lcd panel technology explained brands

Flat-panel displays are thin panels of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying text, images, or video. Liquid crystal displays (LCD), OLED (organic light emitting diode) and microLED displays are not quite the same; since LCD uses a liquid crystal that reacts to an electric current blocking light or allowing it to pass through the panel, whereas OLED/microLED displays consist of electroluminescent organic/inorganic materials that generate light when a current is passed through the material. LCD, OLED and microLED displays are driven using LTPS, IGZO, LTPO, and A-Si TFT transistor technologies as their backplane using ITO to supply current to the transistors and in turn to the liquid crystal or electroluminescent material. Segment and passive OLED and LCD displays do not use a backplane but use indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent conductive material, to pass current to the electroluminescent material or liquid crystal. In LCDs, there is an even layer of liquid crystal throughout the panel whereas an OLED display has the electroluminescent material only where it is meant to light up. OLEDs, LCDs and microLEDs can be made flexible and transparent, but LCDs require a backlight because they cannot emit light on their own like OLEDs and microLEDs.

Liquid-crystal display (or LCD) is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. They are usually made of glass but they can also be made out of plastic. Some manufacturers make transparent LCD panels and special sequential color segment LCDs that have higher than usual refresh rates and an RGB backlight. The backlight is synchronized with the display so that the colors will show up as needed. The list of LCD manufacturers:

Organic light emitting diode (or OLED displays) is a thin, flat panel made of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. OLED panels can also take the shape of a light panel, where red, green and blue light emitting materials are stacked to create a white light panel. OLED displays can also be made transparent and/or flexible and these transparent panels are available on the market and are widely used in smartphones with under-display optical fingerprint sensors. LCD and OLED displays are available in different shapes, the most prominent of which is a circular display, which is used in smartwatches. The list of OLED display manufacturers:

MicroLED displays is an emerging flat-panel display technology consisting of arrays of microscopic LEDs forming the individual pixel elements. Like OLED, microLED offers infinite contrast ratio, but unlike OLED, microLED is immune to screen burn-in, and consumes less power while having higher light output, as it uses LEDs instead of organic electroluminescent materials, The list of MicroLED display manufacturers:

LCDs are made in a glass substrate. For OLED, the substrate can also be plastic. The size of the substrates are specified in generations, with each generation using a larger substrate. For example, a 4th generation substrate is larger in size than a 3rd generation substrate. A larger substrate allows for more panels to be cut from a single substrate, or for larger panels to be made, akin to increasing wafer sizes in the semiconductor industry.

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The display industry has come a long way in recent years. With so many competing standards on the market today, it’s often hard to tell if an emerging technology is worth paying extra for. OLED and QLED, for instance, sound similar enough on the surface but are, in fact, completely different display types.

LCDs, or liquid crystal displays, are the oldest of all display types on this list. They are made up of two primary components: a backlight and a liquid crystal layer.

Since liquid crystals don’t produce any light by themselves, LCDs rely on a white (or sometimes blue) backlight. The liquid crystal layer then simply has to let this light pass through, depending on the image that needs to be displayed.

You may have noticed that the term LCD has started to disappear of late, especially in the television industry. Instead, many manufacturers now prefer branding their televisions as LED models instead of LCD. Don’t be fooled, though — this is just a marketing ploy.

These so-called LED displays still use a liquid crystal layer. The only difference is that the backlights used to illuminate the display now use LEDs instead of cathode fluorescent lamps, or CFLs. LEDs are a better light source than CFLs in almost every way. They are smaller, consume lesser power, and last longer. However, the displays are still fundamentally LCDs.

Twisted nematic, or TN, was the very first LCD technology. Developed in the late 20th century, it paved the way for the display industry to transition away from CRT.

TN panels have been around for decades in devices like handheld calculators and digital watches. In these applications, you only need to power sections of the display where you don’t want light. In other words, it is an incredibly energy-efficient technology. Twisted nematic panels are also cheap to manufacture.

In the early 2010s, many smartphone manufacturers used TN panels as a way to keep costs down. However, the industry has almost entirely moved away from it. The same holds true for televisions, where wide viewing angles are a critical selling point, if not a necessity.

Instead of a twisted orientation, liquid crystals in an IPS display are oriented parallel to the panel. In this default state, light is blocked — the exact opposite of what happens in a TN display. Then, when a voltage is applied, the crystals simply rotate in the same plane and let light through. As a side note, this is why the technology is called in-plane switching.

IPS displays were originally developed to deliver wider viewing angles than TN. However, they also offer a myriad of other benefits, including higher color accuracy and bit-depth. While most TN panels are limited to the sRGB color space, IPS can support more expansive gamuts. These parameters are important for playing back HDR content and are downright necessary for creative professionals.

Having said that, IPS displays do come with a few minor compromises. The technology isn’t nearly as energy-efficient as TN, nor is it as cheap to manufacture at scale. Still, if you care about color accuracy and viewing angles, IPS is likely your only option.

In a VA panel, liquid crystals are oriented vertically instead of horizontally. In other words, they are perpendicular to the panel, and not parallel like in IPS.

This default vertical arrangement blocks a lot more of the backlight from coming through to the front of the display. Consequently, VA panels are known for producing deeper blacks and offering better contrast compared to other LCD display types. As for bit-depth and color gamut coverage, VA is capable of doing just as well as IPS.

On the downside, the technology is still relatively immature. Early VA implementations suffered from extremely slow response times. This led to ghosting, or shadows behind fast-moving objects. The reason for this is simple — it takes longer for VA’s perpendicular arrangement of crystals to change orientation.

However, VA displays also have narrower viewing angles than IPS panels. Still, most VAs come out on top when compared to even the best TN implementations.

From this description alone, it’s easy to see how OLED differs from LCD and prior display types. Since the compounds used in OLEDs emit their own light, they are an emissive technology. In other words, you don’t need a backlight for OLEDs. This is why OLEDs are universally thinner and lighter than LCD panels.

Since each organic molecule in an OLED panel is emissive, you can control whether a particular pixel is lit up or not. Take away the current and the pixel turns off. This simple principle allows OLEDs to achieve remarkable black levels, outperforming LCDs that are forced to use an always-on backlight. Besides delivering a high contrast ratio, turning off pixels also reduces power consumption.

The contrast alone would make the technology worth it, but other benefits exist too. OLEDs boast high color accuracy and are extremely versatile. Foldable smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy Flip series simply wouldn’t exist without AMOLED’s physical flexibility.

In summary, OLED subtypes aren’t nearly as varied as LCDs. Furthermore, only a handful of companies manufacture OLEDs so there’s even less quality variance than you’d expect. Samsung manufactures the majority of OLEDs in the smartphone industry. Meanwhile, LG Display has a near-monopoly on the large-sized OLED market. It supplies panels to Sony, Vizio, and other giants in the television industry.

In the section on LCDs, we saw how the technology can vary based on differences in the liquid crystal layer. Mini-LED, however, attempts to improve contrast and image quality at the backlight level instead.

The backlights in conventional LCDs have only two modes of operation — on and off. This means that the display has to rely on the liquid crystal layer to adequately block light in darker scenes. Failing to do that results in the display producing grays instead of true black.

This technique, known as local dimming, has become ubiquitous in higher-end LCD televisions. Until recently, though, it wasn’t viable for smaller displays like those found in laptops or smartphones. And even in larger devices like monitors and TVs, you run the risk of not having enough dimming zones.

Take the 2021 iPad Pro, for example. It was among the first consumer devices to adopt mini-LED technology. Even with 2,500 zones across 12.9 inches, however, some users reported blooming or halos around bright objects.

Still, it’s not hard to see how mini-LEDs can eventually deliver better contrast than conventional local dimming implementations. Furthermore, since mini-LED displays still rely on traditional LCD technologies, they aren’t prone to burn-in like OLEDs.

Quantum dot technology has become increasingly common — usually positioned as a key selling point for many mid-range televisions. You may also know it by Samsung’s marketing shorthand: QLED. Similar to mini-LED, however, it isn’t some radically new panel technology. Instead, quantum dot displays are basically conventional LCDs with an additional layer sandwiched in between.

When combined with traditional LCD color filters, quantum dot displays can cover a greater percentage of the visible light spectrum. Put simply, you get richer and ore accurate colors — enough to deliver a satisfactory HDR experience. And since the crystals emit their own light, you also get a tangible bump in brightness compared to traditional LCDs.

However, quantum dot technology does not improve other pain points of LCDs such as contrast and viewing angles. For that, you’d have to combine quantum dots with local dimming or mini-LED technologies. And until those mature, you’re unlikely to find a quantum dot display that can rival OLED in all aspects.

Quantum-dot OLED, or QD-OLED, is an amalgamation of two existing technologies — quantum dots and OLED. More specifically, it aims to eliminate the drawbacks of both traditional OLEDs and LCD-based quantum dot displays.

In a traditional OLED panel, each pixel is composed of four white sub-pixels. The idea is rather simple: since white contains the entire color spectrum, you can use red, green, and blue color filters to obtain an image. However, this process is rather inefficient. As you’d expect, blocking large portions of the original light source leads to significant brightness loss by the time the image reaches your eyes.

Modern OLED implementations combat this by leaving the fourth sub-pixel white (without any color filters) to improve the perception of brightness. However, they still usually fall short in terms of brightness, especially against high-end LCDs with larger backlights.

However, it’s still early days for the technology as a whole. Traditional OLEDs have enjoyed a nearly decade-long head start yet remain relatively unaffordable. It remains to be seen if QD-OLED televisions and monitors can compete in terms of price and durability, especially considering the risks of image retention or burn-in with organic compounds.

Their small size means that you can build an entire display out of microLEDs alone. The result is an emissive display — much like OLED, but without the drawbacks of that technology’s organic component. There’s no backlight either, so each pixel can be turned off completely to represent black. All in all, the technology delivers an exceptionally high contrast ratio and wide viewing angles.

Finally, MicroLED displays can also be modular. Even some of the earliest demonstrations of the technology had manufacturers creating giant video walls using a grid of smaller microLED panels.

Samsung offers its flagship The Wall microLED display (pictured above) in configurations ranging from 72 inches all the way to 300 inches and beyond. With a million-dollar price tag, though, it is clearly not a consumer product. Still, it offers a glimpse into the future of televisions and display technology in general.

And with that, you’re now up to speed on every display technology on the market today! Display types can vary significantly and the best option depends on the characteristics you deem important or require the most.

STONE Technologies is a proud manufacturer of superior quality TFT LCD modules and LCD screens. The company also provides intelligent HMI solutions that perfectly fit in with its excellent hardware offerings.

STONE TFT LCD modules come with a microcontroller unit that has a 1GHz Cortex-A8 CPU. Such a module can easily be transformed into an HMI screen. Simple hexadecimal instructions can be used to control the module through the UART port. Furthermore, you can seamlessly develop STONE TFT LCD color user interface modules and add touch control, features to them.

Becoming a reputable TFT LCD manufacturer is no piece of cake. It requires a company to pay attention to detail, have excellent manufacturing processes, the right TFT display technology, and have a consumer mindset.

Now, we list down 10 of the best famous LCD manufacturers globally. We’ll also explore why they became among the top 10 LCD display Manufacturers in the world.

BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd., founded in April 1993, is an IoT company providing intelligent interface products and professional services for information interaction and human health. BOE’s three core businesses are Interface Devices, Smart IoT Systems, and Smart Medicine & Engineering Integration.

Interface Devises Business includes Display and Senor, Sensor, and Application Solutions. As a leading company in the global semiconductor display industry, BOE has made the Chinese display industry develop from scratch to maturity and prosperity. Now, more than one-quarter of the global display panels are made by BOE, with its UHD, flexible display, microdisplay, and other solutions broadly applied to well-known worldwide brands.

Smart IoT Systems Business includes Intelligent Manufacturing Services, IoT Solution, and Digital Art IoT Platform. BOE provides integrated IoT solutions in smart retail, smart finance, digital art, business office, smart home, smart transportation, smart education, smart energy, and other fields. In the field of digital art, BOE has launched its digital art IoT solution – BOE iGallery, realizing the perfect combination of technology and art. For smart retail, BOE provides IoT solutions in price management, shelf management, and customer behavior analysis to achieve seamless online and offline convergence.

LG Display is a leading manufacturer of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) panels, OLED, and flexible displays.LG Display began developing TFT-LCD in 1987 and currently offers Display panels in a variety of sizes and specifications using different cutting-edge technologies (IPS, OLED, and flexible technology).

Samsung Electronics is South Korea’s largest electronics industry and the largest subsidiary of the Samsung Group. In the late 1990s, Samsung Electronics’ independent technology development and independent product innovation capabilities were further enhanced. Its product development strategy not only emphasizes “leading the technology but also using the most advanced technology to develop new products to meet the high-end market demand at the introduction stage”.In addition to the matching principle, it also emphasizes the principle of “leading technology, developing new products with the most advanced technology, creating new demand and new high-end market”.

Founded in 2003, Innolink listed its shares in Taiwan in 2006. In March 2010, it merged with Chi Mei Optoelectronics and Tong Bao Optoelectronics, the largest merger in the panel industry. Qunchuang is the surviving company and Chi Mei Electronics is the company name. In December 2012, it was renamed As Qunchuang Optoelectronics.

With innovative and differentiated technologies, QINNOOptoelectronics provides advanced display integration solutions, including 4K2K ultra-high resolution, 3D naked eye, IGZO, LTPS, AMOLED, OLED, and touch solutions. Qinnooptoelectronics sets specifications and leads the market. A wide range of product line is across all kinds of TFT LCD panel modules, touch modules, for example, TV panel, desktop and laptop computer monitor with panels, small and medium scale “panels, medical, automotive, etc., the supply of cutting-edge information and consumer electronics customers around the world, for the world TFT – LCD (thin-film transistor liquid crystal display) leading manufacturers.

AU Optronics Co., LTD., formerly AU Optronics Corporation, was founded in August 1996. It changed its name to AU Optronics after its merger with UNIOPtronics in 2001. Through two mergers, AU has been able to have a full range of generations of production lines for panels of all sizes.Au Optronics is a TFT-LCD design, manufacturing, and r&d company. Since 2008, au Optronics has entered the green energy industry, providing customers with high-efficiency solar energy solutions.

Sharp has been called the “father of LCD panels”.Since its founding in 1912, Sharp developed the world’s first calculator and LIQUID crystal display, represented by the living pencil, which was invented as the company name. At the same time, Sharp is actively expanding into new areas to improve people’s living standards and social progress. Made a contribution.

BYD IT products and businesses mainly include rechargeable batteries, plastic mechanism parts, metal parts, hardware electronic products, cell phone keys, microelectronics products, LCD modules, optoelectronics products, flexible circuit boards, chargers, connectors, uninterruptible power supplies, DC power supplies, solar products, cell phone decoration, cell phone ODM, cell phone testing, cell phone assembly business, notebook computer ODM, testing and manufacturing and assembly business, etc.

Toshiba is a famous multinational company with a history of 130 years. It covers a wide range of businesses, including social infrastructure construction, home appliances, digital products, and electronic components. It covers almost every aspect of production and life. Toshiba has the largest research and development institution in Japan. Through unremitting innovation and development, Toshiba has been at the forefront of science and technology in the world.

From the introduction of Japan’s original washing machines, refrigerators, and other household appliances, to the world’s first laptop, the first 16MB flash memory, the world’s smallest 0.85-inch HDDs; Create advanced HDDVD technology; Toshiba created many “world firsts” in the research and manufacture of new SED displays and contributed to changing people’s lives through constant technological innovation.

Tianma microelectronics co., LTD., founded in 1983, the company focus on smartphones, tablets, represented by high order laptop display market of consumer goods and automotive, medical, POS, HMI, etc., represented by professional display market, and actively layout smart home, intelligent wear, AR/VR, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other emerging markets, to provide customers with the best product experience.IN terms of technology, the company has independently mastered leading technologies such as LTPS-TFT, AMOLED, flexible display, Oxide-TFT, 3D display, transparent display, and in-cell/on-cell integrated touch control. TFT-LCD key Materials and Technologies National Engineering Laboratory, national enterprise Technology Center, post-doctoral mobile workstation, and undertake national Development and Reform Commission, The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and other major national thematic projects. The company’s long-term accumulation and continuous investment in advanced technology lay the foundation for innovation and development in the field of application.

Contrary to what you may think, not all LCD TVs are built around the same core panel technology. They can actually have at their hearts one of two really quite different technologies: VA or IPS.

Each, as we’ll see, has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages – so much so that we personally think the type of panel a particular TV uses should be presented right at the top of its specifications list, rather than typically left off altogether. Especially as some brands have been known to actually mix and match VA and IPS panels at different screen sizes within the same TV series.

The VA initialism stands for Vertical Alignment. This name is derived from the way VA panels apply voltage to vertically aligned liquid crystals that have been mounted perpendicularly to the panel’s glass substrate, making them tilt as required to let the necessary amount of light through for each image frame.

The main advantage of VA panels is contrast. Their perpendicular crystal alignment provides greater control over the light passing through each pixel, meaning dark scenes and dark areas look less grey / enjoy better black levels.

The extent to which this strength is exploited can vary greatly between different manufacturers, and depends on any number of secondary factors. The type and position of LED lighting a particular VA screen might be using can have an impact, for instance. There are multiple variations on the VA theme available from different manufacturers, too. As a basic principle, though, black levels and contrast are consistently and often considerably better on LCD TVs that use VA panels.

Because of their ability to control light better, high-end VA panels generally deliver more brightness in real world conditions than IPS ones do. This further enhances their contrast capabilities, and arguably makes them more consistently able to do fuller justice to the wider light range associated with high dynamic range technology.

Being able to deliver dark scenes with relatively little overlying low-contrast greyness additionally means that VA panels tend to achieve more consistent colour vibrancy and toning.

VA panels for use in LCD TVs come from a number of panel manufacturers, including Samsung Display (which makes a so-called SVA variant) and AU Optronics (which makes an AMVA variant). TV brands are able to buy in panels from these and other VA panel manufacturers as they see fit.

Samsung Electronics is the most consistent user of VA panels in its LCD TVs. In fact, until recently pretty much every Samsung TV at every price level used a VA panel. For the past couple of years, though, IPS panels have unexpectedly cropped up in one or two parts of Samsung’s TV range, including 2021’s high-end QN85 series.

Sony predominantly uses VA panels on its most premium TVs, but it also habitually mixes IPS and VA panels across its wider mid-range and entry level LCD ranges. The same goes for most of the other big brands, too, including Panasonic and Philips.

IPS stands for In-Plane Switching. Like VA panels, IPS panels work by manipulating voltage to adjust how liquid crystals are aligned. Unlike VA, though, IPS panels orient their crystals in parallel with (rather than perpendicular too) the glass substrates present in every LCD panel, and rotate their crystals around to let the desired amount of light through rather than tilting them.

By far the biggest and most talked about advantage of IPS technology is its support for wider viewing angles. In fact, one way of identifying IPS panels has traditionally been to look for quoted viewing angles of 178 degrees.

When we talk about wide viewing angle support in relation to LCD TVs, we’re talking about how much of an angle from directly opposite the screen you can go before the picture starts to lose contrast, colour saturation and, sometimes, brightness.

With VA panels the angle you can watch them before the picture starts to deteriorate sharply can be really quite limited – as little as 20 degrees off axis. While we’d say the 178-degree claims for regular IPS panels are rather exaggerated, you can typically sit at a significantly wider angle than you can with VA and still enjoy a watchable picture.

We’ve even seen occasional evidence of the edges of really big (75-inch plus) VA screens suffering from the technology’s viewing angle limitations when viewed straight on, whereas this never happens with IPS technology.

The VA/IPS viewing angle situation is muddied a little by the introduction into a few high-end VA TVs of wide angle technologies based around filters or sub pixel manipulation. These technologies can be associated with other problems, though, such as reduced resolution, and can still struggle to suppress backlight blooming around stand-out bright objects with LCD TVs that use local dimming backlight systems.

Traditionally IPS panels have been associated with – on high-end screens, at least – wider colour gamuts than VA panels can readily manage. They retain this colour gamut better, too, when viewing the screen from an angle. This is why many professional designers, for instance, have tended to prefer IPS technology to VA. There can be some pretty extreme variance in the range of colour supported across different IPS price points, though, and improvements in premium VA solutions – especially the widespread use of Quantum Dot technologies – have largely evened things up, at least at the premium end of the VA market. In fact, with dark scenes, at least, IPS’s issues with black levels and ‘grey wash’ effect can give good VA panels a colour advantage.

There was a time when IPS technology was considered to have an edge over VA when it comes to response time, leading to less motion blur and improved gaming reaction times. These days, though, we’re seeing pretty much identically low input lag measurements (between 9.4 and 10.4ms) from both VA and IPS TVs.

As with VA, there are different variations on the basic IPS theme made by different panel manufacturers. LG Display is by far the biggest manufacturer of IPS LCD panels for TVs, but AU Optronics also makes them, as well as, more surprisingly, Samsung – though some of the non-LG Display IPS products seem to be more focused on PC monitors than TVs.

Given how dominant LG Display is in manufacturing IPS LCD panels, it’s not surprising to find that pretty much every LCD TV LG Electronics makes features an IPS panel at its heart. Other TV brands that use IPS panels on at least a few of their TVs each year include Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Hisense. In fact, the only big brand that has tended to shun IPS is Samsung (perhaps because of arch rival LG Display’s dominance of the IPS market).

As noted earlier, it can be frustratingly difficult to determine whether a TV is using VA or IPS technology. Sometimes it is mentioned in the specifications list on a manufacturer’s website – but more often it is not.

If you’re able to actually get your hands on an LCD TV, try knocking gently on its screen. If it’s an IPS panel it will feel solid and the picture will only be slightly affected – or completely unaffected – by the impact of your knocks. If it’s a VA panel, the picture will distort quite noticeably around points of impact.

It’s tempting to assume that any TVs with obviously low contrast are IPS while any screen with a narrow viewing angle is VA. As well as depending on having a wide experience of lots of panels, though, there’s just too much variation in the high and low-end fringes of each technology for this approach to be reliable.

Arguably your best bet is to check out a TV model you’re interested in on an industry website called Displayspecifications.com(opens in new tab), which includes usually reliable information on the core panel of pretty much every TV released.

You might want to consider IPS TV if your room layout means one or more viewers regularly find themselves having to watch the screen from a wide angle (though don’t forget that a small number of high-end VA TVs feature wide viewing angle technology). IPS’s black level limitations tend to be less obvious in bright rooms too, if that fits with the sort of environment your TV is likely to be used in for the majority of the time.

Our long experience of testing VA and IPS TVs, though, has led us to conclude that in general, the sort of person most likely to be turning to us for buying advice will be happier with an LCD TV based on VA technology.

There’s a variety of display panel out there and even more on the way. But looking at all the different types of panels can be baffling. They come in various acronyms, and many of those acronyms are confusingly similar. How do LCD, LED and OLED compare? What about the different types of LCD panels? And how do these different technologies impact your viewing experience for things like gaming? To help, we’ve created this guide so you can gain a firm understanding of today’s display panel technology and which features really matter.

The first type of panels we’ll cover are LCD (liquid crystal display) panels. The main thing to understand about LCD panels is that they all use a white backlight (or sidelight, etc.). They work by shining a bright white light into your eyes, while the rest of the panel is for changing this backlight into individual pixels.

LED stands for light-emitting diode. You’ll often see LCD panels that are LED, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much when choosing an LCD. LED is just a different type of backlight compared to the old cold cathode backlights. While you could congratulate yourself on not using mercury, which is found in cathodes, at this point all LCDs use LED backlights anyway.

The second thing to understand is that LCDs take advantage of a phenomena known as polarization. Polarization is the direction in which the light wave is oscillating, or swinging back and forth at the same speed. Light comes out of the backlight unpolarized. It then passes through one polarizer, which makes all the light oscillate the same way.

Now you have an on and off (and between) switch for light. To produce color all that’s needed is three color filters, red, green and blue, that block all light other than that color from coming through. The difference between different types of LCD panels is mostly in how this in-between liquid crystal part works.

This design allows for fast response times (the time between the panel getting the frame it’s supposed to display and actually displaying it). It also allows for fast refresh rates. Consequently, TN panels are the only 240 hertz (Hz) gaming monitors available right now.

TN panels are cheap but suffer from poor viewing angles due to the “twist” only being aligned in one direction for viewing the panel straight on. They can also have poor color and contrast due to this twist mechanism not being the most precise or accurate.

VA stands for vertical alignment, again referring to the crystal alignment. These came about in the 1990s. Instead of using liquid crystals to twist a light’s polarization, a VA panel’s liquid crystals are aligned either perpendicular (vertical to) or parallel (horizontal to) the two polarizers. In the off state, the crystals are perpendicular to the two opposing polarizers. In the on state, the crystals begin to align horizontally, changing the polarization to match the second polarizer and allowing the light to go through the crystals.

This structure produces deeper blacks and better colors than TN panels. And multiple crystal alignments (shifted a bit off axis from each other) can allow for better viewing angles compared to TN panels.

However, VA panels come with a tradeoff, as they are often more expensive than TN panels and tend to have lower refresh rates and slower response times than TN panels. Consequently, you won’t see quite as many VA panel gaming monitors.

IPS stands for in-plane switching. These panels debuted after TN panels in the mid-1990s. The crystals are always horizontal to the two polarizers and twist 90° horizontally to go from off to on. Part of this design requires the two electrodes (which apply current to the liquid crystal to change its state) to be on the same glass substrate, instead of aligned with each other on the sandwiching glass substrates above and below the crystal (as in other types of LCDs). This, in turn, blocks a bit more light than both TN and VA panels.

IPS panels have the best viewing angles and colors of any LCD monitor type, thanks to its crystal alignment always lining up with the viewer. And while they don’t offer as fast a response time or refresh rate as TN panels, clever engineering has still gotten them to 144hz, and with nice viewing angles you’re not necessarily going wrong with an IPS gaming panel.

How do LCD panels go about reaching HDR brightness when incorrect polarization and color filters block so much light?The answer is quantum dots. These clever little things are molecules that absorb light and then re-emit that light in the color you engineered them to.

Today’s quantum dot layers usually go between a blue backlight and the polarization step, and are often used to produce red and green that more closely matches the color filters, so more light passes through them. This allows more of the backlight to come through instead of being blocked by the color filters, it can also reduce crosstalk, or colors slipping through the wrong subpixel, ensuring better colors of LCDs.

Other uses of quantum dots are being tried, however. One promising one is using QD molecules to replace the color filters entirely, allowing even more light through. Because LCD backlights produce more light than OLED panels (more on those below), this would allow LCDs to become the brightest displays around.

Motion blur/ghosting can be a result of how long an image takes to switch from one to another and how long an image is displayed on screen (persistence). But both of these phenomena differ greatly between individual LCD panels regardless of underlying LCD tech. And both are often better controlled by higher refresh rates, rather than clever panel engineering, at least for LCD displays.

Choosing an LCD panel based on underlying LCD tech should be more about cost vs desired contrast, viewing angles and color reproduction than expected blur, or other gaming attributes. Maximum refresh rate and response time should be listed in any respectable panel’s specs. Other gaming tech, such as strobe, which flashes the backlight on and off quickly to reduce persistence, may not be listed at all and is not part of the underlying type of LCD used. For that kind of info you’ll have to check the detailed reviews here on our site.

OLED, or organic light emitting diode, panels, are different from LCDs. There are no polarization tricks here. Instead, each pixel (or subpixel of red, green, or blue) lights itself up as a voltage is applied to a giant complex molecule called, yep, an organic light emitting diode. The color emitted is dependent on the molecule in question, and brightness is dependent on the voltage applied. OLEDs can reach HDR brightness because their molecules put out the right colors to begin with without being blocked.

Due to its approach to color and brightness, OLEDs have great contrast ratios. There’s no need to block a backlight, so there’s no worries about light bleeding through. Blacks are very black, and colors look great. OLEDs can also strobe, or flash off and on quickly to lower persistence. They can also use a trick called rolling scan.This turns blocks of the screen on and off one at a time, from top to bottom in a roll. This is all done as the image is sent to the screen, which cuts down on persistence blur a lot. This is why every major VR headset that can afford it uses OLED panels today.

Unfortunately, that’s where the advantages of OLED end. Refresh rates of OLED panels have never surpassed about 90Hz. And they’re quite expensive. A large part of that $1,000 iPhone X price is due to its OLED display. The current molecules used in OLEDs also degrade relatively quickly over time, especially those used for the color blue(opens in new tab), making the screen less and less bright.

OLEDs were also supposed to use less power than LCDs, but newer, giant OLED molecules that take less voltage to turn on have yet to appear. And while molecules covering the colors of the P3 HDR gamut are out today, those covering the larger BT.2020 gamut have yet to be found commercially. So OLEDs, while once promising and seemingly the future, have yet to live up to that promise.

A relevant question: If our fastest gaming displays are 240Hz TN panels now, just how fast do we need to go anyway? Well, a 2015 study places maximum human perception at 500Hz. So from that perspective, we’re halfway there. But that’s halfway there with today’s HDR, and not in lightfield 3D, or other possible advancements. And mobile devices could always use displays that take up less power.

In other words, in order to get fancy 3D effects, or much higher brightness, or any other desirable features, a different, new type of panel may be required. MicroLED tech is one such technology; think of it as OLED without the organic part and with the potential to improve contrast, response times and energy usage over standard LED panels. If you want to know more you can go here, but the real takeaway is that MicroLEDs work almost exactly like OLEDs.

Picking a monitor may feel more like art than science, but the technology behind the screen isn"t hard to understand. Learning about those technologies is key to navigating the minefield of marketing buzzwords separating you from your next monitor.

Our guide to the best monitors for PC gaming explains why those monitors are ideal for playing games at high resolutions and high framerates, but it doesn’t dig deep into the details of monitor technology. That’s what this guide is for: it breaks down what you need to know about modern displays: resolutions, aspect ratios, refresh rates, and the differences between panel types like IPS, VA, and TN.

LCD displays have a native resolution, and running games (or the desktop) below that resolution degrades image quality due to the scaling process of enlarging the image. Using lower resolution modes isn"t really a substitute for picking the right number of pixels in the first place.

1440p has become our recommendation as the best overall option. It"s great for office work, professional work, and gaming. You can still get higher refresh rate 144Hz panels (see below), plus G-Sync or FreeSync, and you can run at 100 percent scaling in Windows. For gaming purposes, however, you"ll want at least a GTX 1070/RTX 2060 or RX Vega 56 (or equivalent) graphics card.

The most common and least expensive LCD panels are based on TN, or Twisted Nematic designs. Since TN screens are made on a vast scale and have been around a long time, they are very affordable. Online retailers stock an abundance of attractive 27-inch 1080p monitors(opens in new tab) with reasonable features starting at just $150. The price is nice, but the pixel density isn’t—and neither are the color quality or viewing angles, TN’s greatest weaknesses.

All TFT LCDs work by passing light, such as an LED, through a pair of polarized screens, a color filter, and liquid crystals that twist when current is applied to them. The more current applied, the more the liquid crystals twist and block light. Precise adjustments allow virtually any color or shade to be reproduced, but TN implementations have some limits.

Each pixel in an LCD display is made of red, green and blue subpixels. Colors are made by mixing varying brightness levels for these pixels, resulting in a perceived solid color to the user. The problem with TN is its widespread adoption of a 6-bit per channel model, instead of the 8-bit per channel used in better displays.

TN compensates for this shortcoming via FRC (Frame Rate Control), a pixel trick that uses alternating colors to produce a perceived third, but it"s a poor substitute for proper 24-bit color reproduction. When combined with the inversion and washout that comes from narrow viewing angles, TN"s elderly status in the LCD display world becomes clear.

IPS, short for In-Plane-Switching, was designed to overcome TN"s shortcomings as a display technology. IPS screens also use liquid crystals, polarized filters, and transmitters, but the arrangement is different, with the crystals aligned for better color visibility and less light distortion. Additionally, IPS panels typically use 8-bit depth per color instead of TN"s 6-bit, resulting in a full 256 shades to draw upon for each color.

The differences are pretty dramatic. While TN displays wash out at shallow angles and never truly "pop" with color no matter how well they are calibrated, IPS panels have rich, bright colors that don"t fade or shift when viewed from the sides. Moreover, pressing a finger on an IPS screen doesn"t cause trailing distortions, making them especially useful for touchscreen applications.

While touted as the high end display technology of choice by giants such as Apple, the truth is that IPS screens still have drawbacks. Due to their more complex construction and the additional transmitters and lighting required for each pixel, IPS screens cost more than their TN counterparts. Thankfully, over the past few years, the popularity of no-frills import IPS monitors from Asia has helped drive down prices and force bigger monitor brands to sell more reasonably priced IPS displays.

The complexity introduces additional overhead that reduces panel responsiveness. Most IPS displays clock in a few milliseconds slower than TN panels, with the best models managing 5ms grey-to-grey, and the more common 8ms panels can have noticeable blurring in gaming. Most IPS displays use a 60Hz refresh rate, though the best gaming displays now utilize IPS panels with 144Hz refresh rates, and a price to match.

A lot of research has been done with IPS and many variants exist, including Samsung"s popular PLS panels and AU Optronics AHVA (Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle). The differences amount to subtle manufacturer variations or generational improvements on the technology, which has been around since 1996.

In between the high speed of TN and the color richness of IPS sits a compromise technology, the VA, or Vertically Aligned, panel. VA and its variants (PVA and MVA, but not AHVA) normally take the IPS approach with 8-bit color depth per channel and a crystal design that reproduces rich colors but retains some of the low latency and high refresh speed of TN. The result is a display that"s theoretically almost as colorful as IPS and almost as fast as TN.

VA panels have a few unique qualities, both positive and negative. They have superior contrast to both IPS and TN screens, often reaching a static 5000:1 ratio, and produce better black levels as a result. Advanced VA variants, such as the MVA panel used by Eizo in the Foris FG2421, support 120Hz officially and offer pixel latencies on par or better than IPS.

The flood of innovation in the display market shows no signs of abating, with TVs on one side and smartphones on the other driving new technologies such as curved screens and desktop-grade OLED panels that promise speeds, contrast and color beyond anything seen so far.

Most standard TFT-LCDs support a refresh rate of 60Hz, which means the screen is redrawn 60 times each second. While 60Hz may be sufficient for many desktop applications, higher refresh rates are desirable since they provide a smoother experience moving windows, watching video, and especially when gaming.

One method popular in gaming monitors is the inclusion of a strobed backlight, which disrupts eye tracking blur by cutting off the backlight for an instant, creating a CRT-like stable image. A strobed 120Hz display is more blur-free than a non-strobed 144Hz panel, but flickering the backlight understandably cuts down on the overall brightness of the image. Users with sensitive eyes can suffer from eyestrain and headaches induced from the flicker as well.

Today"s market for monitors is, at a glance, simple. Everyone has settled on LCD displays as the technology of choice, and most displays have roughly the same appearance.

As Tina recently explained, however, things become more complex once you start looking at the details. In fact, even after you"ve considered contrast, connections, display resolutions and other factors you still have one other choice to consider - the display panel technology you"d prefer.

Modern LCD monitors are extremely thin, as if they are made out of a single piece of material. They are, however, made up of multiple components including the display panel. The display panel is a flat sheet of material that contains liquid crystals that react in different ways when electricity is applied.

Your display panel does not work alone. A backlight shines through the panel in order to create a viewable image. Think of it like a kaleidoscope - if you view it in a brightly lit room you"ll see beautiful patterns and colors, but if you try to use it in a dark room you"ll see nothing at all. Today we"re just talking about the kaleidoscope itself and not the light shining through it.

There is a very good chance that you are reading this article on a LCD monitor equipped with a TN display panel. That"s because TN display panels are by far the most popular in the world. They"re found in virtually all laptops and a large majority of desktop monitors.

The term TN stands for Twisted Nematic, the technical name for the liquid crystal technology the panel uses. The crystals in a TN panel like to do the twist when electrical current is applied. The image on a TN panel is controlled by turning up the juice and letting the crystals twist away - or stepping off the juice and letting them calm down.

While popular, TN display panels aren"t the best. They can"t display as wide a range of color as some other technologies and the formation of the crystals causes issues when you attempt to view the display from an off angle - an effect you"d probably noticed on your own monitor before.

TN display panels have low response times, however, which means they can refresh the image displayed quickly.  This is a trait that PC gamers often appreciate. Also, TN display panels are the least expensive currently available. You can find TN display panels everywhere - indeed, most brick-and-mortar stores stock nothing but monitors with TN display panels.

Efforts to produce a broader range of colors and better viewing angles resulted in the IPS display, which is the second most popular display panel today. There are two major technical differences that make IPS display panels superior. The crystals in the panel are aligned differently, and each crystal has electricity applied through both ends rather than just one.

These differences give IPS panels the ability to display images in gorgeous detail. IPS panels can reproduce full 8-bit colorand most companies producing IPS panel monitors proudly boast about their monitor"s ability to display a wide color gamut. This is incredibly important to those who digitally edit photos and art. Monitors with IPS display panels also provide wider viewing angles, which means you don"t have to be viewing your monitor dead-on to receive decent image quality.

IPS display panels do have slower response times than TN panels, and some larger monitors with IPS panels aren"t great for gaming due to this trait. The biggest downside, however, is price  - these panels are always more expensive, and as a result even a 24" IPS display is usually over $400. Dell"s UltraSharp series is the most well known line of IPS panel monitors in North America. You can also find IPS display panels in the iMac, iPad and the iPhone 4.

If you"re shopping for a monitor you will almost certainly end up choosing between a TN or IPS panel. However, there are a few other panel technologies available. These include MVA and PVA, two related technologies.

You won"t find these technologies frequently, and they"re usually in extremely expensive monitors that are designed for professionals and digital artists. MVA and PVA monitors offer full 8-bit color as well (indeed, a few models claim 10-bit or 16-bit color) and these technologies are generally known to provide the widest viewing angles and deepest black levels of any display technology (although the specifics depend on the individual monitor). The downsides are similar to IPS panels - response times are often a bit high and the prices are very high.

I generally recommend monitors with IPS display panels if you can afford them. Monitors tend to last a long time, so laying down extra cash for a better monitor makes sense. If you have any tips or questions relating to display panel technology feel free to leave them in the comments!

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).

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.

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.

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.

These LCD displays are the most common among others, mainly because they are lightweight, produce the best images, and use less power. The display is composed of millions of pixels that form images.

If you are looking for information about LCD Monitors (see HP monitors) then you are at the right place. You will find everything you want to know about LCD Monitor with its definition, description, function, benefits, how to use it, where to buy, and links for reviews and comparisons to make the most out of your investment.

An LCD monitor (Liquid Crystal Display Monitor) is a video display device commonly used in computers and televisions. It is a flat panel display as opposed to the more traditional cathode-ray tube (CRT) for television sets and oscilloscope monitors.

Also, this flat panel display has other advantages over CRT displays that include higher resolution, brighter images, better contrast ratios, deeper black ranges, more color palettes, and most importantly extremely lower power demands. In most cases, LCD monitors are lightweight and thinner than CRT monitors, which makes them perfect as portable monitors, too.

There are various types of LCD monitors on the market, with each having its pros and cons. Some are designed to provide wide viewing angles, while others are made to provide great image quality. If you are looking for an LCD monitor for your Mac Mini, PC, or laptop, here are the main types to choose from;

Twisted Nematic (TN) is one of the most common LCD technologies. It has been the dominant technology for regular home and office displays from 2001 to 2010 until it was replaced by better alternative technologies of In-Plane Switching (IPS), and VA.

Vertical Alignment (VA) panels are a type of LCD display panel that features better contrast ratios and black uniformity when compared to IPS and TN panels.

IPS (In-Plane Switching) panels come with the best features. Their most distinctive feature is their wide viewing angles both horizontally and vertically.

As a result of this, they are best suited for multi-user or collaborative environments, though it must be said that this kind of technology is also appreciated by individuals who look for wider screen views.

The additional characteristics of this type of LCD monitor include high image quality, adaptability to bright light conditions, color accuracy, and competitive pricing - all factors which have made them very popular.

At the back of the LCD display, there is a backlight that emits white light. It goes through a horizontal polarizer; this is a kind of filter that allows only horizontal polarized light beams to pass through it.

Most modern LCD monitors have several parts that work together to produce an image. The main parts include;The panel,The cables (power cable and connectivity cables)The stand

LCD Monitor is one of the most important technologies that exist today, especially if you are working on a project. One of the very first LCD monitors was developed in 1970 by inventor J. Fergason (see also who created the first monitor historically).

Before that, cathode ray displays were bulky, consumed a lot of electricity, did not last a long time, and did not produce great images like today’s Acer LCD monitor, Dell LCD monitor, or AOC LCD monitor.

It is not until 1981 when Solartron introduced the first color LCD monitor; his name is always mentioned when one is researching thehistory ofmonitors. Since then, LCD monitors have evolved at an alarming rate. Even now, more innovations are being made to make them more durable and useful for customers.

The inventor of the LCD monitor is inventor J. Fergason. He was a business entrepreneur as well as an American inventor. He was born on January 12, 1934, and died on December 9, 2008.

Tests have proved that Samsung monitors such as Samsung u32j590 31.5 16 9 4k UHD LCD monitor and AOC 27b1h 27 LCD monitor black are much better than the traditional cathode ray and Plasma monitors. Why?

LCD is the best technology for most people, but it does have its downsides. The most obvious one is price. While LCD panels are getting cheaper, they"re still more expensive than CRT displays.

An LCD Monitor gives sharp clear image quality with its high resolution. The high resolution means viewing more pixels on the screen for a superior picture. Combining super-resolution, vivid colors, and extreme brightness, LCD monitors will amaze you. Nonetheless, when looking for your movies monitor, it is essential to go for high-resolution models.

The price of an LCD monitor depends on its size and features. Generally, prices range from roughly $150 to over $2000, although some models may be less expensive or more expensive.

There are various models of LCD monitors on the market. The power consumption of each model depends on the display size, resolution, brightness, etc. The power consumption of a 19-inch LCD monitor averages around 20 watts.

There are various brands that manufacture LCD monitors. Some of the most common brands include:Lenovo such as Lenovo l22e 20 21.5-inch LCD backlit lcd monitorDELL such as dell 2407wfp 24-inch widescreen ultrasharp lcd monitorSamsung such as Samsung 32 curved 1920x1080 HDMI 60hz 4ms fhd lcd monitorAcerHPLG such as LG 34 ips lcd ultrawide fhd freesync monitor blackSanyoSony

Huge number of professionals enjoy numerous benefits of LCD technology. No matter what you do, whether you use your computer monitor for editing videos, graphic design, programming, or if you are someone who plays computer games frequently, you will need the best LCD because of its great features.

LED monitors (a form of LCD) are your best choice as monitors for graphic design. They are a bit pricier than VA panels but the difference in performance is worth it. You get a faster response time and better color rendition while keeping everything within a budget.

If you are a photographer, working with monitors for photo editing is as important as the camera you work with. The key feature you should look for is backlight. LED"s (a form of LCD) will have brighter, sharper blacks than that of an regular LCD, making them ideal for the digital photo editor. The fact is also that you won"t have to spend a fortune as there are many affordable options.

When looking for a monitor for architects one should focus on color, brightness, and contrast. Optimal color performance and resolution is what most monitors for architecture are equiped with. We should also point out that best monitors for CAD and similar demanding software share similar features and technology.

In this category LCD monitor represents an excellent choice. You can have all features of a business-style monitor with full customibility according to what your work requires. We must point out that you should look at monitors for