Eye to Eye: The Case Between LCD and OLED

From Samsung’s Galaxy line to Apple’s iPhone X, everybody in the tech world adore the AMOLED displays. Virtually everybody’s touting Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen, which is a marketing blurb thanks to the “Super,” and bemoaning Apple’s not-too-quick jump into the relatively younger tech. But is the difference really that great so as to halve consumers into two distinct camps? Let’s find out.

In a nutshell

LCD, which means liquid crystal display, has been in the industry for far longer than OLED. Basically, LCD screens require a white backlight as big as the display itself that is supposed to emit uniform white light whenever the screen is on. This light then passes through liquid crystals in different colors—blue, red, and green—so that the colored images will be produced. The current can be tuned to achieve desired color results. The presence of many complicated parts is why LCD panels are much thicker than OLEDs, although there have been improvements in design and thickness.

Meanwhile, OLEDs or organic light-emitting diode panels use LEDs to power individual pixels. OLEDs achieve “true” blacks by completely switching off a pixel and not just masking white light like LCDs.  Active matrix OLED, or AMOLED, is one OLED panel that Samsung loves to use on its flagships.

Which is better?

There’s no easy way to declare a winner, as both display technologies face challenges. That said, here are point-by-point comparisons you might want to consider:

Blacks and whites

Whites appear much better in LCDs, thanks to backlighting, while blacks are heaps better in OLEDs because individual pixels can be turned off. That said, OLEDs lead the pack in contrast ratio, or the ratio of the brightest white and the deepest black. A 1000:1 ratio on an LCD means its whites are 1000 times brighter than its blacks. OLED beats this with an infinite contrast ratio since individual pixels can be turned off.

Brightness

LCDs win this segment. Thanks again for the backlighting. It doesn’t mean that OLEDs aren’t legible under the midday sun, but having an LCD screen indeed pays if you’re in an exceptionally bright area.

Viewing Angles

OLED takes the cake here. Due to the fewer parts and closer pixels to the surface, OLEDs do not suffer from bled-out or polarized viewing issues even when seen from extreme angles, unlike their LCD counterparts. IPS LCDs can cover up to 178 degrees of viewing, but usually, light leaks and blossoms in this area.

Power Consumption

This is tricky. Both display technologies are about equal power usage—until the color black comes in. Because OLEDs can turn off individual pixels, they are theoretically less power-hungry when more blacks are involved (e.g. the Always On trend). However, if you’re using an OLED-screened device under the sun, you’ll surely want to amp up the brightness. This draws more power from the battery. The short answer: it’s a tie. LCDs have developed their own consumption-cutting tech in the past few years.

Price

OLEDs are still quite complex and costly to produce these days. In fact, Apple’s own iPhone X is rumored to be affected by supplies of this screen technology that it’s pushing just a few million in the supply stream soon—and each of these phones at a beastly cost. LCDs, on the other hand, have proliferated far, comprehensively, and fast.

So, which is better? There’s no definitive answer yet, as both camps are getting intense. If you’re on for the picture-perfect screen, try OLED. Still, LCDs cannot be discounted, what with the new things such displays have under their sleeves.