OLED Displays: All advantages and disadvantages of the technology

Many new smartphones and TVs are now equipped with the new OLED display type. Like other display technologies, this standard has its advantages and disadvantages. You can find an overview of all the details here.

OLED: advantages and disadvantages

OLED stands for “Organic Light Emitting Diodes”. The revolutionary technology is that every single pixel of the display represents its own light source.

The size of the individual pixels enables a significantly higher resolution, pixel density and thus image quality.

Rich colors and energy saving: advantages of OLED panels

• Perfect black
  Due to the individual light emission of each individual pixel, a real black is possible by switching off individual pixels or pixel areas.
  With other display technologies such as LCD, black areas always appear slightly gray due to the backlight.
• Colour reproduction
  Each pixel works completely independently of all others in terms of brightness and color. This means that the color can also be optimally displayed in detailed image sections.
• sharpness
  Since all pixels function completely independently of each other, perfect sharp edges and dots in pictures are possible - a property that can only be implemented in LCD displays in expensive models.
• Energy saving
  Black areas do not consume any electricity here, which is why so-called “always-on displays”, for example, permanently displayed clocks on the locked smartphone, are possible.
  In addition, OLEDs are inherently very energy efficient.
• Flat form factor
  Due to the lack of backlighting, OLED televisions can be made very narrow.

Lifetime and price: disadvantages of technology

• Branding / lifespan
  Hardly relevant but to be considered: OLED displays have a lifespan of “only” about 20, 000 hours. In practice, however, this should be irrelevant.
  The organic content of hydrocarbons in the individual pixels creates the possibility of burn-in.
  As with old CRT monitors, pixels degrade over time, which is why a permanent image of them can appear after permanent display of still images. With Samsung smartphones, for example, this problem is avoided by minimally moving the buttons in the navigation bar.
• Nevertheless, as the owner of a device with an OLED display, you should make sure that you change the screen content after a while. However, if you do not display still images on your screen for several hours, this should not be a problem for you.
• brightness
  OLED screens are generally a little less bright. A disadvantage that is particularly noticeable in daylight.
• price
  Even if the price of OLED screens has dropped significantly, they are still significantly more expensive than their LCD competitors.

We have summarized the most important differences between LCD and OLED displays for you in the next article.