oled display vs lcd display 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.

Being able to see unwanted backlighting affects a display’s contrast, which is the difference between its brightest highlights and its darkest shadows.

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.

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.

Contrast ratio is the most important aspect of picture quality. A high contrast-ratio display will look more realistic than one with a lower contrast ratio.

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.

If you want something even brighter, and don"t mind spending a literal fortune to get it, Samsung, Sony, and LG all sell direct-view LED displays. In most cases these are

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.

OLED displays have several advantages over LCDs, including superior contrast, thinner profiles, and faster image refresh rates. Plus, they consume less power, and their production is more environmentally friendly than LCDs’.

However, there are tradeoffs. OLED displays are more susceptible to image “burn-in” after prolonged use, and they tend to burn out quicker, too. Their relatively short lifespans are tied to image brightness.

These concessions don’t always make sense for commercial applications, though commercial OLEDs are manufactured with these limitations in mind. For example, modern OLED signage displays protect against burn-in with self-healing technology. Though, as you might expect, their price point is much higher than their LCD alternatives’.

You may be wondering about some other terms we haven’t discussed yet, such as 4K, HiDPI, and Retina display. These describe screen resolutions, and while the subject of resolution could warrant an entire article, there are a few things you should know when selecting (or being sold) displays for your project.

SD is easy to spot because it appears as that 4:3 (almost) squared image on older TVs instead of the widescreen, rectangular shape of modern displays. When you’re watching TV and you see an old show come on with black bars on each side, it’s because the show was produced in SD.

1080i refers to a 1920 x 1080 resolution on a display that creates images by illuminating rows of pixels in an alternating fashion (_interlaced _scan). If a 1080 display lights pixels progressively from top to bottom, the resolution would be called 1080p (progressive scan). The same goes for 720i and 720p displays, which specify a 1280 x 720 resolution with interlaced or progressive scan.

4K indicates a resolution with approximately 4,000 horizontal pixels or approximately four times the pixel count of a 1080p HDTV. 4K displays have at least 8 million active pixels, though the term is not as exact as 1080p. 4K has picked up steam as a marketable buzzword, and 8K displays have emerged as well.

You may also see the term UHD or Ultra High Definition used to describe similar resolutions to 4K. In fact, many consumer displays that would be more accurately described as UHD or 2160p are marketed as 4K. There are some technical differences between 4K and UHD, but they aren’t differences you’d be likely to notice.

So, now we can determine the number of pixels in a display from its resolution. But are those pixels compressed into a 40” TV or spread out across a 15’ video wall? The resolution alone does not tell us how good an image will look. The pixel density and the viewers’ distance from the screen do.

DPI (dots per inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) are measures of density that represent the number of pixels per inch of screen. HiDPI is a term used for displays with very high pixel density—usually at least 200 DPI. High-density displays came on our radar with iPhones. Since then, tablets, notebooks, and other HiDPI personal devices have followed.

Today, smartphones have DPIs climbing into the 500s, while an 8K TV might have a PPI of only 117. The reason for this disparity is perspective: the closer the viewer is to the screen, the higher DPI you’ll need for a crisp, seamless image. Though, the opposite is also true. You might not need to splurge on those 8K displays if the viewing area is far away. Most scoreboards and video walls have lower resolutions than a 4K TV—and much lower DPI.

“Retina display” is a proprietary term used by Apple. It refers to displays with a pixel density so high that the human eye cannot perceive the pixels. Apple introduced the term with the iPhone 4, which had 326 DPI. Steve Jobs qualified the screen as having imperceptible pixels at a distance of 12 inches.

Since then, Retina displays have lacked a concrete definition, though they tend to have more than 300 DPI for phones and sometimes less for tablets—the justification being that people tend to hold tablets further away than their phones.

Consider a “day in the life” of a commercial display. It is constantly on, perhaps 24 hours a day. If used for signage, it might show the same images over and over again, making it susceptible to burn-in. Depending on its location, it may be at risk of being bumped around by staff or patrons, and aesthetically it might require a perfectly rectangular frame to match up with adjacent screens or windows.

Consumer TVs are not built with these issues in mind. Their chassis are not as sturdy, and their components do not last as long as commercial displays’. Further, consumer TV designs are updated frequently, so you might have a hard time finding a replacement that matches the building’s other displays when the need arises.

Lastly, consumer displays may lack external control functionality. If your facility has multiple displays, you shouldn’t need someone to walk around with a TV remote to turn them on every day. Commercial displays come with standard control ports, so they can be tied into several types of control systems, enabling touchpanel control, scheduled operation, and more. An AV consultant can ensure you get the models you need for seamless integration.

When buying TVs for your commercial project, it’s best to understand your needs clearly and avoid getting distracted by buzzwords and tech hype. The battle between LCD and OLED technology is ongoing as manufacturers work to improve the image quality of LCDs and make OLEDs more durable and affordable.

Either display type may be the right choice for your project, and luckily we live in a time where there is a display available for almost every application.

We hope this guide helps you make informed decisions and demystifies the growing TV vernacular. You can contact Chroma today for an expert’s opinion on the right displays for your project.

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.

After the filter, the light gets its color by passing through the red, blue, and green filters of the sub-pixels. From there, the light exits the display and creates the image that the viewer sees.

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.

The direct-lit arrangement can appear to be similar to full array, but there are some differences. With the direct-lit arrangement, the LEDs are also dispersed evenly throughout the panel, but there are far less of them. Because of this, direct-lit displays can not do local dimming. This arrangement is present on lower-end devices.

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.

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.

To begin with, external light enters the display and hits the vertical polarization filter. Though the polarized light passes through the first electrode unphased, it gets twisted 90 degrees after hitting the liquid crystal. Now, it can pass through the horizontal filter. The light hits the reflective panel, and then bounces back through the layers and to the viewers" eyes.

Smartphone and TV displays are a bit different, but ultimately, they share the same concepts. There is a flat panel that"s set up behind the layers that provide the light. It gets polarized as it travels through the layers and eventually hits the red, green, and blue sub-pixels. This is how the light gets its color before it hits the viewers" eyes.

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.

Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:OLED) is an interesting business in the OLED space - as the company"s symbol suggests. OLEDs are organic light-emitting diodes, which are used for displays and other lighting products. OLEDs are part of a growing marketas the pricing for the technology which was once astronomical, has steadily gone down to more affordable levels.

The technology is capturing market share in segments like phones, TVs, wearables, tablets, notebooks and PCs, AR, VR, and portable media devices. Automotive sectors have also been a new adopter of OLED technologies.

The company believes that OLED technology offers advantages of efficiency, contrast ratio advantages, viewing angles, video responses, form factors, and the recent advantage of an actual manufacturing cost.

The company believes that OLEDs will displaymost display technologies that are currently in use. OLED has over 20 years of experience in the business of working with manufacturers and believes this will help the business capture significant future market share.

The company Universal Display Corporation is in the business of developing new OLED materials, and then sellingexisting and new materials to manufacturers for display applications. OLED produces the material - then sells it to product manufacturers.

Aside from this the company also develops as well as licenses its portfolio of proprietary OLED materials, device design patents/form factors and its manufacturing technologies. The company has a large portfolio of fully proprietary OLED technologies and materials which have been attained through internal company research and developments.

OLED, to date, has over 5,500 patents issued and pending across the world. It owns a powerful portfolio. It"s also completely fabless, meaning it carries only very limited overall asset risk.

The company uses Energy-efficient Phosphorescent materials called UniversalPHOLED emitters, which do not use any conflict materials. OLED has zero debt, and a net cash position of almost $850M, including cash/equivalents and long-term investments. It has one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector and can be considered fundamentally sound.

The company"s business model can therefore be said to consist of Revenues, through its license, royalty fees, and material sales. It"s also a technology enabler, through direct patent licensing of PHOLED Emitters &% Hosts, and it"s a researcher, with Device & Architecture IP"s.

The advantages of OLEDs over other technologies are strong. The technology offers a 75% cumulative reduction in power consumption, better image, thinner, wider viewing angle, better blacks and contracts, real-time video speeds, Low UV output, and a minimal bezel. The technology can also be made flexible.

The tech is also in televisions, the new Mercedes EQS, new computers, Nintendo Switch consoles, Samsung computers, and other technologies. The flexibility has already been proven commercially with rollable displays, folding phones, and folding computers.

OLED is an interesting investment, to say the least. Its 20-year returns are absolutely superb at 11.7% annualized for the 20-year period. But at the same time, this company has spent the lion"s share of the past 4-6 years at crazy type valuations of P/E"s up to 60-80X - in short, exactly the sort of company I"d want you to avoid if you"re a conservative investor. In the past year alone, the company has lost almost 60% of its market cap as the stock has completely crashed from what I viewed as completely uninvestable overvaluation.

OLED has very strong partnerships across the world. Most relevant players are using the company"s products in one way or another, as we can see on this list.

Furthermore, the company"s historical performance indicates that the future here is rosy, with revenue close to doubling in less than 6 years. Income was relatively flat between 2017-2020, but really took off in 2021, when OLED started to take off in turn.

OLED is a high-margin business with a fabless, lean operating model. It"s the largest phosphorescent OLED technology and materials portfolio in the world with thousands of patents, and one of the most robust customer relationship bases out there, working directly, boots-on-the-ground with more than 25 major businesses around the globe.

The combined upside of the OLED technology, the future market size, and this company"s market share, prospective and actual, is what makes this company a potentially interesting buy here. OLED has already proven that it"s able to deliver significant earnings growth. For the past 14 years, it"s been growing its EPS by an average of 42.5% (though there is some up and down here).

You know me - give me 50-80X P/E and I"ll give you the boot. I won"t be caught dead investing at those multiples, no matter what business you"re peddling. That"s why I was opposed to investing in OLED a year ago when a reader asked me specifically about the company.

OLED now trades at an average weighted P/E of 24X. That"s within the parameters that I will buy certain businesses. With the growth rates we"re expecting from OLED, this is not at all outside of the realm of possibility. In fact, based on its growth rate as a P/E ratio, the company is trading very closely to "fair value", if you believe that the business should average its growth ratio.

There are a few downsides to this forecast though. The forecast accuracy for OLED is pretty terrible. The company has a strong history, not of outperforming, but of underperforming. OLED has a strong tendency, around 62% on a 1-year basis and 77% on a 2-year basis with a 10% and 20% MoE respectively, of missing forecasts. So those positive 10-20% growth rates are subject to those miss ratios.

S&P Global gives the company a target range of $105 up to $253. What this means is that no matter how low you want to value this company, or agree with these analysts, even the lower-range price targets are currently above where the company is trading. The S&P Global average for OLED is at around $177/share, with 9 of 11 analysts following the company at either a "BUY" or an "Outperform".

My thesis for the company is the following: Universal Display Corporation is a market leader in a recession and future-resistant segment in display technology. Typically overvalued, the company has dropped 50%+ in less than a year.

At a 1.2% yield and a current earnings-based upside of 18% annualized, it"s fair to say at this point that OLED is no longer overvalued. It"s now down, according to some, at fair value, and according to me, at a decent potential upside.

There are two main competing display technologies in the market today: LCD and OLED. The mature and dominant technology is the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), while the up-and-coming challenger is the Organic Light Emitting Diode Display (OLED display). The main difference between LCD and OLED displays is how they create the light and the colors of the image being displayed. This leads to application dependent strengths and weaknesses of either technology.

OLEDs operate via a solid-state technology, where the individual pixels can emit light in various colors and intensity without the need for an additional light source or color filter. The light-emitting portion of an OLED display is comprised of multiple layers of very specific organic semiconductor materials which can be adjusted to emit light in specific wavelengths. These organic layers have a typical thickness in the order of 100nm. In addition, no backlight is required, allowing for a very thin display module.

The organic layers beginning on the cathode side of the device consist of several electron transport layers, a recombination layer and end with a hole transport layer on the anode side. The electron transport layers in the OLED stack-up allow movement of electrons from the cathode toward holes supplied from the anode. The electrons and holes recombine in the emissive recombination layer of the film stack-up. This recombination relaxes the energy levels of the electrons, which produces an emission of light. The wavelength of the emitted light is dependent on the chemical composition of the organic materials used in the recombination layer. The intensity of the light is controlled by the amount of current flowing through the OLED’s organic layers. In OLEDs, the individual pixels can emit red, green, or blue light, or – alternatively – they emit white light, which must then pass through color filters.

There are two main varieties of OLED screens: active-matrix and passive-matrix. The difference lies in how the pixels are generated. In the passive-matrix version, each pixel is created by the intersection of two wires, through which electrical current is passed to create a different color. In an active-matrix setup, each pixel has its individual transistor, which allows for faster refresh times and creates smoother motion and transitions in the picture.

In LCD display technology, the individual pixels modulate light. An applied voltage changes the orientation of liquid crystal molecules that – in conjunction with a pair of polarizers – function as a light shutter by either blocking or allowing light to pass through. LCD displays, therefore, require an additional light source, either from reflected ambient light or more commonly from a “backlight” (an array of LEDs arranged behind or next to the LCD panel). LCD color can be created by adding color filters to the individual pixels. Because OLED displays don’t require the additional backlight, polarizers, or color filter components of an LCD module, they can be made much thinner than LCD displays of equivalent size and resolution.

OLED display technology can offer power-saving advantages over LCDs, which is important, especially for battery-powered applications such as mobile phones. An OLED’s power consumption will vary with image content and brightness, as light is generated only at the individual pixels needed to display the image. A dark image or a graphic on a black background will consume much less power than bright images or graphics. In contrast, LCD backlights must be ON while the display operates. It’s possible to control individual zones of the backlight separately to save power, but this added complexity is usually only applied in larger displays.

OLEDs can achieve a much higher contrast ratio if reflections from the front surface are carefully controlled. If no current flows through an OLED pixel, it does not emit any light. In contrast the shutter effect of an LCD pixel does not block 100% of the light. Depending on the specific LCD technology used and the angle of observation, a small percentage of the light generated in the backlight can escape. This can wash out dark areas of an image. It is possible but expensive to limit this light leakage to a point where the contrast of an LCD and OLED display become perceptually equivalent.

RGB OLEDs naturally generate a narrow bandwidth of light. This leads to very saturated primary colors and a wide color gamut. This enables OLED technology to display colors which are not easily accessible to LCDs unless RGB backlights or quantum dots are used. Often OLED colors are used “as is”, however, for very high image color fidelity, such high color saturation needs to be electronically ‘tuned down’, to match the color bandwidth of the rendering chain.

LCDs offer an advantage over OLEDs in applications where a continuous static image is required. The light emitting materials in OLEDs are affected by luminance decay as a function of the total amount of current that has passed through the pixel. This decay differs for red, green and blue. The dimming effect is subtle, but when adjacent pixels are illuminated at the same time it can become noticeable as an undesired brightness variation or color shift. LCDs don’t suffer from this dimming effect, which makes them a more suitable solution for applications with static images or images with static elements.

Another advantage of LCD technology is the wide variety of different variations to choose from. Depending on the application certain trade-offs can be very attractive. An example is much lower cost for a laptop display compared to a tablet. This is achieved by allowing poor image performance when viewed from the direction the is usually blocked by the keyboard. In a tablet where good viewing performance is required from any direction, much higher cost LCDs or OLEDs must be used.

OLEDs offer an excellent solution for a variety of applications: Glucometers, thermometers, fitness trackers, professional audio equipment, Wi-Fi hotspots, radar detectors, dive computers, biometric transaction devices, and military communications equipment.

They can be used to replace old TN LCDs or add dynamic push buttons on industrial equipment. They can be customized to various resolutions, FPC configurations, colors, custom shaped OLED displays (e.g. octagonal, round, etc.) and can even be made into flexible and transparent displays. Thanks to their versatility, OLED display panel suppliers can offer some exciting capabilities for their customers – things that were previously impossible with LCDs.

As an experienced LCD and OLED panel supplier, New Vision Display can help you find the right technology for your application. Contact us via the below form to discuss your project.

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.

How often do you think about your iPhone’s display? Unless you’re a tech nerd (like me), or living with a shattered display (like me in the past), you might not ever give it much thought. Otherwise, it looks nice — what more do you need to know? But you don’t need to be a geek to care about your iPhone’s display. In fact, you might be missing out on some great features if you’re not aware of what kind you have.

Let’s start with the basics. There are basically two different kinds of iPhone displays. The first is LCD, which stands for liquid-crystal display. To simplify the explanation (and this is a significant simplification) let’s look at two of the components that make LCDs work. The first is their pixels, which are what dictate the colours that appear onscreen. Each pixel has three subpixels — one red, one green, and one blue — which each change in intensity. That combination of colours creates the images that appear when you scroll on Instagram, watch a YouTube video, or look at your photos.

The second component with LCDs is the backlight. The backlight is a panel that sits behind the pixels, and shines light through them in order for you to see what you see. When you change the brightness of your display, you’re really controlling the backlight, and it covers the entire display; think of it like a lightbulb — you can’t decide to have one part of the lightbulb getting brighter while another part gets dimmer.

The other type of iPhone display is OLED, short for organic light-emitting diode. The major difference between LCD and OLED displays is that there is no backlight in an OLED panel. Instead, the pixels lightthemselves up. That gives you some significant benefits; for one, you can have more finely detailed images, since each pixel stands out on its own, rather than requiring a backlight that covers all surrounding pixels as well. The biggest benefit, and the one you might see people talk about most, is that OLED pixels can turn themselves off, giving you incredible contrast between light and dark images.

Here’s an example of why that’s great: Let’s say you’re watching a movie on your phone. Anytime there are dark scenes in that movie, those areas of your display will quite literally turn off. A night sky goes completely black; if the movie is widescreen or a square 4:3, the bars that appear top and bottom or left and right are suddenly completely dark. It results in a very good-looking image, especially if you’re watching in a low-lit room.

These benefits are why I love OLED TVs in particular. The image is fantastic, and, when watching in a totally dark room, letterboxing bars just disappear; you only see the part of the screen you should (whether it be super widescreen or the old square format).

When it comes to iPhones, if you compare an LCD iPhone and an OLED iPhone and fill each display with a black rectangle, it would perfectly visualise the difference. The OLED iPhone would look like it was turned off; the LCD iPhone would still appear dark, but the display would be illuminated.

Because OLED pixels can turn themselves off, there are huge implications for battery life. You can save your iPhone some juice just by using dark mode, specifically the kind of dark mode that uses black backgrounds. (Grey ones won’t turn the pixels off, so you really need all-black elements to save your iPhone’s battery from having to power each and every pixel.)

Traditionally, the main flaw with OLED displays is burn-in. You see this a lot with OLED TVs, unfortunately; after an extended period of use, sometimes the “shadow” of static images will always remain on your screen. People who watch a lot of news, for example, complain that they can see the outline of the chyron, news ticker, and outlet logo on their TVs at all times.

That said, Apple has done a good job to prevent burn-in on OLED iPhones and it just isn’t a common complaint with these devices. The first OLED iPhone — the X — has been out since 2017, and in those four years, residual images haven’t been a noted issue. That’s to say, you don’t need to go out of your way to choose an LCD iPhone if you’re afraid of burn-in.

Below, I’ve listed each and every iPhone that Apple has ever made, complete with their display type. Some of these iPhones are quite old, but I’d love to know if you’re still rocking them. I should note that there are no new LCD iPhones; the last one Apple produced was the 2020 iPhone SE, and the iPhone 11 before that. The entire iPhone 12 and 13 lineups are made using OLED displays.

Most modern computer monitors, and even televisions, have an edge-lit LCD display that’s fundamentally similar to the first such displays sold decades ago, but that’s not where the future is headed. The twin threats of Mini-LED and OLED want to conquer the world of PC displays for themselves.

Which will win, and where is the future headed? I spoke with Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, and David Wyatt, CTO of Pixel Display (and inventor of Nvidia G-Sync), for the inside scoop.

Modern OLED displays rarely exceed 1,000 nits of brightness, and when they do, are incapable of sustaining it. LG’s C9 OLED television, for example, can’t sustain a peak brightness above 160 nits (according to testing by Rtings). Mini-LED displays like Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR, Samsung’s Odyssey Neo G9, and Samsung’s QN90A television can hit peak brightness well above 1,000 nits and sustain at least 600 nits.

Wyatt points to this as a key advantage. The best HDR standards call for up to 10,000 nits of brightness. Current consumer Mini-LED displays don’t achieve this, but it’s possible future displays will.

Such brightness is not necessary for computer monitors or home televisions and instead targets demanding niche components, such as avionics displays. Still, it hints that we’ve only seen a sliver of HDR’s real potential – and that Mini-LED and Micro-LED, not OLED, will lead the charge.

OLED’s greatest strength is the opposite of Mini-LED’s incredible brightness. The self-emissive nature of OLED means each pixel can be turned on or off individually, providing a deep, inky, perfect black level.

“Mini-LED has clear advantages in sources of supply and brightness,” Young said in an email, “but OLEDs have advantages in regards to contrast, particularly off-axis contrast, response times, and no halo effect.” The “halo effect,” also known as blooming, is the halo of luminance that often surrounds bright objects on a Mini-LED display.

The advantages of OLED add up to superior contrast and depth. You’ve likely noticed this when viewing an OLED television at your local retailer. High-quality content has an almost three-dimensional look, as if the display is not a flat panel but a window into another world.

Modern Mini-LED displays often claim to rival OLED. Apple’s Liquid Retina Display XDR, for example, lists a maximum contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. In reality, Mini-LED still noticeably lags the contrast performance of OLED because it can’t light pixels individually. This will remain true at least until Micro-LED, which can light pixels individually, goes mainstream.

Mini-LED improves on traditional edge-lit LCD displays by improving the backlight. The LCD panel itself, however, is much the same as before and retains some flaws common to the technology.

Display quality can shift significantly depending on viewing angle, and significant blur will be visible when displaying fast motion. Both problems are inherent to LCD technology. The liquid crystals do not block light uniformly, so the image looks different from different angles, and require a few milliseconds to respond to a charge, causing blur or ghosting in rapidly changing images.

OLED is different from LCD technology. There’s no liquid crystals to twist or move. Each pixel is an organic element that creates its own light when a charge is applied. The light is emitted in a relatively uniform pattern and can turn on or off extremely quickly, removing the viewing angle and motion performance issues of LCD entirely.

The last few points—contrast, black levels, viewing angles, and response times—highlight the strengths of OLED technology. But, OLED has a weakness: durability.

Wyatt hammered this point during our conversation. The “O” in OLED stands for organic, and organic material will wear out. Indeed, exposure to light itself (and blue light in particular) wears down OLED, reducing the light produced by pixels over time.

This problem is most often discussed in the context of burn-in or image retention. Burn-in happens when specific pixels on an OLED panel degrade differently from those around them, creating a persistent shadow in the image.

OLED manufacturers downplay this issue. LG said in 2016 that its OLED televisions can endure 100,000 hours before they degrade to half their original maximum brightness. The company’s current OLED reliability page says that “reasonable, responsible usage” should not result in burn-in.

Want to see the effects yourself? I recommend Rting’s burn-in testing page, which shows results over a period of eight years (though, unfortunately, Rtings has not updated its result since February of 2020). This testing shows OLED degradation is indeed a thing, though its severity depends on how you use your display.

You might decide the risk is worth the reward. But if you want a display that you’ll use all day, day after day, for a decade or more, OLED isn’t the best choice. The burn-in is real.

Monitor pricing remains a sore point for PC enthusiasts. As explained in my deep-dive on upcoming OLED monitors, pricing is tied to the efficiency of production.

“OLEDs are less costly than MiniLEDs in tablets and notebooks if comparing them to Apple’s iPad Pro and MacBook Pro,” says Young. “On the other hand, in monitors, OLEDs are more expensive than MiniLEDs, and are not as bright.”

This explanation is backed up by the hardware you can buy today. OLED panels are available at reasonable prices in notebooks like the Dell XPS 13 and Samsung Galaxy Book Pro. OLED panels for monitors, on the other hand, are so expensive most manufacturers don’t even bother. The LG UltraFine 32EP950, which briefly went on sale this summer, retailed for $3,999.99.

Mini-LED is also expensive, but more affordable than OLED. Asus’ 32-inch ROG Swift PG32UQX retails for as little as $2,899.99 and Samsung’s super-ultrawide Odyssey Neo G9 is $2,499.99.

This advantage will likely continue in the near future. OLED pricing is reliant on availability of OLED panels, which are not as widely produced as LCD panels. Companies looking to build Mini-LED displays can design the backlight somewhat independently of the LCD panel and choose panels as needed based on the panel’s capabilities and pricing.

Because of this, there’s more ways for manufacturers to deliver Mini-LED displays in notebooks and monitors, which may lead to a more aggressive reduction in price.

The current OLED vs. Mini-LED battle is give-and-take. Mini-LED wins in brightness, HDR, durability, and pricing (of full-sized monitors). OLED wins in contrast, black levels, viewing angles, and motion performance.

OLED’s big break may come with the introduction of new fabs. Young says they will “lower costs significantly for 10-inch to 32-inch panels, giving OLED fabs the same flexibility as G8.5 LCD fabs, meaning the ability to target multiple applications from a single fab.” The first of these new fabs should start producing panels by 2024.

Affordable OLED seems alluring, but Wyatt champions a different approach. He believes the Micro-LED technology championed by Pixel Display will meld the strengths of LCD and OLED while ditching the weaknesses of both.

However, Micro-LED is a technology more relevant to the latter half of this decade. The more immediate fight will see OLED attempt to improve brightness and durability while Mini-LED pursues increasingly sophisticated backlights to mimic the contrast of OLED.

Personally, I think Mini-LED shows more promise—when it comes to PC displays, at least. The static images, long hours, and sustained brightness of Mini-LED displays pinches on OLED pain points, which will remain even if pricing becomes more affordable.

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 brigh