In this article, we’ll compare Samsung and LG’s AMOLED and IPS display technologies in terms of power consumption, color, brightness, viewing angles, burn-in, and more, and explain the differences between the two technologies, with a focus on the advantages of IPS over AMOLED.
Samsung Display and LG Display are both successful in North America, the world’s largest market, and have excellent display technologies. In particular, LG Display is so good that it supplies IPS displays for Apple’s iPhone, which is currently involved in several lawsuits with Samsung. Samsung and LG are using ‘AMOLED’ and ‘IPS’ displays in their mobile displays, respectively, to showcase their different characteristics. LG Electronics advertises that IPS displays are superior to AMOLED displays. Let’s see if IPS displays are better than AMOLED displays as LG claims, and compare the characteristics of IPS and AMOLED.
First, let’s take a quick look at how IPS and AMOLED displays work. In-Plane Switching (IPS) is a type of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD), commonly known as an LCD, that uses light from a backlight behind the display and an electric current to change the way the display’s pixels are arranged to produce colors. AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), on the other hand, is an active organic light-emitting diode, popularized by Samsung Electronics under the name “Amoled”. AMOLED does not use a backlight, but rather each pixel emits its own light to produce colors.
First, let’s compare IPS and AMOLED displays in terms of power consumption. AMOLED displays use less power when the screen contains a lot of black, and IPS displays use less power when the screen contains a lot of white. This is due to the difference in how they represent light. With IPS, there’s always a constant backlight illuminating the screen, regardless of the color, so power consumption is nearly constant. AMOLED, on the other hand, uses less power because none of the LEDs light up when displaying black, and all of the LEDs light up when displaying white, resulting in higher power consumption. In a typical smartphone usage environment, there is more white color, so IPS is better than AMOLED in terms of power consumption.
The next difference is the way RGB and pentile elements are arranged. Basically, you need red, blue, and green light to produce color. In AMOLED displays, each of the red, blue, and green light-emitting LEDs has a different lifespan. In particular, the blue LED has a shorter lifespan than the other two. To solve this lifetime issue, AMOLEDs use a pentile method, where the red and blue LEDs are enlarged in size, instead of the traditional RGB method. While this has the advantage of extending the lifespan, it also reduces the actual number of pixels, making it less readable than IPS displays. The pentile method also exaggerates red and blue colors, giving the entire display a bluish hue. IPS displays, on the other hand, use the RGB method to provide more natural colors.
Next, let’s compare burn-in, which is particularly prevalent in AMOLEDs, where the blue LEDs have a short lifespan, causing the display to leave an afterimage or smudge over time. IPS displays rarely suffer from this problem. Burn-in is directly related to display longevity, so IPS is superior to AMOLED in this regard.
Brightness is another area where IPS beats AMOLED. To increase the brightness of an AMOLED, you need to increase the brightness of all the individual LEDs, but due to burn-in issues and lifespan limitations, the maximum brightness of an AMOLED is lower than an IPS display. IPS, on the other hand, can easily increase brightness by simply increasing the brightness of the backlight. This is why IPS appears brighter than AMOLED outdoors.
Next, let’s look at the difference in color. While color is a personal preference, a display that is close to nature’s colors can be a good indicator of a good display. AMOLEDs offer an exaggerated color gamut of 130%, but this is not the same as realistic color. For example, on AMOLEDs, the grass on a soccer field appears to be a fluorescent green, which is hard to find in nature. IPS, on the other hand, provides colors that are closer to nature. This is similar to how we look for the best HI-FI performance in sound equipment, which reproduces the original sound. We can say that the colors of IPS are more natural and better than AMOLED.
When it comes to viewing angles, AMOLED is theoretically better than IPS. However, AMOLED has the disadvantage that the display turns bluish as the viewing angle widens. IPS offers relatively stable viewing angles with less color shift as the viewing angle is tilted.
The LED technology in AMOLED displays is technologically advanced compared to LCDs, with advantages such as fast response times and infinite contrast. It also has the advantage of not requiring a backlight, which allows the display to be thinner. However, IPS is a mature technology that has already reached the peak of LCD technology, while AMOLED is still developing. Currently, most AMOLED displays are produced by Samsung Electronics, but LG Electronics is also developing the technology. As AMO LED technology improves, it could potentially replace IPS LCDs in the future. However, for now, the strengths of IPS are more pronounced than those of AMOLED.
