OLED vs. LCD

Have you ever had your screen replaced and suddenly it feels thicker, or looks different?  It might be the case of an LCD installed when your phone originally had an OLED.  LCDs are thicker mostly due to the backlight which adds an additional layer to the screen. 

LCD:  Older technology & cost less.  The main difference is the backlight behind the entire display panel which makes the image appear. This requires more battery power in general & they are rigid, more prone to damage.

OLED:  Newer technology is newer & more efficient which does not have a backlight behind the entire display, each pixel has its own backlight.  Why is this important?  It allows each pixel to turn off and go completely black when need be.  This allows for deeper blacks resulting in better contrast, thus a better overall picture.  It also uses less battery in general as a result.    

LCD screens are cheaper, so aftermarket part manufacturers naturally design LCD replacements for OLED designed phones.  In turn, this offers consumers a potentially cheaper repair option... key word "POTENTIALLY".

First off, we are a huge proponent of quality being directly related to pricing, because in an ideal world that makes sense, but unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world & you don't always get what you pay for.  Why do we say that?  We have seen aftermarket (no name at that) LCD screens being sold on websites at the same price point of OLED screens which could mean one of two things.  The OLED is discounted (doubtful) or... the LCD is (likely) marked up.  We can't be dogmatic but we would lean towards the LCD being marked up, considerably sometimes!  

Cutting costs comes at a price.  Downgrading your OLED designed phone to an LCD screen results in worse battery life, lower picture quality and potentially worse, opening the door to board level problems down the road.  So yes, you can install a LCD on your OLED phone, but you should be informed of the pros and cons. We do offer LCD options for OLED phones.  Often times people go the LCD route just to trade in their phone.  

For specific details on my parts, see Phones or Tablets.