LCD vs OLED
LCD displays have been around for years, and changed the TV world to what we know now. Going back a few years, OLED panels were introduced and offered a better quality picture.
These two formats are also avaliable on mobile phones, with usually the higher end models adopting for OLED displays.
Where does this leave you as the consumer for your phone repair?
If you've been calling around and getting quotes, you've most likely gotten quite a vast range of prices, and most likely with these quotes, thats all the information you've received, just that, the final price.
Well, in this industry, usually you get what you pay for...... and sometimes you don't!!!
With more phones adopting OLED, and purse string becoming tighter, you really should know what you're buying.
Those cheaper quotes, will most likely be for and LCD, which is great for your budget, but in reality, is this really what you want? And on the flip side, even some of the more expensive quotes could actually be an LCD at a premium price!
Here at AsTech Repairs, we want our customers to know what they are buying, we understand people these days really need to watch their spending, but at the same time, we believe the customer needs to know what they're getting for their money. So here are the types of Displays typically avaliable for device repairs:
LCD
Cheaper / Older style technology. Quality of the image will be less than OLED. Uses a backlight panel which illuminates the full display, including content that is black. This differs from OLED.
LCD TYPES
TFT and INCELL - TFT is basically the cheapest type of LCD and INCELL will offer a better picture quality but still not as good as OLED.
Either one of these LCD has the drawbacks of a higher power consumption which could potentially drain your battery faster.
With LCD, due to the construction, would be slightly thicker, so these types of displays would sit slightly higher than your OLED display (if your phone has OLED) and would be more prone to breaking.
OLED
Much better picture quality, but unfortunatley comes with a higher price tag. Due to the construction of OLED, each individual pixel is lit, so when viewing material with alot of black, thos "black pixels" are not actaully lit up, so should in return give you your optimum battery life. Picture quality is also much better, and this is where we also come across different types of OLED:
OLED TYPES
SOFT - Close to original as you can get for an aftermarket display, price - performance - quality, this would normally be one of the most popular choices. ( We prefer Soft OLED to Hard OLED screens and offer this when we quote for aftermarket)
HARD - Same quality, but the actual display behind the glass is not as flexible as the soft, so in turn, if these are dropped, the inner display can break without the top layer of glass breaking, even something as simple as knocking your phone while in your pocket could cause damage. ( We tend to not offer these screen types)
REFURBISHED - This is where a screen has been damaged on the top layer (glass only) so the glass is cut away, and the display is cleaned up with a new layer of glass applied. With this method, the original Apple display is kept, giving you one of the best quality after a brand new full genuine display replacement.
PULLED - Taken off another device. These displays are normally taken from devices that are stripped down due to other faults, so everything on the pulled display is 100% genuine, but would typically be one of the most expensive repairs.
SERVICE PACK - Genuine, brand new part direct from the manufacturer.
Our Warranty
No matter which screen type you go for, all our repairs include 12 Months warranty against faults with the repair or part.
Note: Damage caused to the display through external factors are not covered under warranty.
Does my iPhone have an OLED?
Here is a list of iPhones that originally come with OLED:
iPhone X
iPhone XS
iPhone XS Max
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone 12 (All Models)
iPhone 13 (All Models)
iPhone 14 (All Models)
iPhone 15 (All Models)