbar settings so that this static display element doesn’t cause any long-term image retention issues.

Some best practices can give you even more assurance that your OLED display will deliver a pristine image over the expected lifetime of the device—and they’re things that you’d likely already do with your laptop anyway. It’s prudent to have the display turn off due to inactivity after a certain amount of time. Rather than leave the brightness level at maximum constantly, it’s a good idea to dial back the display brightness to best fit the surrounding ambient light. Both of these prudent measures help extend battery life, as well, so you likely do these things with your laptops anyway. Finally, our OLED-equipped laptops ship with Dark Mode enabled in Windows by default so that static UI elements aren’t unnecessarily bright.

For most users, an OLED panel is a better fit than an LCD panel. The infinite contrast these displays provide make them more comfortable to use in a wide range of applications. Whether you’re connecting with friends on social media, skimming through your email, watching the latest show, or just browsing your favorite sites, an OLED panel will elevate your experience. Ultra-wide viewing angles let you share any of these things with family, friends, coworkers, and clients. And the list goes on—this display option sets you up for immersive HDR media, takes care of your eyes with its reduced blue light emission, and gives you exceptional clarity in moving images.

There are folks out there for whom LCD panels are a superior choice. Gamers, in particular, benefit from the sky-high refresh rates and ever-lowering response times afforded by LCDs. And those who want an HDR experience augmented by the absolute highest peak brightness levels may prefer an LCD equipped with an ultra-bright FALD backlight.

For just about everyone else, the advantages of OLED panels make them the clear winner of the LCD vs. OLED debate. For too long, display aficionados had to hunt for devices equipped with this class-leading tech. Now, we’re offering OLED panels across a wide range of laptops.

Looking for a highly portable laptop with a detachable keyboard? Check out the eminently affordable Vivobook 13 Slate OLED. Need a blend of performance, portability, and elegance? The Zenbook Flip 14 OLED gives you muscular performance with its AMD Ryzen 5000-series CPU. For creators, we have a wide range of laptops equipped with OLED panels. Click here to learn more. For every budget, need, and preference, we have an OLED laptop ready and waiting. Find your next laptop today.

Tech observers and investors revel in lively discussions about the latest, greatest gadget and whose bottom line will get the greatest bounce. They enjoy debating the intricacies and details of materials that contribute to these devices, and the related trends and developments.  For us at Corning, materials innovators for 165 years, it’s been great to see a recent uptick in discussions about OLED versus LCD display panel technology - a genuine #GlassAge debate.

Corning.com staff sat down with Mike Kunigonis, business director for Corning’s High Performance Displays Group, to understand key differences between OLED and LCD display technology.

Corning.com:  Thanks for your time today, Mike. Let’s start with a key question:  In the context of display panels, how does OLED technology work and what are the main differences between it and LCD technology?

MK: OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode, or Organic LED.  It’s an alternative to LCDs for consumer electronic devices that range in size from wearable to TVs. Like LCD, OLED is a type of panel that enables the displays on device screens. An OLED display picture is generated by turning on and off millions of tiny individual LEDs, each forming the individual pixels of a display. Compare this to LCD, where an always-on backlight projects light through a liquid crystal, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. When the liquid crystal is excited by an electrical current, it lets the light of an individual pixel pass through like a shutter. LCD and OLED display panels both excel at delivering vibrant consumer displays, each in its own unique way.

Corning.com: We’ve heard industry analysts with varying opinions on the benefits an OLED device offers. So why would a consumer prefer a device with an OLED display over an LCD display?

MK: Adoption of OLED displays on smaller, mobile devices is the driver behind most of today’s OLED industry growth, so let me focus on that. A handheld OLED display is attractive to consumers because of the industrial design and display attributes that this technology can support. For example, OLED displays can be curved, or be thinner, or have narrower bezels – or no bezels at all – or flex and bend.  Plus, an OLED display will be a great solution for virtual reality applications because it can provide high resolution and superior response time and latency.

OLED displays are now the industry standard for high-end smartphones, with most of the major manufacturers’ flagships featuring the tech. In fact, there were over a billion phones with OLED screens on the market in July 2018—up from 720 million in July 2016 (growth of 41%).

But what exactly is OLED? Without getting too far into the technical side of things, OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays are brighter and more efficient than LCD displays, which were the previous standard for high-end phones. OLED screens are also thinner, lighter, and typically allow for faster refresh rates. When OLED was an emerging tech, it was incredibly expensive to manufacture, but now that production costs are decreasing, OLED smartphones are becoming increasingly more prominent on the market. LCD, however, is still the most common screen type.

We recently added OLED as a metric in our pioneering Global Smartphone and Tablet Tracker. Using this data, we decided to take a closer look at the OLED smartphone ecosystem.

Consumer adoption of OLED smartphones has been steadily increasing: 30.4% of all active smartphones in July 2018 featured the displays, compared to 26.2% in July 2016. The market that contributed the most to this number was China, accounting for 258 million devices in July 2018 (25.4% of the world’s active OLED smartphones). The U.S. had the second-most OLED smartphones, with a global share of 9.8%—down from 9.9% in July 2016.

Despite OLED’s growing popularity, LCD screens, which are much cheaper to produce, are clearly more prevalent overall. As of July 2018, 62.5% of all active smartphones had an LCD display—a figure that has remained relatively stable over the past year. This is in part due to the large number of low-and mid-spec smartphones (made by brands like Xiaomi and Huawei) in markets such as India, where 67.1% of all active smartphones featured LCD screens. The high number of older iPhones across the world is another contributing factor, as all Apple smartphones prior to 2017’s iPhone X featured an LCD screen. The iPhone 8 and the just-released iPhone XR also feature an LCD display.

Samsung has enjoyed the highest market share of OLED smartphones for quite some time now. The Korean company is actually a manufacturer of OLED screens—not only for Samsung devices but also for Apple, Meizu, Microsoft, Lenovo, and ZTE smartphones (among others). Naturally, Samsung was one of the earliest proponents of OLED, with the first Samsung Galaxy smartphone—released in 2009—already featuring the then-revolutionary tech. However, the company’s majority is shrinking as more and more brands use OLED tech. But this is no issue for the Korean tech giant, as it still gets a cut for manufacturing the displays. As of July 2018, Samsung smartphones accounted for 70.5% of phones with OLED displays, down from 80.6% in July 2017 and 87% in July 2016.

Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo—the #2 and #3 manufacturers of phones with OLED screens, respectively—have been gradually increasing their respective shares of OLED phones. Oppo’s share grew from 4.6% in July 2016 to 9.3% in July 2018, while Vivo’s increased from 3.5% in July 2016 to 8.7% in July 2018. Together, the two brands accounted for close to a fifth of active OLED smartphones in July 2018. Needless to say, these two companies have had a big impact on increasing the OLED market in general.

Apple, which first adopted the tech in last year’s iPhone X, was already the global #4 in July 2018, accounting for 5.3% of OLED phones. This share will only increase in the coming years, as the American tech giant continues to release and sell more flagship devices with OLED displays. In fact, three new iPhones recently hit the market, and two of them (the iPhone XS and XS Max) feature an OLED screen. The most comprehensive and efficient way to track OLED and metrics such as screen size, GPU, CPU, and RAM? Newzoo’s Global Smartphone and Tablet Tracker!

In addition to display types (including OLED), the tracked metrics include brand, model, and technical specs such as screen resolution, CPU, GPU, battery size, and much more. These figures are extrapolated to give information about the number of actively used devices and models around the world and in each individual country/market.

On August 31, 2017, we started a long-term 20/7 burn-in test on 3 TVs (OLED vs VA vs IPS). Our goal was to see how their performance changed over time, especially with static images like network logos, black bars in movies, or video games with a fixed interface.

Permanent image retention is a more serious issue, but it requires looking at the TV"s performance over months or years. We tested three TVs side-by-side, the OLED LG B6, the VA Samsung KU6300, and the IPS LG UJ6300 in a two-year-long test.

This test ended in 2019, as we feel that we now have a good understanding of what types of content are likely to cause burn-in. However, we still haven"t addressed the issue of longevity in general, and we don"t know if newer OLED panels are still as likely to experience burn-in. To that end, we"ve decided to start a new accelerated longevity test to better understand how long new TVs should last and what are the most common points of failure. Although burn-in isn"t the main goal of this test, we"re hoping to better understand how newer OLED panels compare to the older generation of OLEDs. It"s generally accepted that burn-in isn"t as much of an issue as it used to be, but it"s unclear just how much better the newer OLED TVs are. With new panels, new heatsinks, and even brand-new panel types like QD-OLED, there are a lot of unknowns.

The 20/7 burn-in test ran for about two years, from August 31, 2017, until November 15, 2019. The goal of this test was to see whether burn-in could happen for the three most popular TV types (VA LCD, IPS LCD, and OLED). These are the results of our experiment:

Long periods of static content will cause burn-in on OLED TVs. The red sub-pixel appears to degrade the fastest, followed by green and blue. The effect is cumulative, as even cycled logos do burn-in (but over a longer period). We investigated this further in our Real Life OLED Burn-in Test.

The "Pixel Shift" option on the OLED LG B6 can help spread static content over more pixels (so each pixel displays the same content for less time), but it"s not as effective for our large logo. It may be helpful for very small static areas.

Black letterbox bars were displayed for almost 5,000 hours (equivalent to 208 days of continuous letterboxing). Some letterboxing is starting to become noticeable on full-screen slides, but not in normal content. As a result, we don"t expect letterbox bars to cause any issues for people. It"s due to the uneven aging of the screen. The black portions of the screen haven"t aged as m