OLED vs LED

“OLED,” or Organic Light Emitting Diode, is a special type of LED that uses organic compounds for the emissive electroluminescent layer. The main difference between them, and the reason why OLED has seen widespread use in displays, is that OLEDs can be made much smaller than typical LEDs. This is achieved through different manufacturing techniques. Typical LEDs are too big and cannot achieve decent resolution in devices like smartphones, laptops, and even small TVs.

The major disadvantage that OLED currently has is its relatively short life span. While LEDs and other display technologies have rated lifespans of anywhere between 25,000 to 40,000 hours before its brightness is reduced to half the original level, OLEDs typically reach that state in about 14,000 hours; translating to anywhere between 4-8 years’ typical use. Because of this, OLED displays are initially seeing widespread acceptance in mobile phones where, despite the device being on 24 hours, the screen is turned off most of the time. Phones are also typically replaced within a couple of years long before the rated lifespan of the screen is reached.

The production of OLEDs has been aimed mainly at one specific purpose, the creation of displays. In contrast, LEDs have a wide variety of lighting purposes. LEDs are used in indicator lights, seven segment displays, mood lighting, backlighting for LCDs, and many more items. LEDs are even used to create extremely big displays like those used in ballparks and stadiums. The sheer distance from the viewer makes the size of the LED relatively small, and the eye sees the image rather than the individual pixels. Still, OLEDs still excel when talking about displays 40 inches or less. Bigger OLED displays are possible, but the production process has some catching up to do before we see OLED matching up to current LCD technology in terms of size.

One major downside of OLED is its much higher cost of production. OLEDs cost significantly more than LEDs and even LCDs. This is not that much of an issue with mobile phones as the display is very small. But with TVs, where the majority of the cost stems from the display itself, using OLEDs can be a very pricey proposition.

Summary:

1.OLED can be made much smaller than LED.
2.LED has a much longer lifespan than OLED.
3.LED has many more applications than OLED.
4.LED is used for very big displays while OLED is used for small ones.
5.LED is cheaper than OLED.

Sharing is caring!