LCD or LED screen? What’s the big deal anyway?

Which monitor? If you’re in the market hunting for a laptop or a new TV, sometimes you would see specs saying that the screens have LED-backlit display. Some only have LCD display but comes at a cheaper cost so it got me thinking, how big is the difference to get LED over LCD?

First of all, both types of display are LCD’s. The difference is where the source of illumination comes from. For LCD, the source is from cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL’s). For LED, the source comes from well… light-emitting diodes (LED’s).

So why are screen manufacturers moving to LED’s?

  • One reason is that LCD’s with CCFL as their source tend to wear out and become duller over time. Much quicker than LED’s though.
  • LED-backlit displays gives brighter and better color output (especially dark colors) than CCFL’s.
  • Improved battery life. It is said that when the Macbook Pro switched to LED-backlit display, it’s battery life improved from 30 minutes to 1 hours on a single charge.

Well those are good reasons to move into LED’s. Just like when the incandescent bulbs were phased out in favor of CFL’s.

So if you’re buying an LCD monitor or LCD TV or a laptop, look for those powered by LED’s. Typically newer models already have them.


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