AMOLED or IPS LCD – Which Smartphone Screen Should You Opt For?

Smartphones are being released almost every other day with various interesting configurations. You have many options to choose from for each part of the smartphone including its screen. The two key screen choices are Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) and IPS LCD (

You have many options to choose from for each part of the smartphone including its screen. The two key screen choices are Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) and IPS LCD (In Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display). Variations of these two models are also available. Very often, we tend to analyze these two screen categories as much as we evaluate the screen sizes or hardware details of the handsets that we find interesting. In reality, making this analysis is quite essential as the screen is without dispute the most important and frequently used component of a smartphone, phablet, or tablet.

You have many options to choose from for each part of the smartphone including its screen. The two key screen choices are Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) and IPS LCD (In Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display). Variations of these two models are also available. Very often, we tend to analyze these two screen categories as much as we evaluate the screen sizes or hardware details of the handsets that we find interesting. In reality, making this analysis is quite essential as the screen is without dispute the most important and frequently used component of a smartphone, phablet, or tablet.

AMOLED succeeded OLED displays while IPS LCD followed the standard TFT LCD. Through this article, we try to bring to your understanding some key highlights or features of AMOLED and IPS LCD displays to help you understand what screen you should opt for.

Backlighting and Color/Contrast Rendition

With AMOLED screens, you do not need a backlighting option. This makes the screen a good choice for nighttime usage or use in dark areas. Also, for excellent contrast and color rendition, there is nothing to beat this display. This is because special efforts are made to make a colored dot as bright as the ones surrounding it to give you vibrant colors and deep blacks as output. A major drawback of the AMOLED display is the degradation of the colored dots that diminishes color saturation of the panel over a period of time. This results in decreased picture sharpness and crispness.

In contrast, IPS LCD screens need very strong backlights for nighttime visibility. In other words, these screens are more suitable for day use. Choose this display technology if you plan to opt for daytime readability and rendering of bright whites. Also, there is the added advantage of the color saturation not waning as time progresses. As a result, images are always sharp and crisp.

Viewing Angles

Viewing angle is important if you plan to use your smartphone for activities that require you to keep it in different angles. Some such instances could be playing games or watching movies online. The credit goes to AMOLED panels for superior viewing angles. Because of this, even if you keep your smartphone slightly tilted, there will be no viewing discomfort. With IPS LCD screens, you may experience a bit of disorientation depending on the screen size and the tilting angle. However, in most cases, the distortion does not have a drastic impact on the displays.

Bulkiness and Battery

Thanks to eliminating the need of backlight option, the AMOLED display screens present a two-fold advantage. First, they are usually not as heavy as their IPS LCD counterparts. Also, the battery life tends to be more when you use these screens as it does not have to draw much power. This can in turn contribute to extended battery life On the flip side, manufacturing these screens can prove to be an expensive deal.

Because IPS LCD screens rely heavily on backlighting option, they tend to be comparatively heavy. And of course, it goes without saying that the more the lighting, the battery draws more power by tending to run out of juice fast and having a negative impact on battery life. As a result, high power batteries are used resulting in increasing the bulkiness. A noteworthy feature is that IPS LCD screens are not as costly as AMOLED equivalents to fabricate.

Pixel Resolution and Pixel Density

IPS LCD screens have proved to yield high pixel resolution and pixel density. So, images are displayed with better clarity on these screens than the AMOLEDs. Moreover, as the former screen uses full RGB matrix set up every time, where one pixel is made up of three (red, green, and blue) sub-pixels. As a result, crisper outputs are generated even for moderate resolutions. In comparison, AMOLEDs use PenTile or RGBG matrix technology that uses two sub-pixels to form one pixel. There are two green pixels for a combination of one red and one blue sub-pixel.

To sum up, we thought that you many find it interesting to know that Samsung prefers using AMOLED and its related displays for their devices. LG fans can be prepared to own handsets that make use of IPS LCD displays and their variants.

Source: AMOLED or IPS LCD – Which Smartphone Screen Should You Opt For?