Difference between LCD and LED

Back to basics

Most of the time people do not understand what is LCD, LED, what that stands for and why people gave those names to monitors since when you look at them, they do look pretty much the same. They appear to be completely the same. When you look at them, you will see that LCD monitors are just a bit thicker, so why is that? Why people gave them those names?

Let's start with LCD since they appeared first on the market as replacement for well known CRT displays. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. That basically means that they use light modulating properties. Since they do not emit light directly they need some sort of back-light. Well, there are few different types of LCD displays but we will focus on technology behind computer monitors in order to not go to much technical here.

When talking about computer LCD monitors, we need to know that those have CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamps) placed behind of the panel that produce the light needed for producing image that we actually see on our monitor. Maybe it would be easier for you to imagine big screen with fluorescent lamps, which you have in your home or office, which are used for producing light (but much smaller). Because of those lamps, LCD monitors are a bit bulkier compared to LED monitors.

LED stands for Light Emitting Diodes, which is pretty self explanatory, so those displays have diodes that produce light for illuminating LCD display. So, basic difference between LED and LCD displays is their back-light. Apart from back-light, technology is pretty much the same. So, why so much talking about which one is better? Main reason is because of not understanding the basics.

So, why we have them when they are the same?

Well, they are not the same; they utilize same technology but LEDs use much less power meaning that they are more energy efficient compared to LCDs with CCFL back light. LEDs produce brighter colors thanks to diodes that produce bright light, so they have tendency to produce better image that you see on your screen. You have noticed that I have said "have tendency" and you are puzzled now.

When companies make computer displays, when talking about LCDs, they must place those CCFL lamps one next to other in order to cover whole back side of the monitor in order to produce image. When talking about LED monitors, they can make few different types of them just with placing diodes on different places that lead to different quality of produced image.

There are few different types of LEDs: one have diodes placed on the top, top and bottom, on all four sides and even with diodes that spread all over the back of the display. You can guess which one is best and more expensive. Yes, with diodes that cover whole back side, but they do not produce computer monitors with whole back side with diodes. Now, let me show you few images that can explain all this technical stuff just a bit better.

On this image you can see what is basic difference between LED (on the left side) and LCD (CCFL back-light on the right side) monitors. You may notice that LED monitors could produce a bit better image.

On the following image you can see what I mean when talking about diode placement in LED monitors. Hope that now you can understand a bit better what I was trying to explain.

I hope that now you understand why people talk that much about LCD and LED monitors. Believe me, this is shortest explanation that I could give you in order not to skip important details.  Now, when you know what we are talking about, we may proceed and look for interesting monitors and different types that you can find online.