Which is better: IPS or AMOLED? Comparison and popular opinion. Super AMOLED vs IPS using the example of Samsung Galaxy Tab S and iPad Air – Popular opinion

In this article I will not go into technical details creating IPS and AMOLED matrices, they are in in this case not so interesting. What is more important is what one receives ordinary consumer, choosing one or another matrix. Therefore, in this material I will talk about the practical advantages and disadvantages of these two types of matrices.

Benefits of IPS

IPS matrices are an evolutionary development of TFT displays, but with a number of specific advantages. Firstly, they have much better color rendering, the picture on IPS is much brighter and juicier. Secondly, they have much higher viewing angles; when deviated, the picture does not fade. The overall brightness level of IPS panels is also superior to conventional TN displays. The last advantage is natural white color, which is quite problematic to achieve on AMOLED.

Advantages of AMOLED

AMOLED matrices are produced by Samsung and were initially used only by her, but later other manufacturers also gained access to such displays.

The first advantage of AMOLED matrices is the natural black color; on both IPS and TN matrices, the black color is more like gray, especially at maximum brightness. In the case of AMOLED, you get perfect blacks, and an additional bonus there will be reduced power consumption when displaying it.

The second plus is the high contrast of the picture. Many users love AMOLED displays for their bright and vibrant color scheme. Any picture looks very cool on such screens.

Third advantage - high level maximum brightness. In a direct comparison, on a bright sunny day, the AMOLED matrix will outperform IPS.

The fourth advantage is low power consumption. Smartphones equipped with IPS screens will be discharged with active screen much faster than analogues with AMOLED

Disadvantages of IPS

Perhaps the only drawback of IPS matrices is their imperfect display of black colors. Otherwise, these are excellent displays with natural color reproduction, maximum viewing angles and good brightness levels.

Disadvantages of AMOLED

AMOLED displays have a special pixel structure, which uses a larger number of green subpixels, this solution has one significant drawback called PenTile. When reading small text, you may notice red halos around the letters, which some people find annoying.

The second disadvantage is PWM (pulse width modulation). Its essence is that individual pixels turn on/off very quickly high speed, visually indistinguishable to the human eye. This is done to reduce power consumption, but in fact the eyes get tired faster from such displays. Because of this, such displays on the camera may flicker.

Conclusion

And yet, despite the disadvantages listed above, it is AMOLED displays that are installed in the flagships of most large companies. The thing is that, all other things being equal, they show a brighter and juicier picture, as well as better behavior in the sun.

IPS matrices are also good displays, so Meizu installs them in most mid-segment smartphones, and leaves AMOLED for flagships.

Do you want to know what the “wow effect” is? Pick up at least one samsung smartphone with AMOLED display! And, if this is the “WOW!” you won’t be able to escape, consider that the guys from Samsung haven’t earned their fees. So bright, so colorful, so attractive! My hands are tempted to scroll through websites, look through the gallery, and browse through applications and settings.

Is almost branded so good? Samsung display and what about IPS screens? They, of course, do not lead to wild delight at first glance, but the technology is in some ways By better than AMOLED will.

Yes, getting to know the latest Samsung gadgets is infuriating. And if you haven’t yet turned into a zombie and haven’t gone to the checkout to lay out your hard-earned money for a bright and contrasting image of an armful of balloons on the mainscreen, all is not lost and there is something to talk about with you.

In fact, the selling brightness and contrast of AMOLED displays is not so ideal: the beautiful wrapper hides a couple of significant troubles.

What is AMOLED? AMOLED -Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, i.e. active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. The light emitters in AMOLED displays are organic light-emitting diodes, which are controlled using an active matrix of thin-film transistors (TFT).

Why AMOLED?

Firstly, AMOLED screens have extremely high contrast, which IPS cannot boast of.

Secondly, thanks to the different IPS technology image transmission, the AMOLED display can show completely black color. Why?

IPS screens are usually backlit from all sides, and the pixels in AMOLED light up on their own, so the manufacturer was able to perfect the transmission of black in them: when displaying images on such screens, the pixels that transmit black color will not light up. IN IPS screens However, the entire picture is always illuminated, so it is impossible to achieve deep black transmission on them. The contrast of AMOLED displays thus becomes almost infinite.

The second advantage also leads to a third, albeit very controversial one: AMOLED, due to selective backlighting of pixels, also claims to be selectively economical in energy consumption. In other words: in dark scenes, the AMOLED screen wastes nothing at all! But, on the other hand, when we're talking about about displaying light images and efficiency AMOLED technology can be questioned.

The fourth plus(s): the touch response time of AMOLED displays is less than that of IPS. Those. Changing pictures on the screen should happen at lightning speed. In truth, AMOLEDs do work faster in this regard, but the speed difference is hardly perceptible.

By the way, in Samsung Galaxy S4, the notorious reaction speed even became a problem: when changing the image (even when simply moving from menu to menu), “trails” from the previous image stretch across the screen. The manufacturer prefers not to answer questions about what to do about it and how to continue living. Apparently, it's all about the new Super technology AMOLED. It’s not that it would be a big nuisance, but it would be wrong to remain silent.

Fifth advantage: AMOLED is thinner, which means devices with such a display are lighter. The difference in the thickness of AMOLED and IPS is explained by the same backlight technology: the pixels in IPS still need to be backlit, and for backlighting you need space in the case.

But, in fact, we’re talking about a maximum of a hundred grams, so if you don’t have a thing for ultra-thin gadgets, you shouldn’t consider the fifth point a significant advantage either.

Rich colors AMOLED screens can be appreciated at least in the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy S4, as well as in the Galaxy Nexus.

What is IPS? IPS is a type of matrix of LCD monitors, the name of which stands for In-Plane Switching. The technology is so named because of the way the crystals are placed in the panel. IPS is distinguished by the fact that the crystals are located in the same plane parallel to the surface of the panel. This made it possible to obtain maximum viewing angles (up to 178 degrees).

Why IPS?

Firstly, despite the contrast of AMOLED, IPS screens convey colors much more accurately. If on AMOLED they can be turned up to completely unnatural shades, then IPS will give bright colors only when the real picture suggests it.

It is also possible to set natural colors on AMOLED, but not without difficulty and special access to the software settings. But with software settings, the AMOLED matrix can compete with any modern technology. Well, almost anyone.

Secondly, IPS screens provide perfect white, which cannot be achieved on AMOLED. This is not a small thing, as it may seem. Take at least sad stories about the transmission of blue, yellow and pink shades white.

On the one hand, user software setup can put everything in place, but it still won’t give you a good white AMOLED: if the color rendition is still adjustable, then whitening the device’s display will cost you a lot of effort.

Big plus number three: maintaining color reproduction in IPS is possible even with an acute viewing angle. Colors on high-quality IPS hardly degrade, no matter how you look at the screen.

Whoever says that this is all nitpicking, try getting together with a group of at least three people to watch a film or photographs: the person sitting in the center will see the picture without distortion, but those sitting to the right and left of him will have yellowish and blue colors, respectively.

IPS practically does not produce angular distortion, and AMOLED, alas, does not indulge in such characteristics. Just remember the Sony Xperia Z, the screen of which rather spoiled the impressions of what was, in principle, a good device: a faded screen with low contrast and poor viewing angles.

AMOLED often suffers from the fact that it shifts natural color reproduction to the cold side. A non-standard layout of subpixels, moreover, leads to the image appearing in different colors: depending on the angle at which you look at the screen, the picture may turn red or green.

Let us recall that most often one pixel is formed by three subpixels: red, green and blue (the so-called RGB layout).

AMOLED works on a different principle. These screens use a method of constructing an image in which the subpixels are arranged in a special way. For clarity, see the picture below. According to the standard, a pixel is formed by three RGB subpixels, and in AMOLED displays, subpixels can be arranged as RG-BG, and not as RGB-RGB in the generally accepted version. This technology called PenTile.

The photo below shows the standard RGB layout and the previous generation PenTile.

Subpixels different color can glow with different strengths, which is why on AMOLED the picture looks less detailed and clear (these flaws most often appear along the contours of the depicted objects).

There is no such looseness in IPS displays; accordingly, IPS provide better sharpness and detail. In fact, you don’t need to have superpowers to notice the pixelation of a picture. Unlike IPS, the structure of the AMOLED matrix can be noticed by, say, any myopic user who decides to read a detective story before going to bed. This is the fourth plus.

Again, because AMOLED illuminates each individual subpixel; there is a possibility of burnout of these organic LEDs (example in the photo, see below). The guaranteed service life of such a screen is at least 6 years, but even after a year of using the device, changes in brightness and color rendition can still be noticed.

IPS screens offer much higher maximum brightness. Hence: the readability of any image, accordingly, becomes better. AMOLED screens begin to “go dark” when exposed to direct sunlight: the brightness of such a screen is not enough to highlight the picture in the sun.

You can debate for a long time which displays are better, AMOLED or IPS, all the same, some will like one type of matrix more, others will like the second. But there is a caveat here: we geeks very often pay attention to such things as the structure of a pixel from subpixels, we measure ourselves against pixels, we look at what is slightly green or blue somewhere... I think ordinary users on many of the technical Not only do they not pay attention to the criteria, they don’t know that such exist! We were interested if you show ordinary people(and sometimes for those in the know) two displays “in a vacuum” so that they don’t know which devices these screens belong to, what would they prefer?

What we did: we took two of the coolest displays of one and two types: one from Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, second in iPad Air; packed them tightly in courier envelopes, making small holes for the displays, clearly the same size, so that the difference between the displays was not visible; We loaded the same images onto both models, adapted precisely to the resolution of each model: 2560x1600 pixels, in the case of SGT S, and 2048x1536, and set off to show people the same images on different displays. As you might expect, opinions varied, but the winner in this blind comparison was clear, both indoors and outdoors. You can see the results in the resulting video:

From a geek's point of view, the displays vary, and each is good in its own way.

People like Super AMOLED because it:

• economical when using dark colors on the screen;
• the darkest black color possible;
• high maximum brightness;
• the ability to use only certain pixels, and not the entire screen;
• rich colors;
• maximum viewing angles.

I like IPS because:

• more natural colors;
• true white color;
• greater screen clarity at the same resolution.

Some people don't like Super AMOLED because there are displays that have a distinctly green tint, while most IPS displays look more natural; some AMOLED displays have a pen tile pixel structure, which means that at the same resolution such displays look less clear; On Super AMOLED screens it is very difficult to achieve true white color. But the problem areas of these displays have already been overcome. For example, amoleds stopped giving off the green taste, and when high resolution It is also difficult to distinguish an individual pixel. In our case, the pixel density in Samsung is 287 ppi, and 264 ppi in iPad Air, with a higher density in Super AMOLED matrices clearly visible to the naked eye. And the white color in the Tab S is white, not faded green. The examples below clearly show that the viewing angles of our tablets are almost the same, although the IPS matrix darkens at maximum deviations, but the black color of the iPad is not as dark as in Super AMOLED.

But, as I said at the very beginning, the purpose of this material was not to understand the technical component of the issue, but to look at the reaction of ordinary potential users when directly comparing displays. As it turned out, public opinion the majority leaned towards the Super AMOLED display.

I feel that this year AMOLED vs IPS will be a new trend and a topic for endless debate. I want to express my opinion about AMOLED and IPS screens. I won’t go into technical details, just personal impressions.

Since I used the Galaxy S1, Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus, a little Note 2, as well as the Galaxy Tab 7.7, I understand perfectly well what an AMOLED display is and what its advantages are. In turn, I did not ignore displays on IPS matrices: iPhone 4/4S/5, Meizu MX2, HTC Droid DNA (LCD3) and HTC One(IGZO?).

AMOLED vs IPS

AMOLED screens often use their own pixel structure and most often it's not the best option their layout (PenTile), but in the era of the advent of FullHD resolution in smartphones, you can miss this moment, since it is in AMOLED screens high density pixels can hide all the jambs with a non-standard subpixel arrangement.

Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) - technology for creating displays for mobile devices, computer monitors and televisions. The technology involves the use of organic LEDs as light-emitting elements and an active matrix of thin film transistors (TFT) to control the LEDs.

Any display made using AMOLED technology is an advertising bullshield. The colors on such a screen are oversaturated and far from natural, but many people like it, especially at first, until their eyes begin to get tired. To avoid this in smartphones Galaxy lines We added a special item in the screen settings in which you can change the color rendering from “tear out your eye and let him peck the crow” to “dead corpse”. In any mode, the colors are far from natural, I speak as a person who does a little design work.

AMOLED screens are very economical - advertising noodles for your ears. Indeed, when the smartphone screen displays completely black, the power consumption is minimal, but this does not happen so often. Good example is a browser. If the picture is bright, then AMOLED consumes battery power 5-6 times more actively.

If we compare the power consumption of AMOLED screens with IPS, when white color predominates in the picture, then AMOLED begins to consume twice as much charge as IPS. If we consider the option of displaying icons on the desktop when the background is completely black, then the power consumption in both cases is similar. At normal use capabilities of a smartphone will always be more economical than a screen on IPS matrix, unless, of course, you put yourself in a box and use black everywhere. For Android there is special versions gapps, in which standard applications(gmail, contacts, etc.) are inverted to black colors, even the bare Android interface is mostly made in dark colors. Here you may like it as you please, but the advantages in energy consumption of IPS screens are undeniable.

One of the advantages of AMOLED screens is the maximum viewing angles, but here I can argue with fans of these types of screens. If we take into account the IPS smartphone screens that I listed at the beginning of the article, then their viewing angles are maximum, and in the case of the HTC One there is no distortion at all in the color or contrast of the picture. In the case of AMOLED, the contrast and viewing angles are also maximum, but if you look at a light background, then at certain angles it begins to give off different shades (most often green or red).

The undeniable advantage of AMOLED over IPS is true black color, but every year the quality of black color on IPS screens is noticeably improving, and if you look at it from the point of view that everyday use devices we encounter more light shades on screens than black, then the advantage of AMOLED is insignificant.

You can often hear the question, what is the difference between oleophobic displays and liquid crystal displays? They are also AMOLED and IPS. This question is important, since more than 90 percent of the smartphone and tablet market is focused on these two types of displays. So you'll have to answer.

It’s worth starting with the fact that AMOLED can also be Super AMOLED. And IPS can also be referred to as LCD. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Without delving too far into the technological jungle, we will try to explain in our own words.

It is immediately worth noting that everything large manufacturers prefer either one type of display or another. This is due not so much to the price (and IPS is cheaper than AMOLED), but to the technology patents, using which companies pay royalties to the patent holders. Moreover, two seemingly AMOLED smartphones placed side by side can produce pictures of different quality. And this is due to the fact that technologies are patented for slightly different indicators. That is, patent holders are different organizations, in order to avoid monopolies.

When it comes to the difference between AMOLED and IPS LCD in a broad sense, the differences between the two technologies have changed over the years and will continue to change as updates are introduced. So keep an eye out latest updates from large manufacturers.

And now the specifics.

AMOLED

AMOLED technology is an active matrix based on organic light-emitting diodes. Nowadays we often see it in a new look - Super AMOLED. With these displays, individual pixels light up separately. This is called the active matrix. Moreover, they burn on the top of the thin film transistor (TFT). When the entire array passes through an electrical organic compound, it is called OLED. But some companies are cunning and do not pass through the entire array, leaving an unfinished version of the display, which is called TFT. It is cheaper than AMOLED because it has an incomplete cycle. Or, to put it simply, this is half of the whole process. But in any case, a complete or incomplete cycle of this technology shows a better picture than that of IPS LCD. But not in all regions. Assembly is different. So we can only talk about the picture as a whole.

At the heart of its technology, OLED uses anodes and cathodes to flow electrons through a very thin film. The brightness is determined by the strength of the electron current. And color is controlled by tiny red, green and blue LEDs built into the display. The best way to understand the process is to think of each pixel as an independent light bulb with three colors to choose from.

Colors tend to be brighter on AMOLED and Super AMOLED, and black tones appear darker due to part of the screen that can be effectively turned off. When the light bulb is not lit, it produces a “pure” black color. When all three colors are lit, it produces a “pure” white color. So the contrast is better, the colors look brighter, more saturated. Just because each element works separately. Each pixel in this case is an independent nature.

Moreover, nowhere is it said that the rich colors of the display must necessarily destroy faster charge batteries. Battery performance rather depends on efficient work processor. So AMOLED may be more power hungry than IPS LCD.

Another thing is that AMOLED burns out faster. And this has nothing to do with sun exposure. It’s just that in this case the display works at full capacity, which leads to more intense wear. So pixel quality degrades over time. But they are actively working to solve this problem.

It is also often noticeable that upon closer inspection of a smartphone or tablet based on this technology, the user seems to see all the pixels separately. Only in this case you need to look at the screen at a distance of less than 5 cm, which, of course, spoils your eyesight. So these experiments have no actual application in life. The average user holds a tablet or smartphone about 30 cm from their face.

Samsung is a big fan Super displays AMOLED and actively supplies its devices advanced technologies in this domain. This also applies to white balance and sharper black tones. So the latest devices from the Korean manufacturer have amazingly rich pictures and are not afraid of the sun. Wide viewing angle and long time normal operation pixels are included.

The key difference between Super AMOLED and standard AMOLED technology (which is often used by companies trying to save money, like Motorola) is that Super AMOLED has reduced the thickness by an order of magnitude protective film above the sensors, which appears in a more saturated color under the same safety conditions.

In addition, Super AMOLED also offers longer time battery life, although again manufacturers work hard to minimize the differences between technologies.

IPS LCD

In the other corner of the ring we have an IPS LCD, which stands for In-Plane Switching Liquid Crystal Display. If Super AMOLED is an upgrade from AMOLED, then IPS LCD is an improvement on the first types of liquid crystal displays. The mighty Apple has become fixated on these types of displays, releasing all iPhones with the same technology over the years. It's cheaper to produce, which is a bonus. But iPhones have never been cheap. So?

Essentially, LCD uses polarized light, which is then passed through a color filter. None individual elements. Horizontal and vertical filters on either side of the liquid crystals control brightness and operate regardless of whether each pixel is on or off. We add more lighting here and see that usually phones with similar technology They have a fairly thick body. iPhones from Apple this is rather an exception.

Since all the pixels are backlit, the black balance turns out backlit, “gray”. This is where the contrast suffers. And here white color anyway - he loves many colors, so white looks more beautiful than all other tones on this technology and sometimes even better than on an oleophobic display, since there it becomes a little yellowish. The most interesting thing is that Apple calls one of its colors offered for phones dark gray. It's black though. Just overexposed. Because it cannot be otherwise. But against the background of the same color of the case it is not so noticeable. Mimicry tricks the eyes. We think we see black because the brain matches it with the color of the body. A cunning commercial move.

The first thing that's bad about this technology is that the viewing angles are often not very good. This is again the fault of the backlight. Photographers tend to choose IPS LCDs because they display colors more accurately. After all, photographs are often taken in excellent artificial or natural lighting, hence the predominance of white over black. And when we see black and gray night photos, we can blame the bad flash. Only the flash has nothing to do with it. This is the same “dark gray” black color.

Conclusion

There's no winner when it comes to AMOLED vs IPS LCD, but there are conventions worth considering. Therefore, the quality of the screen primarily comes down to which reference technology the manufacturer uses. It is also worth considering that many color rendering problems - from blurry blacks to white spots - can be removed using digital processing, which is what advanced processors actively do before giving us the final picture. Of course, this affects battery performance. So the company HTC, which relied heavily on digital processing of its advanced cameras with a processor, received severe overheating of the chips. Type IPS display played a cruel joke on the Taiwanese manufacturer.

In any case, both technologies have their drawbacks. So it’s nice to have something new, a third, that will bring the advantages of both technologies together to the delight of a satisfied consumer.