Better Quality Display for Smartwatches
Smartwatches have redefined the way we perceive time. These are wonderful gadgets that can do more than just tell the time. Smartwatches come with many stunning features and capabilities. You can track your fitness level, your health, and your sleeping habits with a smartwatch. You can even take care of all of your text and voice messages, phone calls, and emails effortlessly with a smartwatch.
Smartwatches are designed with cutting-edge technologies and features. Among all the features, the display of the smartwatch is of prime importance. People in general look for smartwatches that come with a high-quality display like smartphones. However, this is an expectation full of challenges.
Better Quality Displays for Smartwatches
Smartwatches come with different screen types such as AMOLED, LCD, E-Ink, Transflective LCD, and many others. The overall user experience of a smartwatch is solely dependent on the display, as it is the main interaction gateway of the smartwatch. The manufacturer chooses the ideal display for a particular smartwatch based on the target customer base and the budget.
AMOLED Display for Smartwatches
AMOLED or active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display is made with a slight layer of organic polymers that light up when charged with current. AMOLED is thinner and more flexible comparatively and doesn’t require an extra backlight.
AMOLED displays offer rich and bright colors, high contrast ratio, and wide viewing angles on a smartwatch. The elasticity and power efficiency of the display keeps the smartwatch always on. This flexibility also allows beautiful and stylish curved screens.
The only disadvantage of this display is that the organic materials degrade with time causing decreased brightness, even image burn-ins.
All high-end smartwatches in the industry come with an AMOLED display.
LCD in Smartwatches
Liquid Crystal Display is one of the most commonly used smartwatches. It works with an array of liquid crystals driven by a backlight to project elements on the screen. Being cheaper than most of the displays, it is used on most budget smartwatches.
The LCDs come with a discrete backlight making them bright enough to be seen clearly in the direct sunlight. However, in terms of color contrast and saturation, LCD is not as good as AMOLED. Apart from this, LCDs consume more battery compared to other displays. This is the reason why smartwatches with LCD screens don’t have the always-on mode. The most advanced and popular type of liquid crystal display is IPS or in-plane switching.
TFT LCD for Smartwatches
Thin Film Transistor is the full form of TFT. This type of LCD is generally used in entry-level smartwatches. These screens save more energy by holding back some pixels while other pixels are in use. Low manufacturing cost increasing the affordability of the end product is the main beneficial element of TFT display.
Transflective LCD on Smartwatch
Transflective LCD uses both transmissive and reflective panels. A backlight is used in the transmissive panel. The reflective panel is used to pass through the light on the screen. When in contact with the sunlight, the display reflects the same amount of light on the display. Another amazing fact about this type of display is that it automatically adjusts the brightness on the screen—the brighter the sunlight, the brighter will be the display.
This display type is a wonderful choice for the outdoors. It supports always-on mode and is energy efficient when used without the backlight.
This display is primarily used on smartwatches designed specifically for outdoor activities.
Summing Up
As mentioned above, each type of display comes with different advantages and disadvantages, has different use cases. AMOLED is the best choice if you want the most classic display with vivid colors and deep blacks. If you go for the expensive ones, you must give preference to the OLED screens. You may choose to get a smartwatch with an LCD if you prefer a budget smartwatch. If you are an outdoor adventurer, Transflective LCDs would be a good choice.