Who is better with AMOLED and LCD? a war without results

For another Super AMOLED, Samsung is a well-deserved representative, and Samsung is also the inventor of the display technology. But for the average consumer, the difference between the two seems to be a lot of people.

Let us take a look at the difference between Super AMOLED and Super LCD panels today. Who is better for a smartphone?

Super AMOLED

To understand Super AMOLED, you first need to understand some of its history. Super AMOLED originated from OLED display technology, that is, organic light-emitting diode, which has self-luminous characteristics, using a very thin organic material coating and a glass substrate, and these organic materials will emit light when current is passed.

AMOLED is an improved "active matrix organic light-emitting diode" based on this. A separate thin-film transistor is added to the common OLED display panel, which can control each pixel faster and better. Compared with traditional liquid crystal panels, AMOLED has the characteristics of faster response, higher contrast, and wider viewing angle. The response speed of AMO LED displays is almost 1000 times that of traditional LCD displays.

In addition, since AMOLED adopts the principle of self-illumination, each pixel on the screen works by its own illumination, and does not use an overall backlight like LCD. A single pixel is not active when displaying black, so low power is very low when displaying dark colors.

At the same time, the color gamut of the AMOLED screen is also very wide, reaching 110% NTSC. Some colors that cannot be accurately reproduced on the LCD can be expressed on AMOLED. But also because the color gamut is too high, AMOLED gives people a feeling of being too bright, and most of the display content is based on the s-RGB standard of low color gamut display devices, so sometimes the AMOLED screen looks a bit more vibrant. More than enough and not natural.

Other advantages of the AMOLED display include an ultra-wide viewing range and can even be made into a fully transparent or flexible panel, so this technology is ideal for use on curved phones, such as Samsung's Galaxy Round. In addition, the traditional AMOLED adopts the touch sensing layer + display layer architecture design, and the Super AMOLED display developed by Samsung has abandoned this multi-layer architecture design to adopt the original touch panel, unlike AMOLED. The touch sensor and air layer make the touch experience more sensitive.

At the same time, due to the use of a single-layer touch panel, Super AMOLED display has the advantages of thinner, lighter, more sensitive and more power-saving. At the same time, compared with the traditional AMOLED panel, the glass cover layer is also eliminated. It is easy to reflect, and it is easier to see the contents in bright sunlight.

On the other hand, Super AMOLED also has obvious disadvantages. Due to the use of PenTile pixel arrangement and self-illumination, it is prone to non-synchronous aging, especially after long-term use or display of a still image compared to LCD backlight panels. . In the end, it will look uncoordinated in color, and even yellow, and eventually burnt.

Samsung has always had a lot of confidence in its Super AMOLED display technology, and has been using the Super AMOLED display panel in its flagship Galaxy series (including the latest Galaxy S5), and Samsung has been constantly no matter what the outcome. Try to improve your technology.

For example, in the Galaxy series S2 smart phone, although it also uses the Super AMOLED panel, it uses a standard RGB matrix arrangement instead of a PenTile matrix. Each pixel has three red, green and blue light-emitting units, so The text display is 50% higher in definition. However, since there are only 2 light-emitting units at each pixel of the PenTile matrix, the green, red, green and blue are interlaced, so the graininess will be very heavy in the case of lower dpi, and the phenomenon of garbled noise will appear on the boundary of the figure. However, due to the faster response speed, the Super AMOLED panel of the RGB matrix is ​​much slower than the PenTile matrix arrangement, so Samsung has stopped this attempt and continues to use it in later models. PenTile matrix arrangement.

Previously, the Super AMOLED display panel supported the highest resolution of only 1280×720 pixels, and Samsung's unremitting efforts finally succeeded in launching a full HD 1920×1080 pixel Super AMOLED panel, in line with the current mainstream flagship machine. Type resolution requirements.

Super LCD

Just as Super AMOLED is an improved AMOLED panel, Super LCD is also improved on traditional LCD panels. Unlike AMOLED, which is completely self-illuminating through separate pixel points, the LCD panel (also known as the liquid crystal panel) uses an integrated LED backlight source display, so the brightness of the entire screen can be kept at the same level, even in the case of all black. under. Since the LCD needs to use a luminescent background at all pixels, there is more or less light passing through it, which is why the LCD display panel cannot provide a true all-black display level for the user. This is also the "black level performance" that everyone valued in the LCD TV parameters.

The standard LCD display panel has a certain gap between the glass panel and the display element, but the Super LCD also eliminates this double-layer design, so you can get the same high sensitivity experience as Super AMOLED. In addition, this design can also reduce glare, and it also has higher definition in outdoor or strong sunlight, and it is also much lower in energy consumption than traditional LCD display panels.

The Super LCD panel consumes very little power when displaying light content, so it is especially useful for browsing web pages, as most web pages today use white. This feature is completely opposite to the Super AMOLED panel, which uses a self-illuminating feature that does not need to emit a very bright color when displaying black, so Super AMOLED saves power when displaying dark colors.

However, some consumers may also hear terms such as Super LCD2 and Super LCD3. Although it may seem complicated, the different numbers represent only technical improvements to the previous generation, but the most basic working principle is No significant changes.

For example, Super LCD3 has higher brightness, better viewing angle and faster refresh rate than Super LCD2, which can avoid blurring when watching video.

Comparison between the two

The difference between the two panels mentioned above is actually a basic introduction in principle, and this cannot be fully reflected in real life. To understand who the two display technologies are better, the best way is to compare them with actual products. The representative products of the two display technologies, Super AMOLED and Super LCD, are undoubtedly the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

Why not compare Samsung's latest Galaxy S5? Because the Galaxy S5 has just been released, although it may be better than the Galaxy S4, with higher brightness and better viewing of video, the Galaxy S4 has been on the market for a year, and HTC One is best suited for direct comparison. .

The first thing to note is that although both products have very high screen brightness, HTC One is still higher in brightness output than the Galaxy S4. The former has a maximum brightness of 500 nits, while the latter has only about 300 nits. Therefore, from this point of view, in the case of outdoor glare use, HTC One is more clear than the Galaxy S4 display, the color is not distorted.

On the other hand, due to the characteristics of the Super AMOLED screen used by the Galaxy S4, it is better in dark display, especially black content, especially in the dark environment, the Galaxy S4 is more colorful. The effect is more beautiful (for details, please refer to the principle of the above two display panels).

So simply speaking, compared to the two products, the HTC One performs better outdoors, while the Galaxy S4 performs better indoors than the former.

In addition, the Galaxy S4 is also more widely visible than the HTC One, while the HTC One is more natural in color reproduction than the Galaxy S4, and better in picture saturation.

At the same time, since the Galaxy S4's Super AMOLED panel does not require backlighting, the Galaxy S4 consumes less power (only for dark images). But over time, the screen of the Galaxy S4 will slowly appear yellow or burned, but HTC One will perform better in this regard.

However, it should be emphasized here that the difference between the two we introduce is not very obvious, after all, both products belong to the top smartphone. In addition, there are many other factors that can have an important impact on battery life and display performance. For example, although the Galaxy S4 has a wider viewing angle than the HTC One, the latter does not perform well. On the other hand, the Galaxy S4 can also be seen very clearly under strong light without reflecting too much light.

At the same time, the Galaxy S4 is much more natural in color display than the previous Galaxy series. I believe that with the launch of the Galaxy S5, it will definitely be more advanced at this point. On the other hand, for consumers who like bright colors, the Galaxy S4's display style is more popular, just as some consumers don't care if HTC One is better at outdoor. The Galaxy S4 offers more color configuration options to adjust saturation, while HTC One always insists on giving consumers a more natural color reproduction performance.

So if you really want to choose between Super AMOLED and Super LCD, we can't give an accurate answer. And which display panel to choose as a consumer depends entirely on your preferences and usage habits. Do you like brighter or more natural colors? More accustomed to viewing dark content or prefer white backgrounds? These are the deciding factors in determining which panel product you choose.

Like many other technologies in the field, both display panels have their own advantages and disadvantages. Only by knowing more about yourself can you choose a product that is more suitable for you.