Different Types of Mobile Display Screens

While most people are ignorant about the type of display used in their phones, there are some geeks who would want to know each and every detail about the display used in their phone. This piece is for that small percentage of people.

AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode): This technology came in 2012 and gained its popularity quickly. Most of the high end phones use this technology as it consumes less power and is thin and light as compared to other displays. Quality wise, the color reproduction is very good and they perform well even under sunlight. It has the best viewing angle out of all the displays since the pixel itself glows and doesn’t need any backlight to make the display brighter.

An advanced version of AMOLED called the super AMOLED was developed by Samsung. The main intension of this was to have the touch sensors in the screen itself instead of having an additional layer on the display. This makes the screen thinner and hence reduces the overall thickness of the phone. Also the response of the screen is greatly increased.

 

TFT (Thin Film Transistor):  This is the most common LCD technology used in the screens. Compared to older generation screens, it offers high resolution and better image quality. On the other side they are heavy on power and lack wider viewing angles. They are found in low end smart phones since they are cheaper to manufacture.

IPS (In-Place Switching): This is an improved version of LCD which eliminates the disadvantages of TFT screens. They are less power hungry and hence are battery friendly. They also have improved viewing angle and are of much higher density. These displays are used in higher end phones and you will find that most of the iphones use this display technology. Apple has also named it as retina display because the individual pixels cannot be distinguished by naked eyes.

Below is a comparison video of all these technologies.

Golf simulator (curved screen vs flat screen)

Projector screens play an important role in golf simulators. After all it is where you see all the gaming action and could impact the game playing experience. There are various screen options available with simulators such as flat screen with either 4:3 ratio or 16:19 or curved screen some simulators also provide 3 screen options formed by placing 3 screens in a curved manner so that it surrounds the player. Please note that just having a particular screen will not work unless your simulator supports those formats. Hence check the specifications before going for any particular screen.

A curved screen provides a wider view and hence you can view more of the picture without moving your head much. This creates an immersive environment which adds to the realism of the courses when it surrounds you. If you are using a single projector then the image might be distorted at the edges. Bogolf provides a feature in their simulator which allows you to adjust the image according to the curved screen to eliminate any distortion. More about it can be found here. These screens do have some disadvantages when used for other purposes. The problem is the viewing angle; people watching from sides do not get the perfect picture due to less viewing angle. Since only one person is active while playing golf the viewing angle won’t be a problem at all.

Ultimately the choice is personal. Some prefer flat while some prefer round. So choose whichever is more comfortable and enjoyable to you.

What is a retina display

If you have ever been an apple fan boy, you might be familiar with retina display. Retina is not any technical name; it has just been named by apple as they claim to have the best pixel density i.e. maximum pixels per inch. In other words your eyes won’t be able to distinguish individual pixels giving you a better viewing experience. There is no defined ppi to qualify as a retina display as smaller devices such as iphones, ipod are held close to the eyes and hence a higher ppi can easily be comparable to an ipad with larger screen but less ppi since people usually hold tables at a longer distance from their eyes. The ppi of iphone is ipad is 326 and 264 respectively.

Most people using these phones are clueless about the technology and just have a mindset that a retina display is better without actually knowing what it is. There are many screens which are more than 400 ppi and are much sharper than the retina but still many people want the retina tag to be there which obviously is a trademark of apple and would only be found on I devices. What people need to understand is that, the ppi is the thing which defines retina. I recently came across a review of N5 where the reviewer switched from ios to android and mentioned the pros and cons of the newly acquired device. I really felt strange when he mentioned that he misses retina display. I mean the N5 has 441 ppi as compared to 326 but still people brag about retina. Is it the lack of knowledge or the love of isheeps?

Here is something I want all my reader to know. Anything above 400 ppi for a phone is an overkill. I have used smart phones from 200 ppi to 441 and trust me the difference from 200 to 300 is great but when you start to go above that you won’t even notice anything because human eyes cannot differentiate anything above 300 ppi. Recently there have been news about 2K display on smart phones which definitely is not needed. Instead companies should focus on other aspects such as features instead of just promoting their hardware to sell the phones.

I hope I have made fe things clear about the display when it comes to the pixel density. If you have any more questions about the display do not be afraid to ask in the below comment box.