AMOLED

Originating from OLED display technology—Organic Light-Emitting Diodes—it features self-emissive properties. It uses an extremely thin layer of organic material coated onto a glass substrate. When an electric current passes through, these organic materials emit light.

Working Principle

AMOLED is based on organic light-emitting materials. Thousands of tiny light sources that can emit only one of the three colors—red, green, or blue—are arranged in a specific pattern on the screen substrate. When voltage is applied, they emit red, green, or blue light. This voltage control relies on TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) technology. By adjusting the proportions of the three primary colors, various colors can be produced.

Advantages

Wide Color Gamut
The color gamut refers to the range of colors a display can reproduce. Industry standards include NTSC, sRGB, and Adobe RGB color gamuts. For example, the iPad Air can display about 96% of the sRGB gamut, while Super AMOLED screens can reach close to 100% NTSC, which surpasses sRGB and is closer to the higher Adobe RGB standard (as shown in diagrams comparing the sRGB triangle).
A wide color gamut allows the screen to display richer colors and reproduce more real-world hues. More importantly, it enhances contrast, enabling the display to show shadows closer to true black.

In traditional Chinese culture, the five “primary” colors are blue-green (cyan), yellow, red, white, and black, symbolizing orthodoxy and nobility. Thanks to its exceptional color range, AMOLED technology can vividly reproduce these colors. For instance, its rendering of sunlight-like yellow or the life-representing cyan between blue and green is especially impressive.

High Contrast
Compared to traditional TFT displays, AMOLED can display deep, solid blacks, while TFT displays appear more dark gray. AMOLED also produces pure white, resulting in clearer and more transparent visuals.

Ultra-thin Design
AMOLED displays are thinner than LCD screens. LCDs contain a backlight, color filters, a backlight module, and liquid crystal layers, while AMOLED, being self-emissive, does not require these components. Integrated touch technology also makes AMOLED screens thinner and lighter. The world’s first AMOLED integrated touch display debuted in 2010 and was used in premium smartphones.

Outdoor Readability
Reading maps or addresses on your phone under strong sunlight is possible with AMOLED. Outdoor readability is proportional to chroma × brightness, and OLED chroma is about 1.7 times that of LCD. This gives AMOLED displays excellent outdoor readability, allowing colors to remain clear under bright sunlight and providing better viewing angles for outdoor reading.

Lower Power Consumption
AMOLED screens consume significantly less power than traditional LCDs because each pixel can be individually controlled without a constant backlight.
For example, when browsing white-background websites like Baidu, most pixels emit 100% brightness. But when playing dark-scene videos, pixels emit much less light. LCDs, by contrast, always emit 100% backlight brightness and only control brightness locally by rotating liquid crystal molecules.
AMOLED pixels can adjust their own brightness independently, meaning they don’t all have to emit at 100% brightness—this saves energy. Even while playing videos or multimedia content, battery drain is minimal. In emergencies, activating an ultra power-saving mode that reduces pixel use to 10% can extend phone usage up to 24 hours.