2025-08-04
If you pay attention to smartphones, TVs, or other electronic devices, you've probably heard the term "AMOLED" quite often. But what exactly is it? What are its advantages and disadvantages? And what are the differences between different types of AMOLED? This article will answer all these questions for you.
AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) is an advanced display technology where each pixel can emit light independently, giving it many unique advantages.
One of the biggest highlights of AMOLED is its ultra-high contrast ratio. Because its pixels can be completely turned off, when displaying black, the relevant pixels emit no light at all, making the black color more pure and deep, with a theoretically infinite contrast ratio. In contrast, traditional LCD screens have a backlight layer, so the black parts are actually the result of the backlight being blocked, which always allows some light to pass through, resulting in a contrast ratio usually around 1000:1.
In terms of color, AMOLED supports a wider color gamut, easily covering standards such as DCI-P3 and BT.2020. This means it can display richer, more saturated colors, whether it's the highlight metallic reflections in HDR content or the gorgeous gradients of a sunset, all can be presented realistically.
AMOLED screens don't require a backlight layer and liquid crystal layer like LCDs, so they can be made very thin, usually only 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness of LCDs. For example, smartphone screens using AMOLED can be less than 0.5mm thick, which is very important for devices pursuing thinness and lightness.
What's more exciting is that AMOLED can use flexible materials as substrates, such as polyimide (PI), allowing the screen to be bent, folded, or even rolled up. The curved-screen phones and foldable phones we see now (such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series) are manifestations of AMOLED's flexible potential, and more novel product forms will emerge in the future.
When playing games or watching high-speed moving videos, the response speed of the screen is crucial. The light-emitting and extinguishing response time of AMOLED pixels is only 0.1 to 1ms, while LCDs usually require 5 to 10ms. This means that AMOLED has very little motion blur when displaying dynamic images, providing a smoother visual experience, especially suitable for high-refresh-rate scenarios like 120Hz.
The advantage of AMOLED becomes apparent when using dark mode. Because black pixels are completely turned off, unlike LCDs where the backlight still emits light, it can save 30% to 50% of power. For example, when using a phone at night or reading e-books, AMOLED is more energy-efficient.
Although AMOLED has many advantages, it is not perfect. Limited by the physical properties of organic light-emitting materials and process levels, it has some drawbacks.
The organic materials used in AMOLED, especially blue light materials, are prone to aging. Generally speaking, its lifespan is about 30,000 to 50,000 hours, while LCD screens can reach more than 100,000 hours.
What's more troublesome is the problem of "burn-in". If static images are displayed for a long time, such as the phone's navigation bar or app logos, it will cause uneven aging rates of pixels in the corresponding areas, resulting in permanent afterimages. Manufacturers now use methods such as pixel shifting and automatic brightness adjustment to alleviate this, but it cannot be completely avoided.
Early AMOLED screens had relatively low peak brightness, usually below 500 nits, which made them prone to glare in strong light, making it difficult to see the screen content clearly. Although some flagship models now have improved peak brightness to 2000 to 3000 nits through technical improvements, such as using high-frequency PWM dimming and enhanced light-emitting layers (such as Samsung's E7 material screen), at high brightness, not only does power consumption increase significantly, but it also accelerates screen aging.
When displaying a full white screen, AMOLED requires the red, green, and blue sub-pixels to emit light simultaneously, so its power consumption is 20% to 40% higher than that of LCDs. LCD screens only have the backlight emitting light, which is more energy-efficient when displaying white, leading to poor battery life performance in some devices using AMOLED, such as early AMOLED tablets.
The production process of AMOLED is relatively complex. The yield rate of high-precision backplanes (such as LTPS) and evaporation processes (to align RGB sub-pixels) is relatively low, usually between 60% and 70%, while the yield rate of LCD can reach more than 80%. This makes the cost of AMOLED 30% to 50% higher than that of LCD of the same size, especially for large-sized panels, the cost difference is more obvious.
Early AMOLEDs had aggressive color calibration in pursuit of high saturation, which easily led to color deviation, such as greenish or reddish tones. Although many products now have color accuracy reaching Delta E < 1 through technical adjustments, some low-cost products may still have color accuracy problems.
AMOLED technology is constantly developing, mainly around three core aspects: materials, driving, and form. Different technical directions have different characteristics and are suitable for different scenarios.
The pixel size of this technology is less than 10μm, while that of traditional AMOLED is 50 to 100μm, so its resolution can exceed 3000PPI. The power consumption is 60% lower than that of ordinary AMOLED, with no screen-door effect, suitable for near-eye display devices. However, the production yield rate is low, less than 30%, and the cost is extremely high, with a 1-inch panel exceeding 1,000 yuan. It is mainly used in VR/AR devices, such as Apple Vision Pro.
With its unique characteristics such as self-illumination and flexibility, AMOLED has become the mainstream choice in the high-end display field. Although it still has some problems in terms of lifespan and cost, these issues are gradually being solved with the continuous progress of technology. Different AMOLED technical directions have their own advantages and disadvantages and play important roles in their respective suitable fields. In the future, with the maturity of technologies such as phosphorescent materials and Micro OLED, the application range of AMOLED will be further expanded. At the same time, its competition with LCD (such as Mini LED backlit LCD) will also promote the continuous upgrading of the entire display technology, bringing us a better visual experience.
