Because not all iPhone displays are created equal, things change.
How often do you consider your iPhone’s screen? You might not give it much thought unless you’re a tech nerd (like me) or have lived with a shattered display (like me in the past). Otherwise, it appears to be in good condition—do you require any additional information? However, you don’t have to be a geek to be concerned about the display on your iPhone. In fact, if you don’t know what kind you have, you might be missing out on some great features.
What is an LCD?
Let’s begin with the fundamentals. In general, there are two types of iPhone displays. The first is LCD (liquid-crystal display), which stands for liquid-crystal display. Let’s look at two of the components that make LCDs work to simplify the explanation (and this is a significant simplification). The first are their pixels, which determine the colors displayed onscreen. Each pixel has three subpixels that change in intensity: one red, one green, and one blue. When you scroll through Instagram, watch a YouTube video, or look at your photos, that combination of colors creates the images you see.
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The backlight is the LCD’s second component. The backlight is a panel that sits behind the pixels and shines light through them so you can see what you’re looking at. When you change the brightness of your display, you’re actually controlling the backlight, which covers the entire display; think of it like a lightbulb—you can’t make one part of it brighter while the other gets dimmer.
What is an OLED iPhone displays?
OLED, which stands for organic light-emitting diode, is the other type of iPhone display. The main difference between LCD and OLED displays is that OLED panels do not have a backlight. Instead, the pixels light up on their own. This has several advantages. For one thing, you can have more finely detailed images because each pixel stands out on its own rather than requiring a backlight that also covers all surrounding pixels. The biggest advantage, and the one you’ll probably hear the most about, is that OLED pixels can turn off on their own, providing incredible contrast between light and dark images.
The benefits of OLED on an iPhone
Here’s an example of why that’s a good thing: Let’s say you’re on your phone watching a movie. Whenever there are dark scenes in that movie, those parts of your display will turn off. A night sky turns completely black; if the movie is widescreen or 4:3, the top and bottom bars, as well as the left and right bars, become completely dark. It produces a very nice image, especially if you’re watching in a dimly lit room.
These are the reasons why I prefer OLED TVs in particular. The image is fantastic, and letterboxing bars vanish when watching in total darkness; you only see the part of the screen that you should (whether it’s super widescreen or the old square format).
When it comes to iPhones, you can easily see the difference between an LCD and an OLED iPhone by filling each display with a black rectangle. The OLED iPhone would appear to be turned off, while the LCD iPhone would appear dark but with a lit display.
The ability of OLED pixels to turn themselves off has major implications for battery life. You can save some battery life on your iPhone simply by using dark mode, specifically dark mode with black backgrounds. (Grey elements won’t turn the pixels off, so you’ll need all-black elements to keep your iPhone’s battery from having to power every single pixel.)
What are the disadvantages of OLED?
Burn-in has traditionally been the main flaw with OLED displays. Unfortunately, you’ll notice this a lot with OLED TVs; after a long period of use, the “shadow” of static images will appear on your screen. People who watch a lot of news, for example, complain that the chyron, news ticker, and outlet logo are always visible on their televisions.
However, Apple has done an excellent job of preventing burn-in on OLED iPhones, and it isn’t a common complaint. The first OLED iPhone, the X, has been on the market since 2017, and residual images haven’t been a problem in that time. To put it another way, if you’re worried about burn-in, you don’t have to go out of your way to get an LCD iPhone.
What kind of display does your iPhone have?
I’ve listed every iPhone Apple has ever made, along with the display type, in the table below. I’d like to know if you’re still using any of these iPhones, as some of them are quite old. There are no new LCD iPhones; the last one Apple released was the 2020 iPhone SE, and before that, the iPhone 11. OLED displays are used throughout the iPhone 12 and 13 lineups.
iPhones with LCD
iPhone (2007), iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone SE (1st Gen), iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone SE (2nd Gen).
iPhone with OLED
iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max.
