OLED
I just got a new phone, the Nexus S 4G from Sprint, and I love it! First off Android is amazing. But the feature that I am geeking out about the most right now is the OLED display. What is OLED?
Typical LCD displays have a back light that illuminates a colored filter. The filter has vertical red, green, and blue strips. These form the subpixels for the screen; three strips combined forms a pixel when horizontally segmented as well. A third layer made up of liquid crystals either blocks or allows the light to pass through. (Liquid crystals are inherently black or white, so the color filter adds the color to the screen.) The system works but not all that well. The filter blocks 2/3 of the light that the backlight produces, so as bright as your screen is the backlight is three times brighter. This is a major source of power drainage.
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) instead produces light in each subpixel. It consists of an array of tiny light bulbs if you will each one producing either red, green, or blue light. Essentially they are their own backlight and produce just the color that is needed.
OLED is less power hungry than LCD. Since there is not backlight and only the colors needed are produced there is less light wasted. In addition you get deeper blacks which means higher contrast ratios (and more vivid colors). Since the crystals in LCD are blocking light they can't block it all. Even my $3,000 Sony TV has some bleed through in the blacks. It is only noticeable when it is dark but it is still there. OLED only produces light where it is needed. A black pixel doesn't produce light. Hence no bleed through is possible. At night it is impossible to tell where the screen begins and ends when the edge is showing a black image.
OLED is where it is at. The problem now is they can't seem to be able to make the screens large and cheap. So for now it is limited to phones and mp3 players.
Typical LCD displays have a back light that illuminates a colored filter. The filter has vertical red, green, and blue strips. These form the subpixels for the screen; three strips combined forms a pixel when horizontally segmented as well. A third layer made up of liquid crystals either blocks or allows the light to pass through. (Liquid crystals are inherently black or white, so the color filter adds the color to the screen.) The system works but not all that well. The filter blocks 2/3 of the light that the backlight produces, so as bright as your screen is the backlight is three times brighter. This is a major source of power drainage.
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) instead produces light in each subpixel. It consists of an array of tiny light bulbs if you will each one producing either red, green, or blue light. Essentially they are their own backlight and produce just the color that is needed.
OLED is less power hungry than LCD. Since there is not backlight and only the colors needed are produced there is less light wasted. In addition you get deeper blacks which means higher contrast ratios (and more vivid colors). Since the crystals in LCD are blocking light they can't block it all. Even my $3,000 Sony TV has some bleed through in the blacks. It is only noticeable when it is dark but it is still there. OLED only produces light where it is needed. A black pixel doesn't produce light. Hence no bleed through is possible. At night it is impossible to tell where the screen begins and ends when the edge is showing a black image.
OLED is where it is at. The problem now is they can't seem to be able to make the screens large and cheap. So for now it is limited to phones and mp3 players.
Comments