Twelve Key Differences between LCD Screen and LED Screen

1. Work

Liquid crystal display:

As the name suggests, the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel uses a liquid crystal to turn pixels on and off to display specific colors.

Liquid crystal is similar to a combination of liquid and solid, where current can be used to change its form to trigger a specific response. These liquid crystals can be compared to louvers.

When the blinds are open, light can easily enter the room. In LCD, as long as the crystals are placed in a specific way, they no longer allow light to pass through. The back of the LCD panel is responsible for allowing light to pass through the screen.

The display screen located in front of the lamp is composed of red, green, or blue (RGB) pixels. LCD is crucial for electrically activating or disabling filters to display or hide specific colors in pixels.

This means that the LCD panel works by blocking light from the back of the screen, rather than the CRT screen, which generates its own light. Compared to cathode ray tube (CRT) models, this makes LCD displays and televisions use much less energy. In 2007, LCD TVs surpassed CRT TVs in global revenue for the first time.

Flat panel video display:

LED is a semiconductor device that converts electrical energy into light energy using the laws of quantum physics. When electrons migrate from high-energy states to low-energy states, they produce photons containing energy. The term for this phenomenon is electroluminescence.

The LED screen is composed of a highly deformed thin layer of semiconductor material (i.e., impurities are inserted to regulate the process). Gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, gallium arsenide phosphide, and gallium indium nitride can be used as semiconductors for LEDs.

In LED, the diode is forward, allowing current to flow in the forward direction. This allows electrons in the conduction band of semiconductors to recombine with holes in the valence band (or the farthest electron orbital within an atom).

Therefore, whenever the recombination of holes and electrons releases a large amount of energy in the form of heat and light, this energy is used to generate photons. Then photons produce monochromatic or monochromatic light.

Due to the thin semiconductor layer of LED screens, photons can easily escape nodes and radiate outward, resulting in vivid color displays.

2. Backlight

Liquid crystal display:

LCD uses fluorescent lighting to display images on the screen by illuminating crystal solutions, which block or allow light to pass through to create images.

They need a light source because they themselves do not emit light. Traditionally, cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) provides light source for LCD, but it has been replaced by other light sources such as LED or electroluminescent panel (ELP).

Flat panel video display:

Backlight is a form of lighting used in LEDs and LCDs to illuminate screen displays. Display devices such as monitors or televisions can provide low-quality or dim images without backlighting.

Unlike LCD, LED displays generate their own light. They use light-emitting diodes as light sources to illuminate the crystal solution from behind and create images on the screen.

3. Types and positioning of lighting

Liquid crystal display:

LCD requires a light source to illuminate the crystal to create images on the screen, as they do not generate light like other displays such as plasma or cathode ray tube displays. The light source can be located at the back or edge of the screen, depending on the type of screen.

Importantly, LCDs typically have a light source placed behind the screen.

Flat panel video display:

Unlike LCDs, devices may emit light from the back or the edges of LED displays.

The straight down LED display screen emits light from the back. This type of lighting eliminates the need for separate backlighting, making the display more energy-efficient. When the light source is located at the edge of the screen, it is called a side lit LED display screen.

In this type, light can be directed towards the center of the display by using a light guide plate to ensure uniform distribution of light.

4. Image quality from different perspectives

Liquid crystal display:

Visual angle refers to the maximum angle at which consumers can view a display with acceptable visual performance. Outside of this angle, the image displayed on the monitor has poor contrast, brightness, or blurriness.

LED and LCD manufacturers face the challenge of reducing the rate of change in hue and saturation while maintaining the RGB percentage of specific images, regardless of the angular position relative to the center of the screen.

Generally speaking, LED displays have a wider viewing angle than LCDs, reaching up to 178 degrees, allowing consumers to see images clearly from different angles.

Flat panel video display:

The viewing angle supported by LED is smaller than that of LCD, which can affect image quality under certain conditions. The viewing angle of the LED is 120-160 degrees.

It is important to note that when viewed from a regular vertical angle, the image quality of LED displays may not be as good as that of LCDs.

5. Application in TV walls

Liquid crystal display:

Video walls are also known as display walls. Modern video walls use splicing LCD panels, direct LED splicing, or rear projection tubes to minimize the space between different displays.

The video wall with multiple spliced LCD panels has a narrow viewing angle and provides high resolution with bright colors. However, they are not as bright as displays made of LED displays, making them suitable for control rooms.

Flat panel video display:

The video wall made of multiple direct LED splicing blocks has a wide viewing angle and provides high-resolution images with accurate colors. These bright video walls are suitable for outdoor spaces such as stadiums, concert halls, and shopping centers.

The borders of LCD splicing blocks can cause gaps and visual obstacles, while LED splicing blocks have excellent uniformity and borderless appearance, making LED a popular choice for splicing display systems.

6. Game applications

Liquid crystal display:

Consider a display with low response time, high refresh rate, in plane switching (IPS) panel technology, and high dynamic video (HDR) functionality - it will be the ideal display for games. LCD cannot lag behind LED in this regard, but it is also cheaper.

Although LED and LCD displays can provide gaming players with an immersive gaming experience, there are differences in their performance.

Game players should strive to achieve value for money by striking an appropriate balance between performance and price.

Flat panel video display:

LED displays have higher refresh rates, enabling better performance in graphics intensive games and minimizing latency and ghosting issues. They have IPS panels that can more accurately display colors, wider color gamut, and dimming functions.

LED displays with high resolution display resolution (HDR) technology are an advantage because they can produce game images of amazing quality. Their average response time is also shorter, allowing for more noticeable movement.

Finally, people should consider purchasing LED displays to achieve the best gaming experience, as they score higher than LCD displays on these basic parameters.

7. Image quality

Liquid crystal display:

Factors such as resolution, color accuracy, brightness, contrast, and viewing angle can affect the image quality of LEDs and LCDs.

It is important to note that LCD displays can produce high-quality images, but they are not as good as LED displays. However, when viewed from a vertical angle, their image quality decreases, which is a parameter that LCD outperforms LED.

Flat panel video display:

LED displays produce higher quality images because they outperform LCD in most parameters except for viewing angle.

For example, in terms of color accuracy, full color LED displays have a wider color gamut, ensuring less color distortion and producing realistic images. They also display images with higher brightness and contrast.

LED displays also have higher refresh and rendering rates, which can produce clearer images.

8. Differences in energy efficiency

Liquid crystal display:

The power consumption of LED and LCD varies depending on the resolution, screen size, manufacturing quality, screen brightness, and energy-saving settings of the monitor. Older LCD models that use cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) backlight consume more energy than modern LCD models that use LED backlight LCDs.

A monitor with a larger screen and higher resolution will consume more power. In addition, the display of a large amount of motion animation consumes more energy than static images. Similarly, the higher the screen brightness setting, the more power it consumes.

Flat panel video display:

When all factors (including consumer usage) remain unchanged, LED displays are more energy-efficient than LCD displays because they use less power to generate the same amount of light.

In addition, consumers can activate the power saving mode to save more energy.

9. Environmentally friendly

Liquid crystal display:

Environmental friendliness refers to the impact of LCD and LED display screens on the environment during production, use, and disposal. LEDs and LCDs can have a significant impact on the environment, especially considering their manufacturing methods and the way consumers handle them after use.

Compared to older models using cathode ray tubes (CRTs), LCDs are more environmentally friendly because they consume less power, have a longer lifespan, and reduce waste.

However, LCD contains trace amounts of mercury, which is harmful to the environment and can cause pollution after treatment.

Flat panel video display:

Among these two options, LED displays can be considered a more environmentally friendly option as they are lighter in weight and therefore consume less fuel during transportation.

They also consume less power and have a longer working life. LCD contains trace amounts of mercury, which is harmful to the environment and can cause pollution after treatment.

10. Shelf life

Liquid crystal display:

When considering which type of monitor to purchase, especially a TV monitor or workstation monitor, the key is to consider its lifespan.

LCD and LED displays typically have a relatively long lifespan as they do not have easily worn moving parts such as hard drives. The average shelf life of LCD is 50000 hours.

Flat panel video display:

The maximum expected working life of LEDs can reach 100000 hours. Exposing LED displays to high temperatures and humidity may shorten their lifespan. This is because the performance of the diode decreases faster when exposed to high temperatures.

The type of content you consume can also affect the lifespan of the monitor. For example, engaging in heavy graphic tasks such as computer-aided design (CAD) can result in significant color changes over a long period of time, which can affect the lifespan of diodes and shorten their lifespan.

11. Price points and affordability

Liquid crystal display:

LCD displays are definitely more affordable than LED displays. This is because they have entered the market for a longer time and have lower production costs.

The prices of LCD and LED displays will also increase with the increase of screen size and resolution. Different models and manufacturers of monitors also have different prices.

Flat panel video display:

LED displays are expensive because they use cutting-edge technologies such as IPS panels and side lit backlighting, and have low energy consumption. In addition, the expected use of LED displays will drive up prices.

For example, game LED displays are more expensive than typical workstation displays used by web developers because they are built and optimized to handle even the most dense graphics, providing gaming players with an immersive experience with ultra realistic images.

12. Differences in size and shape

Liquid crystal display:

Manufacturers use standard shapes and sizes to manufacture LCDs, which limits consumers' choices. Therefore, unlike LED, LCD has no application in fields such as digital signage.

In addition, LCD displays using CCFL backlight lighting occupy more space than LED displays using backlight technology, resulting in thicker displays.

Flat panel video display:

Consumers have various shapes of LED display screens to choose from to meet their needs. They can purchase creative LEDs, such as spherical LED displays, curved LED displays, flexible LED displays, or foldable LED displays.

In addition, side lit LED displays are thinner than backlit LED displays.

Despite significant advancements in display technology (such as the rise of organic LEDs or OLEDs), LCD and LED are still the main products of computational displays. LEDs are more commonly used in televisions and signage, while LCD screens are the main components of conventional workstations and desktops. However, even LED displays are now reasonably priced, making it more difficult for IT managers to choose. By understanding the differences between LED and LCD technologies, you can make the right decisions based on your own needs.