Supporters of technologies used in the manufacture of displays of mobile devices, divided into AMOLED lovers and adherents of LCD. Both types of screens are based on different manufacturing techniques, and manufacturers emphasize the benefits of only their own manufacturing process.
So which screen is better - IPS or AMOLED? Is there a noticeable difference between these technologies, and if so, what does it consist of?
LCD technology
LCD stands for LCD. The colors in it are reproduced in a completely different way than in AMOLED. In a liquid crystal display, the backlight serves as a light source. The backlight can be multiple, which saves energy, but it is used in large TVs.
White color does not have its own wavelength. It is a mixture of all other visible colors of the spectrum. Thus, the LCD backlight should create an imaginary white light as efficiently as possible in order to get different colors from it in the LCD element. Most LCDs have a blue LED backlight that hits phosphorus and generates white light.
Real difficulties begin when light is polarized and passes through the crystal. The LCD element can rotate it at a different angle by changing the voltage applied to it. Then the light passes through another polarizing filter, offset by 90 ° relative to the first. This extinguishes it depending on the angle of rotation. Then the light passes through the RGB filter, creating subpixels, which are then grouped into pixels.
All this suggests that the LCD-display controls the amount of light by blocking the backlight, and the color light for each pixel does not generate. Like AMOLED, LCDs can be active and passive matrix devices.
AMOLED technology
Hidden in the name of the key component of this type of screens is the LED. Electronics enthusiasts knew about these bulbs before, but in the display panel they are radically reduced and placed in the form of red, green and blue clusters, which make up a single pixel that can reproduce white and other colors. The layout of these subpixels may slightly affect display performance.
The letter O stands for Organic. There are a number of thin organic films placed between the conductors of an LED that emit light when current is applied.
And finally, the AM part of AMOLED stands for Active Matrix, as opposed to passive technology. This indicates how each OLED LED is controlled. To control a single pixel in a passive matrix, integrated circuits are used that control the supply of voltage to the desired column or row. It is slow and not accurate enough. Active matrix systems in each LED use a TFT transistor and capacitor. When a row and column are activated to access a pixel, its capacitor saves a charge between update cycles. This allows you to quickly and accurately manage it.
Another term you can come across is Super AMOLED, Samsung's marketing name for the display, combined with a capacitive touch screen. Typically, such a screen is executed as a separate layer on the outside of the display. This combination makes the display thinner.
Super AMOLED vs LCD
Such a profound difference in the way displays work has a big impact on user experience. The color scheme is most often mentioned when comparing these technologies. AMOLED provides a wider range of color options than LCDs, resulting in brighter images.
OLED displays are characterized by an additional saturation of green and blue, the most powerful colors in subpixels. Some consider this extra saturation to produce unnatural colors. LCDs tend to overcompensate red tones with more muted green ones. Despite the fact that they do not have a wide enough gamut, the image they create closely matches the standard color gamut profile used in photos and videos.
A closer look at the displays of smartphones shows that the color gamut can vary quite significantly even in displays of the same type. For example, despite the fact that the BlackBerry Priv and Galaxy Note 5 use the AMOLED display of the same manufacturer, they have completely different gamma profiles. This can be partially explained by the presence of several profiles and different calibration of the image by the manufacturer.
Color accuracy is another significant difference, especially when it comes to white. Testing some of the best Android smartphones has shown that OLED displays give very accurate results, while LCD displays have a slight blue tint. This is not surprising given that the LCDs operate with filtered blue backlight.
The lack of backlight and filter layers also speak in favor of OLED. LCDs often let in excess light and have low contrast, since the backlight does not turn off even if the pixels should be black, while OLED can simply turn off its pixels. The filter layer of the LCD also blocks part of the light, and a larger thickness means that viewing angles are smaller compared to OLED.
The disadvantage of AMOLED is that different LEDs have different lifespan, which means that individual RBG components eventually degrade at different speeds. The color balance of the OLED display may shift slightly over time, and the LCD LED backlight means that the color balance is more stable.
Controllability
One of the main advantages of OLED screens is their high controllability at the level of each pixel. This element can be turned off, which allows you to achieve black depth and high contrast ratio. Controlling radiation at the individual pixel level results in energy savings, and the absence of additional layers above the LEDs means that the maximum light reaches the surface. Images become brighter and the viewing angle improves.
Subtlety and flexibility
AMOLED adherents note a smaller screen thickness, which determines the size of the device and its weight. This is due to the lack of backlight. Although for many this parameter may seem insignificant, it affects another important indicator - the viewing angle, which directly depends on the thickness of the display.
The use of LEDs means that LED screens are extremely thin, which is ideal for portable devices. The lack of hard backlighting and a breakthrough in the production of substrates made it possible to create the first generation of flexible displays, very promising for creating new form factors.
Contrast
One of the main parameters that will help you figure out which screen technology is better - IPS or AMOLED - is the contrast. The advantage of LED technology is the huge contrast, for which users love this technology. When a person first sees such a colorful display, he is very surprised. This is the “wow effect” so revered by marketers.
Black depth
The next parameter, which will help determine which screen is better - IPS or Super AMOLED, is the ability to transmit black. Due to the fact that LED screens glow independently, users give them an indisputable advantage. Only the pixels necessary in the image are involved, and not the entire screen, as in IPS. Contrast is the ratio of the brightness of the lightest and darkest parts of the screen, so the theoretical contrast of organic LEDs is infinite, since there is no glow. But in reality, the situation is different; reflected light passes through sections of black. The difference in contrast is 20 times (30000: 1 versus 1500: 1).
power usage
Among the indicators that allow to determine which is better, IPS or AMOLED, users call the economy of the screen. In LED technology, it is achieved through the glow of individual subpixels. On dark scenes, the screen spends little energy, but more on bright ones. Therefore, the power consumption of the display depends on the mode of use.
Performance
Response time also affects consumers' opinions of which display is better - IPS or AMOLED. The latest technology has less, which in theory should mean a slightly faster change of picture. In reality, the longer IPS response time is almost imperceptible. And the Samsung Galaxy S4 showed another problem - a quick change of image causes a noticeable visual effect.
Color rendering
Another question that AMOLED or IPS allows you to choose is which color is better? IPS displays give the image without distorting the color scheme. Color will be bright when it should be. The natural gamut on LED displays is achieved by customizing the software.
White quality
True white color on LED displays, users say, is hard to reach. LCD also gives an imaginary white color emitted by the phosphor. The result is shades of blue, yellow and pink instead of white. In this case, customizing the image may help.
Viewing angles
Another option that will help determine which matrix is better - IPS or AMOLED is to maintain color accuracy when viewing at an angle. If we talk about LCD screens, their colors shift to the cold side, and the non-standard layout of the subpixels of LED displays, which is different from the usual one, leads the picture into different colors, for example, it may turn green or redden.
Brightness
High brightness means good image visibility in high ambient light conditions. This is the next parameter that will determine which is better - IPS or AMOLED. Screen contrast does not help here. In LCD displays, white light is created by powerful backlighting, and LED panels emit each pixel. This explains the difference in luminous intensity - AMOLED technologies do not yet allow the brightness of subpixels to compete with the backlight in LCD displays.
Definition
Which is better - IPS or AMOLED, - will help to judge the detail and sharpness of the image. Some users easily distinguish subpixels of the LED screen, which is not very good. Myopic people can clearly see them even with Full HD resolution. This is due to the use of PenTile technology, which provides the same glow of subpixels of different colors. The image loses in clarity and has less sharp contours. The traditional IPS layout means more detail and more straight lines.
Burnout pixels
Another "plus" of IPS-technology is the "minus" LED. Organic LEDs fade over time. Although the service life is quite long, differences in the brightness of different areas will become noticeable in a year. LCD screens are free from burnout problems.
Cost
The answer to the question of which is better, IPS or AMOLED, also depends on the price. The cost of the device is determined by the sum of the prices of all its components, of which the display is the most expensive. But the lower price of the gadget does not mean lower cost of the screen. For example, HTC One with IPS and Samsung Galaxy S4 with Super AMOLED cost the same, although the price of the LED matrix is higher.
AMOLED, TFT IPS: which is better?
Technologies have qualities that can be called advantages or disadvantages depending on custom color and contrast settings. Although the many available display modes in modern smartphones allows you to achieve maximum quality. Lower production costs and additional benefits of OLED displays make them probably more promising, while cheaper LCD displays are destined to fill in the gaps in budget segments of the market.
Leading display manufacturers such as LG Display are betting on OLED technology by investing in additional manufacturing facilities. The AMOLED panel market is expected to reach $ 30 billion in 2022, more than double the current level. Not to mention the unrealized potential of the flexible display market.
The development of quantum dot LCDs can narrow the performance gap between LCDs and OLEDs, so discounting LCDs is not worth it yet.
When deciding which type of display to choose - Super AMOLED or IPS, which is better for the user - you should remember: each technology has its pros and cons. Only after weighing the pros and cons, given the degree of importance of each parameter, does it make sense to make a choice. LCD screens have a slightly larger number of advantages. Among them - natural high-quality color and high brightness of the image. LED technology is characterized by excessive color saturation, low readability in bright ambient light and shorter life. Nevertheless, AMOLED displays have an excellent “wow effect”, again and again bringing the next victim to consumer ecstasy.