retina display vs tft lcd brands

New Delhi: The technology used in mobile displays in the modern day smartphones has progressed significantly. In the era of touchscreen  smartphones, the display technology has become one of its primary selling points, and certainly its most unique feature. Not only we want the touch screens to offer crisp text, vibrant images, blur-free video and enough brightness, we want them at low cost too.

For instance, HTC One uses Super LCD3 tech, in its 4.7in screen which gives a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, with pixel density of 469 pixels per inch (ppi). This results in super display in terms of crispness and colour reproduction. HTC says the SLCD technology gives the phone better power management, improved viewing angles and is easier to produce.

The Thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) technology is the most common display technology used in mobile phones. A variant of liquid crystal display (LCD), the technology uses TFT technology to enhance image quality. It offers better image quality and higher resolutions as compared to earlier generation LCD displays.

IPS LCD Stands for In Plane Switching liquid Crystal Display. This technology offers better display quality as compared to the TFT-LCD display. The good part about IPS LCD is that it offers better viewing angles and consumes less power. Due to higher costs, it is found only on high-end smartphones. Apple uses a high resolution (640x960 pixels) version of IPS LCD in its iPhone 4, which is also called Retina Display.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display technology is much better as compared to the LCD display technology because of its excellent colour reproduction, faster response times, wider viewing angles, higher brightness and extremely light weight designs.

OLEDs are brighter than LEDs and do not require backlighting like LCDs. Since OLEDs do not require backlighting, they consume much less power than LCDs.

Since these display forms are easier to produce, they can be made to larger sizes. Because OLEDs are essentially plastics, they can be made into large, thin sheets.

AMOLED screens have all the attributes of an OLED display like excellent colour reproduction, faster response times, wider viewing angles, higher brightness and extremely light weight designs.

Super AMOLED display technology is an advanced version of AMOLED display. Samsung uses this term for the AMOLED panels that they develop. Super AMOLED  screens are built with capacitive touch sensors on the display itself. Super AMOLED display is much more responsive than an AMOLED display. Samsung top-of-the-line Galaxy SII comes engineered with Super AMOLED display technology. Samsung has already took it"s SMOLED screen to next levels by developing Super AMOLED+, HD Super AMOLED+ and FHD Super AMOLED+ screens.

It is a name given by Apple to the high-resolution screen technology introduced on the iPhone 4 in June 2010. Something is a Retina Display when it offers a density of pixels above 163 pixels per inch. The company calls it the Retina display because its pixels cannot be individually identified by a human eye, thus rendering a super sharp display, more crisp text and more clear pictures.

Retina Display is designed to smooth the jagged edges of pixels are provide a higher-quality image than previously available on mobile devices. Apple claims that its resolution is so good that it makes it impossible for the human eye to distinguish individual pixels. Its effects shows up in text, images and videos.

Color boost is simply Moto"s marketing term for their new display. Although it now uses LCD displays, the company fine-tuned its panels to match the saturation of OLED displays while maintaining the higher performance of LCD. It"s somewhere in the middle ground.

IPS (In-Plane Switching) lcd is still a type of TFT LCD, IPS TFT is also called SFT LCD (supper fine tft ),different to regular tft in TN (Twisted Nematic) mode, theIPS LCD liquid crystal elements inside the tft lcd cell, they are arrayed in plane inside the lcd cell when power off, so the light can not transmit it via theIPS lcdwhen power off, When power on, the liquid crystal elements inside the IPS tft would switch in a small angle, then the light would go through the IPS lcd display, then the display on since light go through the IPS display, the switching angle is related to the input power, the switch angle is related to the input power value of IPS LCD, the more switch angle, the more light would transmit the IPS LCD, we call it negative display mode.

The regular tft lcd, it is a-si TN (Twisted Nematic) tft lcd, its liquid crystal elements are arrayed in vertical type, the light could transmit the regularTFT LCDwhen power off. When power on, the liquid crystal twist in some angle, then it block the light transmit the tft lcd, then make the display elements display on by this way, the liquid crystal twist angle is also related to the input power, the more twist angle, the more light would be blocked by the tft lcd, it is tft lcd working mode.

A TFT lcd display is vivid and colorful than a common monochrome lcd display. TFT refreshes more quickly response than a monochrome LCD display and shows motion more smoothly. TFT displays use more electricity in driving than monochrome LCD screens, so they not only cost more in the first place, but they are also more expensive to drive tft lcd screen.The two most common types of TFT LCDs are IPS and TN displays.

It can be argued that the display on your smartphone is its most important feature, as it is the principle way in which you interact with your device. A poor display means a poor user experience. As with all tech, it is easy to spot an under-performer, however the differences between a good display and a truly excellent display are harder to discern.

Roughly speaking there are two main types of displays used in smartphones: LCD and LED. These two base technologies have been refined and tweaked to give us AMOLED and IPS LCD. The former stands for Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, while the latter means In-Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display.

All of this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the marketing people, which means that plain old AMOLED or regular IPS LCD aren’t the terms used in the marketing fluff. Instead, we have Super AMOLED, Dynamic AMOLED, Super LCD, Super Retina OLED, Super Retina XDR, Infinity Display, and so on. But what’s any of that actually mean?

The LED part of AMOLED stands for Light Emitting Diode. It’s the same tech as you find on many home appliances that show that the power is on with a little red light. An LED display takes this concept, shrinks it down, and arranges the LEDs in red, green, and blue clusters to create an individual pixel.

Finally, the AM part in AMOLED stands for Active Matrix, rather than a passive matrix technology. In a passive matrix, a complex grid system is used to control individual pixels, where integrated circuits control a charge sent down each column or row. But this is rather slow and can be imprecise. Active Matrix systems attach a thin film transistor (TFT) and capacitor to each sub-pixel (i.e. red, green, or blue) LED. The upshot is that when a row and column is activated, the capacitor at the pixel can retain its charge in between refresh cycles, allowing for faster and more precise control.

The image above is a close-up shot of the AMOLED display on the Samsung Galaxy S8. The RGB triangular pattern is clearly shown. Towards the bottom of the image, the green and red LEDs are off and the blue LEDs are on only slightly. This is why AMOLED displays have deep blacks and good contrast.

Super AMOLED is a marketing term from Samsung. It means a display that incorporates the capacitive touchscreen right in the display, instead of it being a separate layer on top of the display. This makes the display thinner.

Dynamic AMOLED is another marketing term from Samsung. It denotes Samsung’s next-generation AMOLED display which includes HDR10+ certification. According to Samsung, Dynamic AMOLED also reduces the harmful blue light emitted from the display, which helps reduce eye strain and helps lessen sleep disturbances if you’re using your phone late in the day!

As for Infinity Display (or Infinity-O Display), it is more marketing from Samsung. It means “a near bezel-less, full-frontal, edge-to-edge” display. However, it is still a Super AMOLED unit.

LCD displays work with a backlight that shines through some polarizing filters, a crystal matrix, and some color filters. Liquid crystals untwist when an electric charge is applied to them, which affects the frequency of the light that can pass through. Since the crystals can be twisted to varying degrees depending on the voltage used, a display can be built when they are used with polarized panels. A grid of integrated circuits is then used to control each pixel, by sending a charge down into a specific row or column. Colors are created by the use of red, green, and blue filters, known as sub-pixels, which are then blended by varying degrees to produce different colors.

The above image is of an LCD display from a Huawei Mate 8. Notice how the pixels are made up of equally-sized sub-pixels, one for each of the colors: red, green, and blue.

Like Super AMOLED, a Super LCD display also incorporates the touchscreen. There is no “air gap” between the outer glass and the display element, which means it has similar benefits to Super AMOLED.

Samsung isn’t the only company that is good at marketing, there is another! Apple has coined the term “Retina” for its displays. The term was first used for its smartphones with the launch of the iPhone 4, as it offered a significantly greater pixel density (over 300 ppi) when compared to the iPhone 3GS. Later came Retina HD, which applies to iPhones with at least a 720p screen resolution.

All Retina and Retina HD displays on the iPhone are LCD IPS displays. However, things have changed a bit with the iPhone X as it features an AMOLED display, now marketed under the term Super Retina. It’s still an AMOLED display. It just has extra adjectives. With the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro, Apple coined the term Super Retina XDR. The XDR part means Extended Dynamic Range, as they have better contrast ratios and higher peak brightness.

Not all Retina displays use OLED. Although the MacBook Pro is marketed with a “Retina” display, as you can see from the magnified image above, it is a regular LCD, even if it uses the latest Apple silicon.

Both technologies can be used to build displays with 720p, 1080p, Quad HD, and 4K resolutions. And OEMs have made handsets that support HDR10 using both LCD and AMOLED displays. So from that point of view, there isn’t much difference between the two.

When it comes to color, we know that the blacks will be deeper and the contrast ratios higher on AMOLED displays. But, overall color accuracy can be high on both types of display.

One of the main weaknesses of AMOLED displays is the possibility of “burn-in”. This is the name given to a problem where a display suffers from permanent discoloration across parts of the panel. This may take the form of a text or image outline, fading of colors, or other noticeable patches or patterns on the display. The display still works as normal, but there’s a noticeable ghost image or discoloration that persists. It occurs as a result of the different life spans between the red, green, and blue LED sub-pixels used in OLED panels.

Blue LEDs have significantly lower luminous efficiency than red or green pixels, which means that they need to be driven at a higher current. Higher currents cause the pixels to degrade faster. Therefore, an OLED display’s color doesn’t degrade evenly, so it will eventually lean towards a red/green tint (unless the blue sub-pixel is made larger, as you can see in the first image in this post). If one part of the panel spends a lot of time displaying a blue or white image, the blue pixels in this area will degrade faster than in other areas.

The theoretical lifespan of an AMOLED display is several years, even when used for 12 hours a day. However, there is anecdotal evidence that some displays suffer from burn-in quicker than others. Displays that show signs of burn-in after only a few months should be considered defective because they certainly aren’t normal.

While owners of devices with LCD screens might congratulate themselves for picking a smartphone that is immune to burn-in, there can be a problem with LCD panels called “image retention.” Put simply, liquid crystals can develop a tendency to stay in one position when left at the same voltage for extended periods. Thankfully this phenomenon is normally temporary and can usually be reversed by allowing the liquid crystals to return to their relaxed state.

Picking a winner can be hard as there are many factors to consider, not only about the display technologies but also about the other components in a handset. For example, if you are an AMOLED fan, then would you consider a device with large storage and a good processor, but with an LCD display? The same argument works the other way for LCD fans. Generally, you’ll be fine with either display type, so just pick the handset you like.

Higher-end devices typically sport AMOLED displays and mid-range/budget devices usually use LCD. But that isn’t set in concrete as there are plenty of high-end devices that have LCD displays. With OLED production costs dropping dramatically in recent years, more and more budget options will be offering OLED panels in the future.

Companies like LG and Samsung have seen this trend coming and are rapidly expanding their OLED (and flexible OLED) production capabilities. LCD might still have a bright future in televisions and other large-panel applications, but for now, it looks like mobile will be increasingly dominated by OLED screens.

What do you think? AMOLED or LCD? What about the terms like Retina vs Infinity Display? Are they meaningful to you? Please let me know in the comments below.

As you might already be aware, there’s a large variety of versatile digital display types on the market, all of which are specifically designed to perform certain functions and are suitable for numerous commercial, industrial, and personal uses. The type of digital display you choose for your company or organization depends largely on the requirements of your industry, customer-base, employees, and business practices. Unfortunately, if you happen to be technologically challenged and don’t know much about digital displays and monitors, it can be difficult to determine which features and functions would work best within your professional environment. If you have trouble deciphering the pros and cons of using TFT vs. IPS displays, here’s a little guide to help make your decision easier.

TFT stands for thin-film-transistor, which is a variant of liquid crystal display (LCD). TFTs are categorized as active matrix LCDs, which means that they can simultaneously retain certain pixels on a screen while also addressing other pixels using minimal amounts of energy. This is because TFTs consist of transistors and capacitors that respectively work to conserve as much energy as possible while still remaining in operation and rendering optimal results. TFT display technologies offer the following features, some of which are engineered to enhance overall user experience.

The bright LED backlights that are featured in TFT displays are most often used for mobile screens. These backlights offer a great deal of adaptability and can be adjusted according to the visual preferences of the user. In some cases, certain mobile devices can be set up to automatically adjust the brightness level of the screen depending on the natural or artificial lighting in any given location. This is a very handy feature for people who have difficulty learning how to adjust the settings on a device or monitor and makes for easier sunlight readability.

One of the major drawbacks of using a TFT LCD instead of an IPS is that the former doesn’t offer the same level of visibility as the latter. To get the full effect of the graphics on a TFT screen, you have to be seated right in front of the screen at all times. If you’re just using the monitor for regular web browsing, for office work, to read and answer emails, or for other everyday uses, then a TFT display will suit your needs just fine. But, if you’re using it to conduct business that requires the highest level of colour and graphic accuracy, such as completing military or naval tasks, then your best bet is to opt for an IPS screen instead.

Nonetheless, most TFT displays are still fully capable of delivering reasonably sharp images that are ideal for everyday purposes and they also have relatively short response times from your keyboard or mouse to your screen. This is because the pixel aspect ration is much narrower than its IPS counterpart and therefore, the colours aren’t as widely spread out and are formatted to fit onto the screen. Primary colours—red, yellow, and blue—are used as the basis for creating brightness and different shades, which is why there’s such a strong contrast between different aspects of every image. Computer monitors, modern-day HD TV screens, laptop monitors, mobile devices, and even tablets all utilize this technology.

IPS (in-plane-switching) technology is almost like an improvement on the traditional TFT display module in the sense that it has the same basic structure, but with slightly more enhanced features and more widespread usability. IPS LCD monitors consist of the following high-end features.

IPS screens have the capability to recognize movements and commands much faster than the traditional TFT LCD displays and as a result, their response times are infinitely faster. Of course, the human eye doesn’t notice the difference on separate occasions, but when witnessing side-by-side demonstrations, the difference is clear.

Wide-set screen configurations allow for much wider and versatile viewing angles as well. This is probably one of the most notable and bankable differences between TFT and IPS displays. With IPS displays, you can view the same image from a large variety of different angles without causing grayscale, blurriness, halo effects, or obstructing your user experience in any way. This makes IPS the perfect display option for people who rely on true-to-form and sharp colour and image contrasts in their work or daily lives.

IPS displays are designed to have higher transmittance frequencies than their TFT counterparts within a shorter period of time (precisely 1 millisecond vs. 25 milliseconds). This speed increase might seem minute or indecipherable to the naked eye, but it actually makes a huge difference in side-by-side demonstrations and observations, especially if your work depends largely on high-speed information sharing with minimal or no lagging.

Just like TFT displays, IPS displays also use primary colours to produce different shades through their pixels. The main difference in this regard is the placement of the pixels and how they interact with electrodes. In TFT displays, the pixels run perpendicular to one another when they’re activated by electrodes, which creates a pretty sharp image, but not quite as pristine or crisp as what IPS displays can achieve. IPS display technologies employ a different configuration in the sense that pixels are placed parallel to one another to reflect more light and result in a sharper, clearer, brighter, and more vibrant image. The wide-set screen also establishes a wider aspect ratio, which strengthens visibility and creates a more realistic and lasting effect.

When it comes to deciphering the differences between TFT vs. IPS display technologies and deciding which option is best for you and your business, the experts at Nauticomp Inc. can help. Not only do we offer a wide variety of computer displays, monitors, and screen types, but we also have the many years of experience in the technology industry to back up our recommendations and our knowledge. Our top-of-the-line displays and monitors are customized to suit the professional and personal needs of our clients who work across a vast array of industries. For more information on our high-end displays and monitors, please contact us.

Retina is a term that Apple had trademarked to describe a type of display they produce with a pixel density so high that the viewer cannot discern individual pixels at a normal viewing distance. A Retina screen makes images appear crisper and cleaner. It also makes transitions look smoother than on some other types of displays.

Generally, the pixel density on a Retina display is 300 or more pixels per square inch. However some Retina displays have lower pixel densities, owing to a greater viewing distances. The further you are from the screen, the lower the pixel density can be and still make it impossible for you to see individual pixels.

Many people believe that a Retina display is new and revolutionary technology. While the idea is certainly innovative in its own right, it isn’t groundbreaking. To be fair, a Retina display is only one of many types of displays. Others can deliver crisp, clear images too.

Apple coined the term “Retina display” to describe their screens which had very high resolutions.The very first Retina display was debuted on the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S.They each had a pixel density of 326 pixels per square inch. The iPhone 3GS had a pixel density of 164.83.

In 2012, Apple released a new iPad with a Retina display. It had a resolution of 2048 x 1536, which translates to a pixel density of 264. The 2012 version of the MacBook Air had a Retina display with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. Since then just about every MacBook and iMac have been released with a Retina display. In fact, Apple uses this as part of its marketing strategy to set its products apart from similar products on the market.

As for a regular display, things are a little different. These displays can either be LCD or LED or some other kind of screen technology altogether. Their resolutions also tend to vary, with older and cheaper models showing a lower resolution while higher priced and newer models tend to have better and crisper displays.

While the Retina display is one of the selling points Apple uses to market its products, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the best type of display out there. Companies are constantly trying to outdo each other in the electronics space.

Many different types of displays have appeared. Some of them may be better than the Retina display. There are laptops and smartphones available that have higher screen resolutions than Retina displays. All the same, there are also a variety of factors that make the Retina display an attractive feature, many of which go beyond simple resolution.

While Retina displays are measured by pixel density and screen resolution, it really comes down to how the screen appears to you. Retina displays produce very crisp images at normal viewing distances. The average user can detect no graininess at all. A Retina display is actually a type of LED display, and so it falls under the broader category of LED displays.

Depending on the size of the screen on the product and the product itself, the pixels in a Retina display vary. On the iPhone 4S, the Retina display had a pixel density of 326 pixels per square inch while on the 2012 iPad the Retina display had a pixel density of 264 pixels per square inch.

The iPad was still considered to have a Retina display, however. The reason why it had a lower pixel density is that the normal viewing distance on an iPad is greater than that on an iPhone. People will generally hold their iPads farther away from their eyes than their iPhones. That means you can achieve the effect of a Retina display without using as many pixels.

Retina display resolution will also tend to vary. However, even though there isn’t a single universal resolution, they all tend to be high resolution, often much higher than the resolutions of regular displays in the same category or of the same size.

The iPhone X, for example, has a pixel density of 458 pixels per square inch on its 5.8-inch display. This translates to a resolution of 2436 x 1125 pixels.

The Retina display on Apple products isn’t necessarily the best display on the market with high pixel density and a crisp display. Samsung is a close competitor.

Both the Samsung S9 and the S10 use AMOLED displays, a technology invented by Samsung. AMOLED is an acronym for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. While a Retina display is considered an LED display, only the backlight is LED. The screen itself is still an LCD screen.

In an AMOLED display, both the backlight and the screen itself are LED. While the LCD has a longer lifespan, the AMOLED display will consume less battery power because it won’t need to use battery power to produce black. The screen can produce it naturally. The colors on AMOLED screens are also known to produce brighter and crisper colors than their LCD competitors in general.

Part of the reason for this is that the color black on an AMOLED display is a deep, true black. AMOLED displays have excellent contrast and an extremely wide color range. The downside to AMOLED displays is that sometimes the colors look unrealistically saturated and screens are susceptible to image burn.

So should you get a Retina display device or not? To be sure, you’re certainly going to be seeing crisper and clearer images on a Retina display than what you’re going to be seeing on a lot of other devices. The edges and transitions will be much smoother. But it will also cost you more.

You may have experienced issues with third-party apps that haven’t been optimized for the clearer display as they might turn out to be a little blurry or unclear due to size. However, with the constant work that developers do to improve their apps, it is likely the problem will be solved in the next update.

Ultimately, a Retina display is a great screen to have on your product, and it makes for comfortable viewing. Other superior displays are usually priced the same or happen to be expensive. What you decide to go for comes down to personal preference. When it comes to screen displays, beauty is in the eyes of the user.

Several display types are currently used in smartphones, and the most popular touchscreen displays are LCD, TFT, IPS, OLED, AMOLED, Super AMOLED and Retina.

Touchscreen LCDs fall into two categories: resistive or capacitive. Resistive touchscreens react to pressure from a finger, fingernail, stylus or other hard objects. The lack of multi-touch functionality, however, has limited resistive displays mostly to lower-end devices. Capacitive touchscreens, meanwhile, support multi-touch and are designed to react to the touch of a bare finger. This technology can be found in most mid-range to high-end smartphone and tablet displays, and users generally appreciate the smooth swiping motions and intuitive interface.

Thin Film Transistor, aka TFT LCD displays are superior to previous LCDs, delivering higher resolution and better image quality. On the other hand, TFT displays deliver poor visibility in bright light and have narrow viewing angles. This technology is typically found in budget phones or low-end smartphones.

In Plane Switching, aka IPS LCD technology delivers better viewing angles compared with TFT, while also drawing less power to allow for more battery efficiency. IPS displays typically cost more to make, however, and that"s why they"re typically used in higher-quality smartphones that come with a price to match. On the plus side, IPS is the most advanced type of LCD display tech and delivers notably wider viewing angles, extremely accurate color reproduction.

Organic Light-Emitting Diode, aka OLED displays involve a carbon-based material placed in between two conductive sheets, with class plates encasings at the top and bottom. OLED display technology delivers accurate colors, good viewing angles and a rapid response, while also allowing for lightweight and compact designs.

AMOLED, meanwhile, stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. AMOLED and Super AMOLED technology is more expensive and is used only in high-end flagships, offering a number of benefits. This display technology delivers bright and vivid colors, great battery efficiency and wide viewing angles, while also allowing for lighter displays.

LCD and AMOLED are the most commonly used display types in current smartphones and tablets. LCDs are backlit, battery efficient, very bright, and extremely precise in displaying the entire color spectrum, which contributed to its wide popularity. AMOLED, however, eliminates the need for backlighting because each sub-pixel creates its own light. Compared to LCD, AMOLED may at times deliver less accurate colors and less visibility in direct sunlight.

Retina displays are also well-known on the market, partly because Apple is behind this technology. Apple developed and deployed Retina displays in a number of its devices, using this technology in conjunction with capacitive touchscreens. Retina displays have stirred lots of waves over the past few years due to their sharp resolution, clear and bright colors, and great accuracy.

Lastly, haptic touchscreens have their place as well on the display market. Nokia and BlackBerry have used haptic technology for some of their enterprise-oriented touchscreen smartphones and generally received positive reviews. Haptic technology basically provides tactile feedback on touch, thus confirming that it registered the touch input. Based on reviews, haptic technology can notably improve user performance and accuracy when typing on a touchscreen.

In addition to the various types of display technology, many smartphones also use Gorilla Glass protection to increase their durability. Gorilla Glass is a tough, protective glass sheet that"s highly resistant to damage. Used on many smartphones from Samsung, Motorola, Nokia and others, Gorilla Glass can provide good protection against scratches, bumps and drops, thus increasing the device"s durability.

Knowing the different types of display technology available can help users make an informed decision when purchasing a smartphone, choosing the one that best suits their needs, budgets and preferences.

In recent years, with the development of full-screen mobile phones, In-cell LCD screens have gradually been applied to various mobile phone brands. In the In-cell LCD screen assembly, In-cell screens of LTPS In-cell LCD, IPS In-cell LCD, and Retina In-cell LCD have gradually appeared. Let me introduce the characteristics of the three In-cell LCD screens.

LTPS (Low-Temperature Poly-silicon) is a type of polysilicon, which means that the arrangement of molecular structure in a crystal grain is neat and directional, so the electron mobility rate is faster than that of disordered amorphous silicon. Because of the slow electron movement rate of the amorphous silicon a-si, the drive circuit (gate scanning circuit, data circuit) of the panel can only be done on the IC (voltage -10V~15V), and because LTPS has fast electron movement, Therefore, he built the driving circuit (L/S amplifier circuit in the gate direction, switch circuit in the data direction) around the glass substrate, so he only needs to buy low-voltage IC chips (which are cheaper). When LTPS In-cell LCD is applied to the mobile phone screen assembly, it has the features of ultra-thin, lightweight, fast response speed, high resolution, and low power consumption.

IPS screen (In-Plane Switching, plane switching) technology is a liquid crystal panel technology launched by Hitachi in 2001, commonly known as "Super TFT". IPS screen is a technology based on TFT, and its essence is TFT screen. IPS is a film with a layer of resin attached to the surface. The advantage of the IPS screen is that it is oriented into an opaque mode. The electrode with the vertical orientation of the liquid crystal molecules determines how much light is transmitted. The higher the voltage, the more molecules are twisted.

IPS is mainly used on hard screens. The reason why IPS hard screens have a clear and ultra-stable dynamic display effect depends on its innovative horizontal conversion molecular arrangement, which changes the vertical molecular arrangement of VA soft screens, thus having a more robust and stable liquid crystal structure. The reason why it is called an IPS hard screen is to add a hard protective film to the LCD panel to prevent the LCD screen from being damaged by external hard objects. IPS In-cell LCD has fast response speed, large viewing angle, vivid and saturated display color, and stable dynamic high-definition display.

Retina display is also called retina screen, Retina is actually the name of display technology. This technology compresses more pixels onto a single screen to achieve a delicate screen with amazing resolution. Although the resolution of the screen generally appears in the format of "number of pixels x number of pixels", it is the pixel density, that is, PPI, not the number of pixels, that really determines the screen resolution. In addition, in addition to PPI, the distance between the eyes and the screen also determines whether a screen is clear enough to be called "Retina". For smartphones, 326 PPI can be called Retina display. Retina In-cell LCD uses the same technology as LTPS In-cell LCD, but Retina screens have more advantages in PPI.

How do you understand for example Sony"s “Triluminous Display with X-Reality”, “OptiContrast Panel” and “Mobile Bravia Engine 2” to describe the Sony Z Ultra’s display?

The smartphone industry tosses around a whole bucket of names and numbers to describe the viewing experience on your smartphone screen: ClearBlack, 1080p, Retina, AMOLED, super-sensitive..... the list goes on and on.

Some designations like flashy Apple"s Retina Display are marketing monikers cooked up to give one company an edge. Sometimes however like in case of Nokia"s Clear Black Display technology the trademarked name masks a unique process too technical to quickly explain.

Before we dive in, it"s helpful to understand the layout of a smartphone screen. The oversimplified version is that displays are composed of several layers of material, starting backing material and including a lighting element (like the backlight for LCD screens), which is then topped with a TFT (thin-film transistor) layer, which uses voltage-sipping transistors to keep the display"s pixels shining until you refresh or change the image.

I still remember the days when my phone had a narrow monochromatic screen to display a phone number. Then we started to use texts and emails, therefore we needed a bit more space to see what we"d written. Next we added the colour to give the screen a bit more interest. When we started adding cameras to the phones, we wanted the screens to be sharper, so we could see the terrible, pixelated VGA photos we"d taken.

In practice, cheap phone screens will often display dull colours, and have narrow viewing angles, which means that if you look at them from off-centre, it becomes hard to see what"s on-screen.

The LCD screens are the most common technology used on mobile phones and they range from the budget smartphones like the HTC desire C to high-end tablets, like the Google Nexus 7. Two types of LCDs are primarily found in mobile phones: TFT and IPS technology.

TFT-LCD stands for thin-film transistor - liquid crystal display and use the thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality. They are often just referred to as LCD, since TFT-based LCD screens are the only type used in practice. Each pixel on a TFT-LCD has its own transistor on the glass itself, which offers more control over the images and colors that it renders.

While TFT-LCDs can deliver sharp images, they also tend to offer relatively poor viewing angles. TFT are found on more low-end smartphones or feature phones, and on basic cell phones.

IPS stands for in-plane switching. It involves arranging and switching the molecules of the liquid crystal (LC) layer between the glass substrates. This is done in a plane parallel to these glass plates. It features two transistors for each pixel, where TFT use just one. Requires a more powerful back-light (up to 15% comparing to TFT screens) but resolves the TFT"s weaknesses related to relatively high response time (lower is better), strong viewing angle dependence and low-quality color reproduction.

IPS are more expensive in production and typically are found on high-end mobile phones and portable devices. Apple"s iPhone, iPad, HTC One X and Nokia 920 are a good example of high quality IPS-LCDs screens.

The liquid crystals do no emit light themselves, so LCDs require a backlight. That means that LCD requires more power, and could potentially be more taxing on your phone’s battery.

The LCDs however 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.

The most popular type of OLED panels on mobile devices is AMOLED technology. AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode and is even more power efficient than standard OLED displays.

Due to this simple construction, AMOLED offers many advantages over LCD displays as it is thinner, brighter, more power efficient and provides wider viewing angles. They also provide much better contrast and response times.

Mostly those advantages are down to the fact that AMOLED technology doesn"t require a back-light. The black colour stays truly black without producing an energy (unlike on many LCDs where the black is rather grey and its being artificially made), which also leads to expanding battery life as long as the background of your phone is close to black.

However AMOLED screens have proved costly and difficult to produce in the same numbers as LCD, a fact that forced HTC company to replace AMOLED screen in their HTC Desire for Super-LCD halfway through its manufacturing life. A decision that led HTC to stick with LCD screens onward. Often those screens were also criticized to have lower visibility in the direct light than their LCDs counterparts and having over-saturated colours, until Samsung introduced the next generation of Super AMOLED technology, which solved the above issues.

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 also much more responsive than an AMOLED display.

LCD screens start with an always-on backlight; this technology requires light to create black, white, and colors. High-end LCDs produce the most accurate colors, though their manufacturers sometimes intentionally calibrate LCDs to produce weaker red, blue, and purple shades in order to reduce the device"s power consumption.

AMOLEDs also age more rapidly than LCD"s. Using an organic polymers, means that the red and blue colors deteriorate faster than green. Samsung used Super AMOLED plus screens in their 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.

Both display technologies offer advantages and disadvantages. AMOLED screens have higher contrasts and deeper, true blacks, but LCD’s tend to offer more accurate colors. While AMOLED displays are brighter when viewed off-center, LCD panels can be viewed more easily under direct sunlight.

AMOLED displays tend to be more power efficient overall however, LCD panels are more power efficient when it comes to displaying web pages. AMOLED screens have better viewing angles, but LCD panels tend to be sharper on lower resolution panels thanks to the use of the RGB structure instead of PenTile/RGBG.

One of the problems with existing LCD displays used on smartphones is that they can’t keep up. While the internal hardware and operating system are fast enough to deliver a full 60 frames-per-second (FPS), the screens themselves lag behind, leading to pixelated video and ghost images appearing as your screen moves.

PureMotion HD+ uses an IPS type LCD display that is also given a higher voltage difference when changing states to produce a clean transition from frame to frame, even when operating at top speeds. This allows the display to deliver a steady 60FPS without any blurring. Nokia claims it lights up twice as fast on 920 than on any competing LCDs smartphones.

Ever take your phone outside and squint to read the screen? Phones with high reflectance can be a real setback, but some manufacturers are good at getting on top of it. ClearBlack is Nokia"s name for an anti-glare filters applied to the screen above the touch layer (but below the glass) on its high-end phones. It works on both AMOLED and LCD screens.

The color saturation is beyond the reach of any LCD out there, which make even the dullest image appear remarkably vibrant. Still, if you are not a fan of the oversaturated look of AMOLEDs, Samsung gives you the option to tune down the saturation to more natural levels and enjoy the best of both worlds. There"s a dedicated Adobe RGB setting that gets this done.

But the Xperia Z1 is making full use of Sony"s so-called Triluminos screen technology, which means adopting display technologies originally created for TV displays, such as the Bravia engine, and now Triluminos and X-Reality. Now that we have a little background, let’s see what Triluminos and X-Reality actually are and how they work. It is pretty fascinating, at least for me.

Triluminos is a technology that enables LCD TFT displays to show a wider range of colors, therefore the images are richer and more vivid. It’s all down to intelligent backlight technology, a Triluminos display reproduces more tones and textures than standard LED backlighting. Sony says that it boasts a color gamut that is 50 percent larger than that of a conventional LCD panel.

Conventional LCD displays use a white backlight that passes through red, blue, and green filters to form the color that the user perceives. The problem with this approach is that filters are not very selective – in other words, it’s hard to form very specific colors, and the end result might be a washed out colors (LCD needs very careful calibration to work perfectly). With Triluminos, the white backlight is replaced by a blue LED, which emits a blue light that causes a film of quantum dots to produce pure green and pure red. The different wavelength light is combined to form the color on the screen. This way the display can show more pure, unadulterated colors.

X-Reality EngineX-Reality is an image processing technology that enhances the images and videos displayed on the screen. It makes pictures look sharper, reduces noise, improves contrast, and fine tunes saturation.

Sony has been using the X-Reality and X-Reality Pro image processors on its high-end TVs for a while now, though it’s not clear if X-Reality for mobile is the same thing.

So, how does it work? According to Sony, the software breaks down the signal sent to the display into several components – texture, outline, contrast, and color. Each one is separately analyzed and processed, to ensure the clearest, sharpest, most attractive final image.

According to Sony,Triluminos and X-Realityshould allow the Sony screens to compete with the Super AMOLED displays on Samsung flagships, which are recognized for their rich colors. But that’s the theory. In practice Xperia"s Z1 screen is a huge improvement in image quality since the Xperia Z and the images are truly coming to live (also the viewing angles has been greatly improved) but still cannot compete fully not only with super AMOLED screens, but also with the top IPS LCD panels.

Saying that this technology is superior to conventional LCD"s, and most likely will become dominant in the next couple of years. The very first example of implementing it into LCD IPS screen is a new Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, that surpasses every panel on the market related to intensity and accuracy of the colours produced. Here are some of the key findings from DisplayMate"s regarding Nexus 7 vs Fire HDX vs new iPad Mini display shootout

The technology on offer from Apple with regards to the new 4-inch display is impressive – but only on a scale that matches that seen with the launch of the Retina Display in 2010.

However when Steve Jobs took to the stage to announce the Retina Display, he said it was sharper than the human eye could discern – and he was right, and despite other far-reaching efforts to up the sharpness nothing has really made me squint at a display in awe than that first shown on the iPhone 4.

When Apple rolled out the iPhone 5, they announced that it had a full sRGB gamut, and would be a substantial improvement over the 4 and 4S displays. They also had done away with layers of technology below the screen to bring the display as close to the glass as possible, something they said would bring increased brightness and sharpness to the user"s eye. In practice however, compering the quality and brightness, Iphone 4S has still upper hand.

HD Super AMOLED - Samsung"s name for its high-definition smartphone displays, which use the OLED screen technology and goes up to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels in phones

Retina Display - Apple"s proprietary name for its LCD screen, which serves up a 1,136x640 pixel resolution in mobile phones.1080p - The highest common high-definition screen resolution, measuring 1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels. Also called "full HD."

720p -The lower high-definition designation, 1,280 by 720 pixels.Super LCD - Manufactured by Samsung, but used mostly by HTC, Super LCD is a display technology which removes the air gap between the outer glass and the display elements. This reduces the glare, and also consumes less power and has better outdoor visibility than regular LCD screens.

IPS - A type of LCD screen technology known for producing clearer image quality and wider viewing angles, among other traits. It"s used in many smartphones.

In recent years, smartphone displays have developed far more acronyms than ever before with each different one featuring a different kind of technology. AMOLED, LCD, LED, IPS, TFT, PLS, LTPS, LTPO...the list continues to grow.

As if the different available technologies weren"t enough, component and smartphone manufacturers adopt more and more glorified names like "Super Retina XDR" and "Dynamic AMOLED", which end up increasing the potential for confusion among consumers. So let"s take a look at some of these terms used in smartphone specification sheets and decipher them.

There are many display types used in smartphones: LCD, OLED, AMOLED, Super AMOLED, TFT, IPS and a few others that are less frequently found on smartphones nowadays, like TFT-LCD. One of the most frequently found on mid-to-high range phones now is IPS-LCD. But what do these all mean?

LCD means Liquid Crystal Display, and its name refers to the array of liquid crystals illuminated by a backlight, and their ubiquity and relatively low cost make them a popular choice for smartphones and many other devices.

LCDs also tend to perform quite well in direct sunlight, as the entire display is illuminated from behind, but does suffer from potentially less accurate colour representation than displays that don"t require a backlight.

Within smartphones, you have both TFT and IPS displays. TFT stands for Thin Film Transistor, an advanced version of LCD that uses an active matrix (like the AM in AMOLED). Active matrix means that each pixel is attached to a transistor and capacitor individually.

The main advantage of TFT is its relatively low production cost and increased contrast when compared to traditional LCDs. The disadvantage of TFT LCDs is higher energy demands than some other LCDs, less impressive viewing angles and colour reproduction. It"s for these reasons, and falling costs of alternative options, that TFTs are not commonly used in smartphones anymore.Affiliate offer

IPS technology (In-Plane Switching) solves the problem that the first generation of LCD displays experience, which adopts the TN (Twisted Nematic) technique: where colour distortion occurs when you view the display from the side - an effect that continues to crop up on cheaper smartphones and tablets.

The PLS (Plane to Line Switching) standard uses an acronym that is very similar to that of IPS, and is it any wonder that its basic operation is also similar in nature? The technology, developed by Samsung Display, has the same characteristics as IPS displays - good colour reproduction and viewing angles, but a lower contrast level compared to OLED and LCD/VA displays.

According to Samsung Display, PLS panels have a lower production cost, higher brightness rates, and even superior viewing angles when compared to their rival, LG Display"s IPS panels. Ultimately, whether a PLS or IPS panel is used, it boils down to the choice of the component supplier.

This is a very common question after "LED" TVs were launched, with the short answer simply being LCD. The technology used in a LED display is liquid crystal, the difference being LEDs generating the backlight.

One of the highlights from TV makers at the CES 2021 tradeshow, mini-LED technology seemed far removed from mobile devices until Apple announced the 2021 iPad Pro. As the name implies, the technique is based on the miniaturization of the LEDs that form the backlight of the screen — which still uses an LCD panel.

Despite the improvement in terms of contrast (and potentially brightness) over traditional LCD/LED displays, LCD/mini-LEDs still divide the screen into brightness zones — over 2,500 in the case of the iPad and 2021 "QNED" TVs from LG — compared to dozens or hundreds of zones in previous-generation FALD (full-array local dimming) displays, on which the LEDs are behind the LCD panel instead of the edges.

AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. While this may sound complicated it actually isn"t. We already encountered the active matrix in TFT LCD technology, and OLED is simply a term for another thin-film display technology.

OLED is an organic material that, as the name implies, emits light when a current is passed through it. As opposed to LCD panels, which are back-lit, OLED displays are "always off" unless the individual pixels are electrified.

This means that OLED displays have much purer blacks and consume less energy when black or darker colours are displayed on-screen. However, lighter-coloured themes on AMOLED screens use considerably more power than an LCD using the same theme. OLED screens are also more expensive to produce than LCDs.

Because the black pixels are "off" in an OLED display, the contrast ratios are also higher compared to LCD screens. AMOLED displays have a very fast refresh rate too, but on the downside are not quite as visible in direct sunlight as backlit LCDs. Screen burn-in and diode degradation (because they are organic) are other factors to consider.Affiliate offer

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. An OLED display is comprised of thin sheets of electroluminescent material, the main benefit of which is they produce their own light, and so don"t require a backlight, cutting down on energy requirements. OLED displays are more commonly referred to as AMOLED displays when used on smartphones or TVs.

Super AMOLED is the name given by Samsung to its displays that used to only be found in high-end models but have now trickled down to more modestly specced devices. Like IPS LCDs, Super AMOLED improves upon the basic AMOLED premise by integrating the touch response layer into the display itself, rather than as an extra layer on top.

As a result, Super AMOLED displays handle sunlight better than AMOLED displays and also require less power. As the name implies, Super AMOLED is simply a better version of AMOLED. It"s not all just marketing bluster either: Samsung"s displays are regularly reviewed as some of the best around.

The technology debuted with the obscure Royole FlexPai, equipped with an OLED panel supplied by China"s BOE, and was then used in the Huawei Mate X (pictured above) and the Motorola Razr (2019), where both also sport BOE"s panel - and the Galaxy Flip and Fold lines, using the component supplied by Samsung Display.Affiliate offer

Resolution describes the number of individual pixels (or points) displayed on the screen and is usually presented for phones by the number of horizontal pixels — vertical when referring to TVs and monitors. More pixels on the same display allow for more detailed images and clearer text.

To make it easier to compare different models, brands usually adopt the same naming scheme made popular by the TV market with terms like HD, FullHD and UltraHD. But with phones adopting a wide range of different screen proportions, just knowing that is not enough to know the total pixels displayed on the screen.Common phone resolutions

But resolution in itself is not a good measure for image clarity, for that we need to consider the display size, resulting in the pixel density by area measured by DPI/PPI (dots/points per inch).Affiliate offer

Speaking of pixel density, this was one of Apple"s highlights back in 2010 during the launch of the iPhone 4. The company christened the LCD screen (LED, TFT, and IPS) used in the smartphone as "Retina Display", thanks to the high resolution of the panel used (960 by 640 pixels back then) in its 3.5-inch display.

The name coined by Apple"s marketing department is applied to screens which, according to the company, the human eye is unable to discern the individual pixels from a normal viewing distance. In the case of iPhones, the term was applied to displays with a pixel density that is greater than 300 ppi (dots per inch).

With the iPhone 11 Pro, another term was introduced to the equation: "Super Retina XDR". Still using an OLED panel (that is supplied by Samsung Display or LG Display), the smartphone brings even higher specs in terms of contrast - with a 2,000,000:1 ratio and brightness level of 1,200 nits, which have been specially optimized for displaying content in HDR format.

As a kind of consolation prize for iPhone XR and iPhone 11 buyers, who continued relying on LCD panels, Apple classified the display used in the smartphones with a new term, "Liquid Retina". This was later applied also to the iPad Pro and iPad Air models, with the name defining screens that boast a high range and colour accuracy, at least based on the company"s standards.

Nit, or candela per square meter in the international system (cd/m²), is a unit of measurement of luminance, i.e. the intensity of light emitted. In the case of smartphone screens and monitors in general, such a value defines just how bright the display is - the higher the value, the more intense the light emitted by the screen.

The result is smoother animations on the phone, both during regular use and in games, compared to screens that have a 60 Hz refresh rate which remains the standard rate in the market when it comes to displays.

Originally touted to be a "gimmick" in 2017, with the launch of the Razer Phone, the feature gained more and more momentum in due time, even with a corresponding decrease in battery life. In order to make the most of this feature, manufacturers began to adopt screens with variable refresh rates, which can be adjusted according to the content displayed - which is 24 fps in most movies, 30 or 60 fps in home video recordings, and so forth.

TFT(Thin Film Transistor) - a type of LCD display that adopts a thin semiconductor layer deposited on the panel, which allows for active control of the colour intensity in each pixel, featuring a similar concept as that of active-matrix (AM) used in AMOLED displays. It is used in TN, IPS/PLS, VA/PVA/MVA panels, etc.

LTPS(Low Temperature PolySilicon) - a variation of the TFT that offers higher resolutions and lower power consumption compared to traditional TFT screens, based on a-Si (amorphous silicon) technology.

IGZO(Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) - a semiconductor material used in TFT films, which also allows higher resolutions and lower power consumption, and sees action in different types of LCD screens (TN, IPS, VA) and OLED displays

LTPO(Low Temperature Polycrystaline Oxide) - a technology developed by Apple that can be used in both OLED and LCD displays, as it combines LTPS and IGZO techniques. The result? Lower power consumption. It has been used in the Apple Watch 4 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

LTPO allows the display to adjust its refresh rate, adapting dynamically to the content shown. Scrolling pages can trigger the fastest mode for a fluid viewing, while displaying a static image allows the phone to use a lower refresh rate, saving the battery.

Among televisions, the long-standing featured technology has always been miniLED - which consists of increasing the number of lighting zones in the backlight while still using an LCD panel. There are whispers going around that smartphones and smartwatches will be looking at incorporating microLED technology in their devices soon, with it being radically different from LCD/LED displays as it sports similar image characteristics to that of OLEDs.

A microLED display has one light-emitting diode for each subpixel of the screen - usually a set of red, green, and blue diodes for each dot. Chances are it will use a kind of inorganic material such as gallium nitride (GaN).

By adopting a self-emitting light technology, microLED displays do not require the use of a backlight, with each pixel being "turned off" individually. The result is impressive: your eyes see the same level of contrast as OLED displays, without suffering from the risk of image retention or burn-in of organic diodes.

Another thing to be wary of is the price - at 170 million Korean won (about US$150,330 after conversion), that is certainly a lot of money to cough up for a 110-inch display.

In addition, the organic diodes that give OLED screens their name can lose their ability to change their properties over time, and this happens when the same image is displayed for a long period of time. This problem is known as "burn-in", tends to manifest itself when higher brightness settings are applied for long periods of time.

In the case of LCD displays, the main advantage lies in the low manufacturing cost, with dozens of players in the market offering competitive pricing and a high production volume. Some brands have taken advantage of this feature to prioritize certain features - such as a higher refresh rate - instead of adopting an OLED panel, such as the Xiaomi Mi 10T.

When you purchase Smartphones, you may notice after the resolution specs; the Mobile manufacturers mention the type of Display like LCD, OLED, AMOLED, sAMOLED, and Retina Display. Xiaomi, Realme, and most of the Chinese smartphone manufacturers using LCD Displays in their mid-range and Budget variants. They are using OLED displays in their flagship smartphones and Samsung using AMOLED and sAMOLED Displays. Apple uses a Retina Display. In previous days, there are only two displays available in the market, and they are called LCD and LED. That’s all. After the technology is improvising, we have to deal with a lot of terms. What are these displays? Which one is better? I try my best to explain simply in the below article. If we dive into components, it will make this guide further complicated to understand the Displays.

You may have been trying to understand the actual meaning of the different display technologies used to design smartphones these days. From an LCD screen, we moved to OLED, and now AMOLED is the bleeding-edge display used for making premium TVs and smartphones. In this article, we explained the differences between LCD, OLED, and AMOLED displays; these display technologies are unique in different aspects. Before going further in this post, you should know that LCD technology is older than OLED and AMOLED; thus, you should expect the later to come with the best features, as well as advantages.

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display, and it is the most common display technology used for smartphones, smart displays, some IoT devices, and televisions. The LCD technology features a unique backlight which it uses to display an image on your device screen. While you can see clearly through LCD screens, the display is reduced when compared to AMOLED. LCD Displays are probably used in Mid-range and budget Smartphones to reduce the production cost. Xiaomi uses LCD Displays to make cost-effective phones. Compare with TV LCD. Mobile LCD is not that much worse.

Advantages of LCDMost budget smartphones come with LCD because it is cheaper to affordLCDs have low flicker rates and are quite easy to disposeYou can use an LCD for any electronic gadget or device that is battery-poweredUnlike CRT displays, an LCD is not affected by magnetic fieldsLCDs can still save up battery is backlight is reduced

Disadvantages of LCDDue to backlighting, an LCD will consume more electricityDevices with an LCD tend to heat up when used some long timeWhen you view an LCD screen from different angles, the color and contrast aren’t stableImagery appear flatLCDs consume more battery

LED is what’s used to design this display technology; LED is an organic material that emits light once it receives current. Unlike LCD, We don’t need a backlight on this display. The Screen consists of a lot of small particles; when they received the current, they emit brightness and color. So, the particles that do not receive the present will always be in rest. So, that OLED Displays give more battery time compare with LCD on smartphones.

AMOLED is a type of OLED display; You can notice most of the Samsung mobiles comes with AMOLED and sAMOLED displays. However, it comes with more flexible display options. AMOLED is a step forward to OLED, and there are no many differences between the two display technologies. Well, AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Light Emitting Diode; it is the latest display technology used on most recent televisions and smartphones.

Interestingly, AMOLED poses to be the best display technology used previously. In AMOLED display tech, each LED functions individually; thus, each LED producing light for itself. Compare with regular OLED, AMOLED has TFT film instead of the glass, So, It gives more flexibility. Thus it can be used