Smartphone Display LCD VS OLED: Where Does the Difference Lie in?

By Carrie Tsai,  Last Updated: October 23, 2019

We often hear about various phone screens such as notch screen and full screen, but there are always two types of the screens: LCD and OLED. So how to choose when you are going to buy a new phone?

What is LCD and OLED

LCD stands for the liquid crystal display, which is very common and generally available in household. It does not support self-illuminating and requires backlight, which can only emit white light. In order to project three primary colors, it need to be colored with a layer of color filters.

While the OLED is the abbreviation of OrganicLight-Emitting Diode, which is an organic self-luminous material and itself has a luminescent feature. When there is a current pass through, those organic material will illuminate, projecting the light of the three primary colors of red, green and blue.

When the black interface is displayed, the black panel of the screen and the phone are almost integrated. The OLED can be divided further into an AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-emitting Diode ) screen and a Super AMOLED screen.

The Difference Between LCD and OLED

Imaging effect

Since the LCD has a backlight layer, it can emit light by refracting light and the color saturation is not so high so the display effect is relatively natural. As a result, looking at LCD screen is not so easy to be fatigue thus more eye-protecting.

On the other hand, the OLED is able to self-illuminate with each pixel projecting light of three primary colors, so the display effect is more vivid. However, since the OLED screen cannot guarantee the same luminous effect of each sub-pixel, the burn-in screen is prone to happen.

The thickness

The LCD screen is thicker and unbendable, which also determines that phones with this kind of screen will have a relatively large border such as iPhone 11. The OLED one is thinner and more flexible.

manufactures are trying to increase the screen share of the smartphone, hoping to hide as many components below the screen as possible such as screen fingerprints and cameras.

And the feature of the OLED is just in line with the development of the full screen, so an increasing number of mobile phones now adopt the OLED screen.

Price

Due to the maturity of liquid crystal technology, there are many kinds of applications. Whether it is the price of low-end machines or mid-to-high-end ones, the price of LCD screens is relatively low. On the other hand, the OLED-based phones are always the flagship products, so the price will be slightly higher than the LCD ones.

Contrast

Contrast also means the performance of black, which is the biggest disadvantage of the LCD screen since the liquid crystal layer can not be completely closed, when the LCD displays black, part of the light will pass through the color layer. So the black of LCD screen is actually a mixture of white and black.

Life span

Since the LCD employs inorganic materials while the OLED organic materials, OLED life is not so long as its LCD counterparts.

Power consumption

Because of the different illumination modes of the panel, when in the same black screen  mode, the OLED will not emit light while the LCD will emit the black light. Since the LCD will display a color effect, a color filter is needed, which will cause the overall light efficiency to drop by more than 67%.

In addition, the function of the light value of the LCD is based on the premise of polarized light, which in turn leads to a 50% loss in the brightness. It is said that LCD’s utilization of backlight brightness will not exceed 15%, and 85% of energy is wasted. Therefore, OLEDs are more power-efficient than LCDs.

Is It The Best Choice To Buy a Phone With OLED Screen

In the comparison above we can see that the OLED hold great advantages over LCDs including better contrast, black performance, wider color gamut, lighter, thinner, bendable and so on. It is estimated that by 2020, more than half of smartphones will use OLED displays.

However, LCD is still the most mature technology in the display screen, which is the most mainstream choice in the market and the price is more acceptable. Even the eye stimulation will be smaller.

For example, in March 2018, Samsung launched the S9 with the latest AMOLED screen while Apple released the iPhone XR in November, which used LCD. Through actual comparison, it is found that these two mobile phone screen were quite similar in actual use.

In the comparison above we can see that the OLED hold great advantages over LCDs including better contrast, black performance, wider color gamut, lighter, thinner, bendable and so on. It is estimated that by 2020, more than half of smartphones will use OLED displays.

So far, it can be said that Apple, Huawei, Samsung have used the best means in mobile phone technology, quality control and screen quality. Both he actual display of the screen and the optimization technology is excellent. There is not even any flaw that can be distinguished by the naked eye.

So when buying a new smartphone, we should pay attention to practicality rather than new nouns or hot functions. Everyone should choose according to their own preference. And it is not sensible to judge whether the phone is good or bad simply by it is OLED screen or not.