It is safe to say that the display is the most important part of your smartphone, as each task involves interacting with the screen. However, modern display technologies can be overwhelming to understand given the wide variety of panels, among which some familiar terms are LCD, OLED, pOLED, LTPO, etc. In this MSP Explained edition, let’s understand the types of smartphone displays and find out which suits best for your needs.
Types of Smartphone Displays
Although you may have heard of multiple types of display panels, all are derived from just two basic technologies at the core: LCD and OLED. These panel types are further divided into categories based on their unique properties. First, let’s have a look at the basic difference between an LCD and an OLED panel.
- LCD: This stands for Liquid Crystal Display. It consists of two main components: first is the panel containing a mixture of polarizers and liquid crystals, and the second part is the backlight. An LCD panel uses a controlled supply of electronic signals that force these liquid crystals to form the image/video you see on your screen. However, these crystals are not bright enough, and hence, a backlight is used to illuminate the crystals, which results in the contents that you see on your LCD screen.
Note: This is just an oversimplified explanation of the working of an LCD panel, and the actual process is way more complex. Now let’s compare it to the working of an OLED panel.
- OLED: This stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. An OLED panel consists of millions of individual LEDs that emit light and generate the image/video you see on your screen. It does not have any separate backlight as found in LCD panels. Since the image is generated using a combination of individual LEDs, OLEDs are generally more colour-accurate than LCDs. However, OLEDs are subject to burn-ins, where an individual LED loses its ability to change colours. This problem occurs over an extended period and is more common in OLED panels than LCDs.
Difference Between LCD and OLED
Here’s a quick comparison of various display parameters between LCD and OLED panels.
| Function | LCD | OLED |
| Brightness | LCD panels have comparatively lower peak brightness levels. Typically, they max out at 1000 nits on smartphones. |
OLEDs support higher brightness levels. You can find smartphones with OLED screens that support peak brightness of as high as 6000 nits. |
| Colour Accuracy | LCDs have good colour accuracy for RGB colours, but they struggle with black backgrounds due to backbleed from the backlight panel. |
OLEDs have superior colour reproduction with higher accuracy. They can generate deep blacks by simply disabling the LED temporarily.
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| Viewing angles | LCD panels support viewing angles as wide as 178 degrees. However, some panels may have colour-shift issues depending on the panel quality. | OLEDs have great viewing angles. They generally do not have any colour shift problems when viewed at steep angles. |
| Sharpness | LCDs can be sharper than OLED panels depending on the panel resolution. | Due to the high density of individual LEDs, OLED panels can be comparatively less sharp, especially at lower resolutions. |
| Refresh rate | Refresh rates are supported up to 120Hz on smartphones. But it cannot be adjusted easily. | OLED panels on smartphones feature as high as 144Hz refresh rate. They also support variable refresh rates that can be adjusted to as low as 1Hz. |
| Response time | LCDs have comparatively slower response times and may have ghosting issues. | OLED panels have lower response times, which makes them more suitable for tasks like gaming. Ghosting issues are rare in OLEDs. |
| HDR support | HDR support is difficult to implement in LCD panels due to limited peak brightness levels. | Most modern OLED panels support HDR content as they naturally support higher brightness levels. |
| Touch sensitivity | LCDs have limited touch sensitivity. |
OLEDs can support higher touch sensitivity, but the implementation depends on the manufacturer.
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It is evident from the comparison chart that OLEDs are superior to LCD panels in most aspects. However, OLED displays are more expensive than LCDs, hence entry-level and budget smartphones continue to use LCDs, and OLED is more common on mid-range and premium phones.
The biggest difference between the two panels is that an OLED panel can be designed to be flexible, by using a plastic-based support plate for the individual LEDs. It is very uncommon for an LCD panel to be flexible due to technology limitations. Although it is possible, it’s an experimental thing and flexible LCD screens are rarely found in consumer-grade devices.
Due to this same reason, every single foldable smartphone from the original Samsung Fold, to the latest Galaxy Z Fold 6, and even phones like the Moto Razr 50 Ultra, and the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro use OLED panels, instead of LCD.
Types of LCD panels
LCD panels are generally available in two types on smartphones: TFT and IPS. Here are the differences.
- TFT: It stands for Thin-Film Transistor Display. Here, each pixel has its transistor. This helps to generate higher sharpness and faster response times.
- IPS: It stands for In-Plane Switching Display. IPS offers wider viewing angles and higher colour accuracy than TFT panels. They use a fixed set of transistors, instead of having separate ones for each pixel.
- LTPS: It stands for Low-Temperature Polysilicon. It is similar to IPS but uses polycrystalline silicon instead of regular. This makes LTPS sharper in resolution, helps to produce better colours, and has a variable refresh rate.
TFT-based LCD panels were previously found on budget smartphones. However, due to poor colour reproduction and viewing angles, they have now been replaced with IPS LCD panels. LTPS is relatively new and is rare to find on smartphones.
Types of OLED panels
There are two types of OLED panels found on smartphones: LTPO and OLED. Here’s what they mean.
- LTPO: It stands for Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide. It uses the same set of individual LEDs to form the display but on a special backplane. This design allows LTPO panels to have complete flexibility in refresh rates and go as low as 1Hz. You can learn more about this via our previous MSP Explained on an LTPO display.
- pOLED: It means Plastic Organic Light-Emitting diode. Instead of using glass-based substrates, pOLEDs use plastic-based substances. This makes them smaller and lightweight, and also more flexible. However, pOLED panels are less sharp and the colour accuracy is not the best, compared to a traditional OLED panel.
You may also come across terms like Super AMOLED, Dynamic AMOLED, Hyper AMOLED, etc. in smartphones. These are marketing terms used by various phone makers, and these display types do not have any major technical changes compared to regular OLEDs.
Which Is the Best Display Panel for a Smartphone?
It is difficult to pick a clear winner among LCD and OLED, as both have their set of advantages and disadvantages. LCDs are cheaper, which makes them suitable for budget smartphones, while OLEDs offer superior brightness, viewing angles, and colours.
OLEDs are better than LCDs, but that’s not always the case. In the case of budget smartphones, certain OEMs use cheaper OLED panels, which are often inferior to their LCD counterparts in the same budget range.
So, the question here is, which one’s best for you? If you are looking for,
- If your budget is below Rs 10,000, it is better to have an LCD-based phone as OLEDs in this segment may not give you the best viewing experience.
- If your budget is between Rs 10,000 – 15,000, you can find a mix of OLED and LCD devices.
- For smartphones above Rs 15,000 (going up to over a lakh), OLED becomes a must.
