An explanation of the main differences between AMOLED and LCD, the two most popular screen technologies in tablets and phones.
Due to its black background, Windows Phone 7 is perfect for AMOLED
These days you really only have two choices of screens when you are
buying a smartphone or tablet, LCD or AMOLED. Many of you probably can’t
tell the difference between the two screen types, but both technologies
have inherent strengths and weaknesses. LCD has been around for a
while, but AMOLED phones are gaining popularity thanks to Samsung and
other manufacturers. There isn’t a clear winner at this point in time,
so here’s a look at both.
LCD
LCD,
Liquid Crystal Display, has been part of our lives for years now.
Besides mobile devices we see LCD screens being used with almost every
computer monitor, and in the majority of recent TVs. While these screens
are made of wondrous liquid crystals, they also require a couple panes
of glass, and a light source. LCD screens produce some of the most
realistic colors you can find on a screen, but might not offer as wide
of a contrast ratio (darker darks and brighter brights) as AMOLED or
OLED.Some common terms you will find associated with LCD displays are TFT and IPS. TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor, which makes the wiring of LCD screens more efficient by reducing the number of electrodes per pixel. One benefit of TFT displays is improved image quality over standard LCD screens. Another popular LCD technology is In-Plane Switching, or IPS, which improves upon TFT by offering much wider viewing angles and color reproduction on LCD screens. IPS screens are able to achieve this by keeping all the liquid crystals parallel to the screen. IPS is generally preferable to standard TFT.
Notable Devices with LCD Screens: iPhone 4/4s, iPad, and HTC One X
AMOLED,
Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode, technology is actually
fairly old but their emergence on the market at high end screens is
recent. AMOLED screens consist of a thin layer of organic polymers that
light up when zapped with an electric current. Due to this simple
construction, AMOLED screens can be extremely thin and don’t require a
backlight. The benefit of losing a backlight is readily apparent: these
screens are able to produce blacks so deep that the screen pixels can
shut right off. Shutting off pixels can also save electricity and
battery life in phones and tablets. Just keep your backgrounds close to
black and you’ll save energy.
Sometimes when you read about AMOLED screens, you might hear people complaining about something called a “pentile” display.
This is a feature of most color AMOLED screens. Instead of having just a
single red, blue, and green sub pixel per actual pixel, pentile
displays have a RGBG sub pixel layout which has two green sub pixels for
each red and blue. The positive of this technology that you are able to
create a screen that is just as bright as normal screens with one third
the amount of sub pixels. The negative of pentile screens is that they
can appear grainy, or appear to be lower resolution due to the larger,
more visible sub pixels. Samsung’s newest screen technology is Super
AMOLED Plus, which does not use a pentile sub pixel layout and also
improves viewability in direct sunlight — traditionally a weakness for
AMOLED. Samsung used Super AMOLED plus screens in Galaxy S II phones,
but reverted back to Super AMOLED screens for the Galaxy S III citing
screen life as the reason for the switch.AMOLED
AMOLED,
Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode, technology is actually
fairly old but their emergence on the market at high end screens is
recent. AMOLED screens consist of a thin layer of organic polymers that
light up when zapped with an electric current. Due to this simple
construction, AMOLED screens can be extremely thin and don’t require a
backlight. The benefit of losing a backlight is readily apparent: these
screens are able to produce blacks so deep that the screen pixels can
shut right off. Shutting off pixels can also save electricity and
battery life in phones and tablets. Just keep your backgrounds close to
black and you’ll save energy.Notable Devices with AMOLED screens: Samsung Galaxy S series, Nokia Lumia 900, and HTC One S.
No comments:
Post a Comment