What is OLED?
Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) are manufactured by putting organic thin sheets between two conductors. When electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. OLEDs don’t need a backlight, thus they’re slimmer and more efficient than LCDs (which do require a white backlight).
OLED displays are thin and efficient, but they can also be transparent, flexible, foldable, and even rollable and stretchable in the future. OLEDs represent the future of display technology!
What is AMOLED display?
AMOLED technology was likely introduced to you on a high-end smartphone a few years ago. AMOLED laptop and PC monitors are very popular. What does it improve?
AMOLED displays work pixel-by-pixel, create brighter colours (and deeper, near-perfect blacks), consume less power, and are thinner and lighter than LED ones, which helped fuel the rise of larger, palm-size phone screens. As consumer interest in AMOLED grew, laptop makers introduced high-resolution variants. Lenovo announced a new 2-in-1 laptop featuring a 15.6-inch 4K AMOLED display at CES 2019.
OLED vs LCD
Benefits over LCD:
- Better contrast, brightness, viewing angle, colour range, and refresh rates.
- less Power consumption.
- Simpler design allows ultra-thin, flexible, foldable, transparent displays.
- OLEDs are robust and function in a wider temperature range.
OLED vs LED
Most TVs on the market now are LED TVs, which should have been named LED-backlit LCDs. OLED has increased performance and design. High costs and limited production hinder OLED TV adoption.
Advantages
AMOLED users cite various benefits:
- Pixel-by-pixel illumination control for more colours and accurate colour reproduction
- High contrast (i.e., difference between the lightest and darkest parts of the screen)
- Less power consumption, especially when displaying gloomy PC gaming sceneries.
- Thinner, lighter, no LCD display or (in some variants) backlighting
- Wider viewing angles (no LCD to “block” light, limiting side views).
Disadvantages
Despite their growing popularity, there are a few perceived down sides to AMOLED screens:
- Higher cost: At the time of writing, it’s still more expensive to manufacture large AMOLED displays than regular LED-LCD ones, limiting AMOLED to high-end laptops (for now). But PC manufacturers say the price will come down over time.
- Shorter lifespan: Some of the organic compounds responsible specific OLED colors are believed to lose their illuminating capabilities faster than the inorganic compounds in LED-LCD screens. To fight this, manufacturers are finding ways to use more of the longest-lasting OLED colors while using RGB or similar filters to achieve the other hues.
- Possible burn-in: One negative aspect of direct pixel-by-pixel illumination is that some OLEDs get used more and their performance degrades over time, resulting in a burn-in effect where common, very bright screen elements (navigation bars, etc.) never fully disappear. To combat this, many AMOLED display makers are introducing features to auto-dim parts of the screen when areas of long-duration brightness are detected.
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