I know what you're doing right now.
Staring at a screen on LinkedIn (obviously) 🙄. But… how does your screen actually work?
Digital displays are a fascinating and wonderful world, with a history that could rival the Roman Empire's — even if it can't quite beat it 😏.
To skip straight to the end and give you just the essentials, here's what you need to know for the next time you want to sound smart:
How do LCD screens work?
LCD screens are the type you'll typically find in standard computer monitors.
They're made up of several components:
**LED strip** – Even though the entire screen lights up in front of your eyes, the part that actually emits light is a thin LED strip at the bottom of the display. The back of the screen is made of glass, and when the LED strip at the bottom is on, it scatters light through that glass layer. The higher the screen's quality, the more evenly the light is distributed across the back panel.
The LED's color is pure white.
**Glass layer** – This forms the back of the screen, and its role is to distribute the light evenly across the entire display.
**Crystal layer** – The crystal layer sits between two polarizers. One polarizer filters light lengthwise, and the other filters it widthwise. This means light cannot pass through, and the screen remains dark. The crystals can be charged with a variable electrical current, which allows light to pass between the polarizers.
**Color filter** – Light that has passed through the crystal layer is still white. The color filter's job is to break that white light into different colors. On top of the color filter sits an additional glass layer.
There are many different types of LCD screens. What they all share is this underlying technological structure, though there are numerous subtypes at varying quality levels.
What are OLED screens?
OLED screens greatly simplify the process, because instead of an LED strip at the bottom of the display, the pixels themselves emit light.
This means better light distribution, higher brightness, better colors, lower power consumption, and a significantly thinner form factor.
This combination of factors is what has made OLED screens so popular in smartphones. As prices fall and the technology advances, OLED screens are steadily capturing market share in laptop and even desktop monitors — and will likely replace LCD screens almost entirely in the future.
OLED screens also come in a variety of types and technologies, but we'll save that for another time.
**One final word:**
Screens marketed as "QLED," "AMOLED," "Mini LED," and the like are, at the end of the day, LCD screens. The next time you're buying a TV or another electronic device and the salesperson tells you it's "the same thing as OLED," feel free to tell them they don't know what they're talking about. 🙂
Here at White Tiger, we definitely know what we're talking about — and every customer who buys a laptop with an OLED display is especially happy with it.
Worth trying; you won't regret it.
*Image source: Wikipedia*