All the smart-phones of present day middle budget seem to prefer AMOLED technology for display than IPS LCD screens. There are many advantages and quite a few disadvantages of AMOLED display over a long run which make them an ideal option for many manufacturers. Lets see in detail the pros and cons of this technology and how it works.

AMOLED stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-emitting diode. Lets first talk about OLED and then about Active and Passive matrix to get to know about the working of this technology. OLED are self light-emitting technology composed of a thin, multi-layered organic film placed between an anode and cathode. In contrast to LCD/TFT technology, OLED does not require a backlight making them more slim compared to LCD technology. Active or Passive matrix relates to the way in which the display is being controlled.

In a PMOLED display, there is no storage capacitor unlike AMOLED display which makes the pixels of PMOLED in a particular row remain off most of the time. To rectify this problem, PMOLED displays use more voltage to make them brighter shortening their lifetime. They also have a restriction in size and resolution because of this voltage problem.(average 3″. Standard industry size is 0.95″ with resolution of 96×64)

In an AMOLED display, there is an array isolated into a progression of lines and columns, with every pixel shaped at the convergence of a line and column, pretty much as in an inactive grid show. Every pixel now comprises of an OLED in arrangement with a thin-film transistor (TFT). The TFT is a switch that can control the measure of current coursing through the OLED. In AMOLED, data is sent to the transistor in every pixel, managing the brightness of the pixel. The TFT then stores this data and persistently controls the current coursing through the OLED. In this way the OLED is working ceaselessly, keeping away from the requirement for the high currents necessary in a passive-matrix display.This is the working principle behind AMOLED screens.

Advantages of AMOLED display:

In an AMOLED screen the display (or certain pixels) completely turns off for black pixels because the TFT can control each pixel individually increasing the contrast level very much compared to LCD screens giving a false impression for increased brightness.

AMOLED provides more wide viewing angle than LCD screens because they don’t have backlight. So, white colour of AMOLED screens are not as bright as LCD ones. This is a reason why Photographers and Video makers prefer LCD screens because the latter ones show colours more precisely.

As the liquid crystal gets disturbed and will not be able to respond to electric field at high temperature and becomes unresponsive at low temperatures, the organic compound based technology of AMOLED has an advantage of operating at temperatures where LCD doesn’t work.

High and constant colour gamut makes the images of AMOLED more brighter, sharper and visually pleasing.

Using an AMOLED display with a dark theme and black background saves power because of their advantage of using only necessary pixels. This is a reason why all phones with AMOLED screens have a dark-theme builtin to save battery. Even the ‘glance’ feature which shows time, date and notifications is possible with this technology

Not having the backlight behind the filament makes the body slim compared to LCD screens. In 2012, Super AMOLED was introduced in which the layer which detects touch was also integrated into the screen making it even thin and Samsung states that it reflects 5 times less sunlight compared to AMOLED.

Disadvantages of AMOLED display:

Even though there are many advantages for AMOLED devices, there are some disadvantages to the technology which still prevent some companies like Apple from adopting to this technology.

One of the main disadvantage with using an organic based screen is that their natural property of degradation. Due to this, a phenomena known as ‘Burn out’ happens for AMOLED screens where if a image or pattern stays for long enough time on the screen, the image burns into the screen causing that particular colour to remain on screen partially even if we change it.

It uses more power to display white colour, nearly 2.2 times compared to LCD and no power at all to display black making dark-themes and black backgrounds more of a necessity for these phones.

The brightness of the screen reduces over time due to the organic degradation and thus has less lifetime compared to LCD screens which is a game changer for Apple because they want their phones to be long lasting (people still use iPhone’s bought 3 years earlier) and so they are still using IPS LCD for iPhone 7 and 7 plus.

Finally it depends on user preference always to decide whether he wants a AMOLED screen or not. If you are okay with using dark-themes even while browsing and reduce the whiteness of screen, then AMOLED works for you. If you want a phone with long lifetime having true colours and you do editing’s of pictures or videos, then go for LCD screens.