Cellphone LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

Basic OVerview

The basic working of any device/gadget/cellphone etc that interacts with a human is input->process->output. If the output is best, the device is best. In case of cellphones, LCDs play a very important role in its specifications. The basic features are its size/resolution, type and color support. It started with black n while small LCDs and now its going with high resolutions TFTs that can even play videos easily.

Technologies

Monochrome: Just black n white, still low-end cellphone support it. Passive Martix: Usually supports 4k colors and shows the start of color screen cellphones. Now its becoming rare. Active Matrix: There are three categories, STN, Vivid and TFT. Still TFT is the best in current situation. Normally they're in 65k(16 bit) color support but Samsung has moved a step forward and started to produce 262k (24 bit) LCDs while others have also started to follow.

LCD Resolution

Its interesting to know that the resolution depends on the cellular platform. For example, Nokia series 40 always has resolution 128 x 128, series 60 always has 176 x 220, same is the case with series 90 (extra large screen), Sonyericsson P-series, etc. Larger the resolution, higher will be the class of cell phone, richer will be the features and greter will be the price.

Innovations

I started this article by saying LCDs as output components, but its clear that the latest technology uses LCDs also as input devices i.e. touchscreens. You can have Sonyericsson p800, p900, Nokia 7700 and other smartphones and PDAs in your mind. Its still under development. The failure of Nokia 7700 was its faulty touchscreen and then they tried again with 7710. Similar is the case with Nokia 9500, it was first said that it will support touchscreen but then it wont. Comparatively, you have to keep a lot of care of the screen if it supports touchscreen.