What’s in a Laptop LCD Screen?

 A laptop part that many people consider when buying a laptop is the LCD screen. There are four things to take note of when assessing a laptop screen’s ability to display images: Screen size, resolution, screen type, and graphics processor. Let’s break each factor down.

Screen Size

Laptops come in various shapes and sizes to accommodate as varied a range of user preferences as possible. Whether you’re a casual computer user who does a lot of travelling, a hardcore gamer who goes out to attend the occasional LAN party, or any kind of user in between, rest assured that somewhere out there is a laptop tailor-made just for you.

There are four major laptop categories, grouped according to size. The general rule of thumb is, the bigger a laptop is, the less portable, but more powerful its laptop components are. The smaller it is, the less powerful its laptop parts become, but it gains an advantage in portability.

Since laptop screens account for the whole top half of a laptop, it follows that a laptop’s size dictates its screen size as well. Screen size is measured diagonally. Many laptops now come with screens in a wide aspect ratio to accommodate a more cinematic display and/or to reduce the screen’s depth dimension (and therefore its overall size,lowering the cost of production).

From the largest to smallest, here are the four laptop categories and the common screen sizes they have:

·         Desktop replacements: 17” to 19”

·         Thin-and-lights: 14” to 16”

·         Ultraportables: 13.3” and below

·         Netbooks: 12” and below

Resolution

Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels that a screen is able to display. Basically, the more pixels a screen can show, the sharper the image will be since more pixels equals finer individual image points.

Think of it like this: Usually, the farther you are from an image, the more defined it is; but as you get closer, you begin to see individual colors (or image points) that make up the whole picture. Now, if these image points were smaller (meaning there were more of them that made up the whole picture), then you’d have to go pretty damn close before the image broke up again into distinguishable image points. That’s how pixels in LCD screens work.

Most widescreen LCD’s give a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768, which is par for the course. If a laptop LCD can go beyond that (preferably the hi-def standard of 1920 x 1080), all the better.

Screen Type

Most people aren’t aware of this, but there are two common variants of LCD panels commonly used in laptops today. The first is TN (Twisted Nematic), which is cheaper to produce and has faster refresh rates. The other is IPS (In-Plane Switching), which offer better color density and wider viewing angles. The pros of one are the cons of the other.

Refersh rate refers to a screen’s ability to switch from image frame to image frame. The faster it is, the smoother the video moves. If it dips below standard speeds, screen-tearing ensues. Color density refers to the amount of colors an LCD can display onscreen at the same time. Finally, viewing angles means how well you can see an image in its full splendor when you’re not exactly front-and-center.

Graphics Processor

Finally, we have graphics processing units (GPUs), or video cards. The two major manufacturers of GPUs are AMD and NVIDIA. Video cards from each company have their own strengths and weaknesses best detailed in another article. The bottom line is that if you’re not the type of user who plays video games or watches hi-def media content a lot, then the GPU your laptop has really doesn’t matter much. If, however, you use graphics-heavy programs like the aforementioned video games, Blu-ray players, Photoshop, and the like, then GPU choice should factor into your decision.