I believe many people cannot avoid certain parameters when purchasing LCD screens, such as size, screen ratio, color gamut, refresh rate, brightness, etc. One important parameter is the type of LCD panel, with three common types being IPS, VA, and TN. Different display technologies will have different impacts on image quality, and each panel technology has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the overall usage scenario and personal preferences. Below, the editor will provide a detailed introduction to the advantages and disadvantages of these three common panel types.
IPS panel
IPS (In Plane Switching) is currently the most mainstream panel type. Adopting horizontal conversion technology and designing each crystal unit in a "V-shape" to enhance the viewing angle, making the LCD screen's reaction speed faster and more stable, and processing continuous images. Both laptops, monitors, and even some mobile phone screens are equipped with hard screens.
Advantages:
1. Fast response speed. IPS horizontal conversion technology accelerates the deflection speed of liquid crystal molecules, which can excellently display dynamic high-definition images without residual or trailing images, making the image motion trajectory more delicate and clear, suitable for reproducing moving images.
2. Large viewing angle. The viewing angle of the IPS screen can reach 178 °, and whether viewed from the front or side, the displayed image is almost the same.
3. Realistic colors. Thanks to the IPS screen structure, it can make the color presentation more vivid, saturated, and natural.
4. Touch without water marks. Due to the unique arrangement of horizontal molecular particles in IPS, it can be touched without water marks, shadows, and flashes, making it very stable and suitable for use on TV and public display devices with touch function.
5. Energy conservation and environmental protection. IPS screen technology is becoming increasingly mature, with further reduction in power consumption and greater energy conservation and environmental protection. By changing the arrangement of liquid crystal molecules and reducing the thickness of the liquid crystal layer, it can make the display panel thinner and more energy-efficient.
Disadvantages:
1. Leakage of light. Due to the fact that IPS screens require an independent backlight layer to provide a light source to present the image, and adopt a horizontal arrangement of liquid crystal molecules, which increases the viewing angle while reducing the penetration of light, it is easy for large areas of edge light leakage to occur when displaying darker content.
2. The cost is relatively high. Due to the higher manufacturing cost of IPS screens compared to other panel types, the market price will also be higher than other panel types.
3. Not suitable for curved screen design. Due to the hard screen design of IPS panels, they are not suitable for curved screens with larger curvatures. Most curved screens on the market are VA panels, but there are also IPS curved screens available now, which are more expensive.
VA panel
VA (Vertical Alignment) panel, using a vertically arranged crystal array. By default, the crystals are arranged vertically. When the electrodes are charged, they will tilt and then become horizontal, allowing light to pass through. This vertical design can more effectively block light, presenting a "black to reflective" effect and providing better contrast. It is a panel type that is widely used in high-end LCD applications, belonging to the wide viewing angle panel.
Advantages:
1. The viewing angle is relatively large. The VA panel has a larger viewing angle (slightly inferior to the IPS panel), and both front and side views can present clear and distinct images.
2. High contrast. The VA panel can achieve a high contrast of 3000:1, and when displaying black and white colors in the picture, it will be more pure without obvious light leakage.
3. Can be made into a curved screen. As mentioned earlier, the VA panel adopts a vertical arrangement of liquid crystal molecular particles, also known as a "soft screen". The advantage of this is that it can be made into a large curvature curved screen, which is more convenient in some usage scenarios.
4. Low cost. Compared to IPS panels of the same size, VA panels have lower costs and lower prices.
Disadvantages:
1. Slow response time. The response time of VA screens is a defect, but in recent years, the situation has improved, greatly improving the issue of response speed.
2. Moving at high speed has dragging shadows. In dynamic graphics, the color connection is not very good, and high-speed graphics are more prone to dragging shadows.
3. The color performance is average. The uniformity of the screen is not good enough, and color drift often occurs, compared to the average color performance presented by IPS screens.
TN panel
TN (Twisted Neural) belongs to relatively old panels, which are composed of liquid crystals sandwiched between two polarization filters in a twisted arrangement. After being electrified, the position of the two end crystals changes and blocks the light. The characteristic of TN is that it is powered on to block light, while it is in a transparent state when not powered on. Due to its low production cost, TN has become the most widely used entry-level LCD panel and is widely used in mainstream mid to low-end LCD displays on the market.
Advantages:
1. The fastest response speed. Due to the small number of output gray levels and the fast deflection speed of liquid crystal molecules, among these three common screen panels, the response speed is the fastest, and they are mostly used in some professional gaming events.
2. High speed movement is less prone to dragging shadows. As mentioned earlier, TN screens generally have a fast response time of around 1ms, so there will be no dragging phenomenon when moving the screen at high speeds.
3. Low cost. TN screens have low production costs and are widely used in mainstream mid to low-end LCD displays on the market.
Disadvantages:
1. Low visibility angle. The most serious drawback of TN screens is their narrow viewing angle and low viewing angle, as their liquid crystal molecules have a vertical direction. Therefore, when there is light shining on the screen, the light is perpendicular to the screen, and the human eye needs to face the screen to have a better viewing effect.
2. The color of the screen turns white. Compared to the IPS screen, the TN screen has a pale and less vibrant color, giving it a feeling of grayness.
3. The transition between black and white is unnatural. As mentioned earlier, the TN screen (6bit) has a smaller output gray level and can only display 262000 colors (64 * 64 * 64), while the IPS screen can display 16.77 million colors (256 * 256 * 256). Therefore, during the transition from black to white, the transition effect is less natural compared to the IPS screen.
Comparison of three types of screens:
Color and color accuracy: IPS>VA>TN
Response time: TN>IPS>VA
Visual angle: IPS>VA>TN
Contrast: VA>IPS>TN
Price: IPS>VA>TN
Overall, if you have high requirements for screen color or simply want a better entertainment experience (watching movies or playing non competitive games), it is recommended that you choose an IPS panel display screen.
If you are a player playing competitive games or have high requirements for high frame rate graphics, it is recommended that you choose the TN panel display screen because it has a faster response and can immediately reflect your actions.
If you have high requirements for visual hierarchy, want higher brightness, can better distinguish colors, or want a 3D and technological sense, it is recommended that you choose a VA panel display screen.