Author: Adam Simmons

Last updated: June 19th 2020



The rise of LED

LED (Light Emitting Diode) backlights are ‘interesting’ for the consumer as they help make a thinner, lighter and more efficient display. It is also a winner from a marketing perspective, with manufacturers keen to draw an artificial distinction between their ‘LED’ (backlit) monitors and their ‘LCD’ monitors. This blindly leads people to believe that the technology was completely distinct from ‘LCD’ and not just a change in backlight type from CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) to LED. The rapid brightness adjustments also allow manufacturers to make better use of the ‘dynamic contrast’ feature that we often criticise in our reviews. The practicality of adjusting the entire backlight to suit the overall scene darkness is questionable. But it certainly allows the insanely big and misleading numbers game to be played with contrast ratios.