LED LCD Vs. Plain LCD

What are the differences? I know that LED LCD prevents light leakage, illuminates the whole screen more evenly, and has a lower power consumption rate, but are there any disadvantages to one (longer response time, etc.) This is with the purpose of gaming in mind, so that you have some context. I have to pick between either a T9300 w/ LCD or a T8300 w/ LED LCD due to price constraints, and I know that the performance increase between the two processors is minimal, so I was thinking 8300. However, this hinges on whether or not having an LED screen is disadvantageous to gaming.

Thanks for the help.

 

LED is only the backlight. Has nothing to do with response time.

 

Ah, well now I feel like an idiot =P. Thanks for clearing that up though, my worries are abated.

 

to answer your question, the only real disadvantage is that the long term performance of consumer LED backlights can't be verified yet.

however, they are supposed to last longer and retain their brightness very well over time compared to the previous backlight tech.

go for the LED + 8300.

 

yeah. led's are usually rated for 50,000 or 100,000 hours. and i've never heard of one diminishing as it gets older. afaik, led's don't have any real disadvantages now except price, and in my personal opinion, please buy it now because it's an established technology that is unjustified higher price and you'll be lowering the price for me for my next laptop.

 

Their is one disadvantage other than price, heat.
Everyone says led's run cooler, well they do, but an led backlight is different than a compact flourescent backlight. The cfl backlights are usually located at the top or bottom, or top and bottom of the screen. This means that only the top and bottom of the screen get warm. An led backlight has hundreds of small surface mount led's, which line the back of the screen. This means that the screen is evenly heated, and thus will actually feel warmer.

K-TRON

 

Alright guy's if I am wrong let me have it! Here goes, there is no such thing as LED/LCD. Some Idiot at DeLL posted it that way so now we have all these questions! They are different technologies. LCD's are back lit LED's are not. pukeman they fade, that is exactly how they fail vs sudden catastrophic failure which is contrary to what you said. Lithus they are not back lights at least in the traditional sense. They are pixels. There is some concern about eye damage from blue/white light emitted. Let me have it fellows.

Edit: I regret this post already!

 

Umm, LEDs and LCDs definitely exist, but are two separate things.

The "old" LCDs had CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamps) which is a strip located that the bottom of the monitor that illuminates the screen.

The new LCDs are lit by LEDs which are little lights scattered all over the screen.

All LCDs need to be backlit since they don't produce light by themselves. An LCD switches little gates which are the individual pixels, and turn the white backlight into the rest of the colors in the spectrum.

 

led and lcd are two different things. led is light emitting diode which is the new technology to backlight a lcd aka liquid crystal display.

 

Really? Don't LEDs radiate like 10x less heat than a CCFLs (hence the lower power consumption)? Also, the back of my MBP is always very cool. Since aluminum acts like a heatsink, if these LED's were radiating any noticeable heat, I should be able to feel it.

 

OK I am going to crawl back in the thread, OK? I thought the ambient temperature was the issue. But I did also read heat sinks are important for LED's.

 

A normal ccfl based screen will get hot on the top and bottom, but an led backlit screen will be equally warm all around. The screen will not be as hot, because of the increased led efficiency, but the lcd panel will get a little warmer in the center of the screen in comprison to a ccfl screen, cause there are led's behind it.
If you use your palm and touch you led backlit screen, and touch a ccfl based screen, you would feel that on the ccfl based screen, the top and bottom are warm, and the center and sides are cool, whereas in the led screen, the whole screen would be slightly cooler than warm.

I hope this makes sense, its kinda hard to explain.

K-TRON

 

LEDs are very cool. You can run one for years and it'll still easily be touchable.

No one should be worried about heat production of either LEDs or CCFLs. Neither is ever going to be the cause of your laptop overheating.

 

temperature might be an issue if it heats the screen too much. might have to get notebook led screen coolers. i also don't understand why peeps think led's don't output heat. all the led flashlights i've had got warm to the touch. and using lithium batteries with led flashlights are almost dangerous. i gave her my flashlight with lithium batteries in it one time when lights went out, and it was literally too hot to hold.

 

so is it the led itself or the circuitry putting out the heat? if anybody knows?

 

The type of batteries you use shouldn't change the temperature of the light at all. Only way to create that type of heat is if something is short circuiting.

 

it changed it. flashlight still works fine and still gets hot as hell when i use lithium batteries. which i just thought of something. laptops use lithium-ion batteries. hmmmm...

 

The type of battery will not change the heat output of a circuit. You have ~5 volts going through the circuit - that doesn't change based on what is providing the potential.

 

If you cross (complete with resistance) a circuit it will. So I suspect the flashlight is defective! I will now go crawl away.

 

i agree with you because that is fact. but the fact is i have still have this flashlight that could potentially be handy in a deerstand @ 4 in the morning when it's 20 degrees using lithium batteries.

 

LED backlight is supposed to use less energy and have even baclight potential, if you have an option to get LED for about the same price as an older CCFL you should.

Good CCFL screens look fine to me with no backlight "bleed" but there are cheaper screens out there that very clearly have a brighter top/bottom or center depending on where the light is placed and this is one of the things LED should never have a problem with.

Heat in a screen is something I have never seen really mentioned before. I honestly cant say I know how hot each one runs and the difference. I also dont think it will make a difference.

 

yeah crossing a circuit will. resistance/resistor could lower the heat potential if its impeding the flow but circuit still working. but this flashlight still works fine, no moving parts except the switch, whcih works fine still. i'm still puzzled why it gets hotter than usual with different batteries.

 

My impression, from examination of my Sony G11's display, is that the LEDs are just along the bottom edge at intervals of about 1/2" since there is slightly uneven lighting for the bottom 1/4" of the screen.

This arrangement makes sense to me: About 20 x 0.1W LEDs would give 2W of iillumination, which is probably bright enough since LEDs are more efficient that a tube. Putting numerous LEDs behind the panel could cause uneven lighting all over the screen unless there is very efficient diffusion (which would probably increase the thickness).

Overall, LEDs are currently the most efficient way of getting light out of electricity, which means least heat produced as a by-product.

John

 

There seems to be mild misinformation and random speculation on certain issues in this post. CCFL and LED sources do not output heat or warmth that is either discernable or significant to cause worry. The compact flourescent's main source of heat/warmth if any at all will be its inverter board not the lamp itself. The LEDs in general are noted for their lack of noticeable heat as one of their pro's. Also the High intensity LEDs used in flashlights and those used are LCDs are slightly different in maximum light output, with the former being used for light projection and range (in combination with specific housing and lenses). Those in LCDs are more geared towards light diffusion across the LCD panel rather that distance light projection. That being said, being the owner of a maglite multi LED flashlight and also the former user of a Sony SZ premium laptop, I neither experienced burning heat from the flashlight nor warmth in the LCD panel surface. Can you guys list your references for these supposed LED heat related issues for us all to critique?

On a final note, other than price as a detractor i would go with a LED backlit LCD over traditonal CCFL LCDs because of the power savings, the lifespan run time, the weight and physical bulk reductions in panel dimensions.

 

Also remember there are different kinds of LED illumination. Both backlit and emissive.

Backlights for laptops they are white LEDs, for HDR Desktop LCDs they use arrays of RGB LEDs to increase the colour gamut and gradation and improve contrast.

Then there's emmisive LED displays like OLED display, those are LEDs not limited to backlighting. Still early, but already in 11 and 27 inch TVs.

For the OP's question the backlighting matters less than the properties of the TFT panel infront of it (TN, IPS, PVA), that's where the response and input time, and angle dependant contrast come into play which would affect ghosting and gamma levels (and alpha to a lesser extent) in games.

Most important factor for gaming will be those issues not the backlight.

 

Touch a fluorescent lamp then touch an led younwill be burned by fluorescent but not by led

 

It looks like heat is an issue. Not that the LED produces much heat but the operation of the LED in high ambient heat environment leads to failure. Requiring proper heat sinks.

LED performance largely depends on the ambient temperature of the operating environment. Over-driving the LED in high ambient temperatures may result in overheating of the LED package, eventually leading to device failure. Adequate heat-sinking is required to maintain long life. This is especially important when considering automotive, medical, and military applications where the device must operate over a large range of temperatures, and is required to have a low failure rate.
Wikki

Oh and thanks all as I do know much more now than I did yesterday keep it coming.

 

Now this is what I am talking about; References....though this does refer to over-driving LEDs in High Ambient temps, which may not be consistently apparent in the average user's daily trials. Mission critical components and fail safe architecture may prove too bulky or costly for the average user. That being said, I am still of the firm opinion that LEDs in civilian everyday usage will not see the temperature extremes or performance related 'over-driving' that would cause possible heat retention, build up or the required heavy use of heatsinking to mitigate said issues. But the unknown here is the actual long term reliability of LED back lighting technology. I'll wait to see if there are any long term heat related effects.

 

RasBastard I agree but I did think of a couple things users should be careful of because of this. If notebook was in car on sunny day let cool before using and also if sun was or is shining on it (not from behind, I understand that). I do not think this is a major concern but being aware of things never hurts. I wish they gave some temperature thresholds.

 

The sun won't do a thing. Let's say your car heats up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, that's still nothing compared to my GPU which hits 90 C when on full blast.

 

I somewhat doubt that the ambient temperatures which notebook users will tolerate would have significant impact on the LED's lifespan. In addition, the display unit is a good heatsink with plenty of surface area to convect / radiate any heat.

I think we have consensus that CCFL uses a bit more power than LED, but does anyone have a display which is more than slightly warm? The (CCFL) display I am looking at is slightly warm along the bottom edge.

John

 

Same here, slightly warm on the bottom, and in the inside face only, so it may just be the other components.

 

You know what Power pack, I concur fully. The average person may not pay heed to the proper operating thresholds of their electronic devices in random environmental use. Until the long term reliability of LED backlighting is compounded it may remain somewhat of an enigma. I am a fan of it for its pro's but I am always weary of being an early adopter. Proven tech tends to have less issues. Hell i love my IPS Flexview panel and would take it over an LED panel anyday.

 

Lithus help me on this, what does your GPU temp have to do with screen? I mean my oven goes up to 550F? But I don't know what temps are critical. I don't see people working in an environment much above 130F and car interiors get well above 130F. I just think it is worth knowing. So let's blame the unicorn.

Edit: Yea warm at the bottom cold at the top.

 

Well, maybe you have a funky laptop, buy my screen is directly connected to the body of my laptop which constantly runs at 50 C up to averages around 70.

 

My Temps average in the low to mid 50s c.

 

Well guys if your screens ever get to 158F (70C) consider turning off.

 

Yeah, if your screen is getting to be anywhere near 50C+ due to the chassis (unless it's a one piece tablet), then I suggest you apply some thermal grease to the CPU and GPU heatsinks or clear out the air dicts, cause it sounds like something's not working right.

 

Aside from all the heat discussion. Which technology gives you a better looking picture on your screen? Also which one is brighter?

 

The question of picture quality really lies in the type of panel as opposed to backlighting method as stated earlier. I personally have an IPS Flexview screen and the resolution, clarity, viewing angles etc are some of the best that i have ever seen on an LCD panel. It was infact one the reasons for acquiring my t60p at the time.

 

All screens get warmish on the lower side,where the inverter is.
Mine is pretty warm if I think about it, but I don`t think a LED screen would change that by too much.

 

Ok, what about evenness of backlighting and screen brightness?

 

The IPS panel has some light leakage near the base but nothing significant. Overall the the back lighting is very even with no dark spots to speak of. I was disappointed to learn that the IPS screens were no longer being made available or made at all if i am correct for thinkpads or other laptop bound displays. I tend to use my screen as a measuring stick for other displays. As for brightness I frequently use my machine outdoors in bright sunlight and it holds up well...but then again matte screens tend to do better outdoors anyway. I am not saying that it is the best LCD panel ever but i would rank it up there as an excellent LCD panel.