Apple, Samsung and Co. advertise their mobile phone displays with terms such as “Super AMOLED” or “Super Retina XDR”. We clarify what is behind it and where the differences lie.
Two different technologies are essentially used in mobile phone displays. (Source: Netzwelt)
- Cell phones use either an OLED or LCD panel as a display.
- OLED displays are significantly brighter, thinner and easier to illuminate than conventional LCD panels.
- Furthermore, there are different panel technologies such as LTPO and IPS, which have different advantages and disadvantages.
The heart of a smartphone is the display. Because without this display we would no longer be able to interact with the devices. Accordingly, high demands are still placed on the quality of the screen today. In order to meet these demands, Samsung, Apple and Co. have developed ever better and more powerful display technologies in recent years.
Manufacturers often advertise these with marketing terms such as “Super Retina XDR”. But what is actually behind it? Basically, like televisions today, cell phones have either an OLED or an LCD panel.
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OLED and LCD: These are the differences
OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, while LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. The fundamental differences between the two display technologies lie in the structure of the panel, the type of backlight, the material properties and much more.
LCD: Backlit liquid crystals
In an LC display, roughly speaking, liquid crystals are influenced by precise control of the applied voltage in such a way that the direction of polarization of the light and thus the color of the crystal (which in this case is a pixel) is specifically controlled. Thanks to a backlight and a polarizing filter, the colors become visible.
The production of LC displays is cheaper, easier and faster than that of OLED panels. Therefore, corresponding screens in the mobile phone sector are nowadays primarily found in the lower price segment or in mid-range mobile phones. However, they often consume significantly more power than OLED displays.
Despite enormous further development in recent years, LC displays are still inferior to OLED displays in terms of image quality due to their design. Colors cannot be displayed with such high contrast, and the black values do not come close to those of an OLED display. This is because the backlighting of LC displays must always be active and black areas never really become black. LC displays are also thicker than OLED panels.
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