Whether it's a smartphone, tablet, laptop, monitor or even a television, the most important aspect of any of these devices is the display. The display unknowingly affects the performance of our devices. Rather, it can be said that the performance of our devices depends on the type of display that it is coupled with.
While buying an electronic device, you may see a lot of variety in the types of displays it difference devices have to offer and it may get confusing.
I shall try to explain the most common type of displays found in the market in this post:
TFT LCD:
TFT stands for thin film transistor technology. TFT LCDs are one the most common display units mainly across mobile devices. TFT LCDs offer better image quality and higher resolutions compared to earlier generation LCD displays but their limitation lies in narrow viewing angles and poor visibility in direct light or sunlight.
Large TFT displays consume more power and hence are not battery friendly. But as these are cheaper to manufacture these are found on budget phones, feature phones and lower end smartphones.
IPS LCD:
IPS stands for In-Place Switching. If you compare TFT vs IPS, then IPS LCDs are superior to normal TFT LCD displays with wider viewing angles and lower power consumption which leads to a much improved battery life. IPS-LCDs are costlier than normal TFT LCD and hence are found only on higher end smartphones. A higher resolution (640 x 960 pixels) version of IPS LCD is used in Apple iPhone 4 and onward called Retina Display because of its brilliant picture quality.
OLED:
OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode and is a newer technology for type of displays of mobiles and monitors. In OLED technology a layer of organic material (carbon based) is sandwiched between two conducting sheets (an anode and a cathode), which in turn are sandwiched between a glass top plate (seal) and a glass bottom plate (substrate). When electric pulse is applied the two conducting sheets, electro-luminescent light is produced directly from the organic material sandwiched between. Brightness and color can vary depending on the electric pulse.
OLEDs are much better compared to LCDs because of their exceptional color reproduction, blazing fast response times, wider viewing angles, higher brightness and extremely light weight designs. Another advantage of OLEDs is lesser power consumption. When these displays have to produce darker or pitch black shades, the subpixels within the display are completely switched off thereby producing a great contrast ratio and thereby consuming less power. These displays have been growing in popularity right from smartphones to giant TVs.
AMOLED:
AMOLED stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. AMOLED displays are a type of OLED displays for mobiles and are rapidly gaining popularity in top end smartphone segment. AMOLED screens have all the attributes of an OLED display like brilliant color reproduction, light weight, better battery life, higher brightness and sharpness and light weight designs.
AMOLED displays are now getting into main stream and most of the latest higher end smartphones are now coming with AMOLED displays.
There is no substantial difference between OLEDs and AMOLEDs. The only difference is that the Active- Matrix is just an alternate method of self illuminating the pixels to the one found in OLED displays. But this different arrangement costs more to produce and hence is generally available on higher end devices.
Super AMOLED Display:
Super AMOLED display technology is an advanced version of AMOLED display. Developed by Samsung, it is said to be the thinnest display technology in the market. Super AMOLED display is much more responsive than an AMOLED display. Samsung top-of-the-line Galaxy smartphones come engineered with Super AMOLED display technology.
It is Samsung's patented technology and is not available on other devices.
Retina Display:
Retina Display is a term used by Apple for its high resolution (640x960 pixels) IPS LCD display technology used in iPhone 4 and onward and is also found in the newer generation MacBooks and iMacs and the newly announced Apple Watch. The company calls it the Retina display because its pixels cannot be individually identified by a human eye, thereby making the display super sharp, text more crisp and pictures more clear.
Verdict: As I mentioned at the beginning, a display can affect the performance of the device and also affect the overall user experience and that's why choosing the right type of display is very important. If you like watching a lot of movies and playing games, especially on your smartphone or tablet, an AMOLED display will suit you better. If you want wider and more consistent viewing angels, IPS is the way to go!
Hope this guide helps those who are looking for a new electronic device and are confused between choosing the right display for them.
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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