Project PDA

LCD active matrix points and high resolution, introduced by some PDA. Unlike conventional LCD screens, ensures better visibility from any angle.

TFT uses thin-film transistor technology for the ultimate LCD display. The benefit of a TFT monitor is a separate, tiny transistor for each pixel on the display. Because each transistor is so small, the amount of charge needed to control it is also small. This allows for very fast re-drawing of the display, as the image is re-painted or refreshed several times per second.

Types of TFT LCD:

TN+Film

The TN+Film (Twisted Nematic) display is the most common consumer display type, due to its lower price. The pixel response time on modern TN panels is sufficiently fast to avoid the shadow-trail artifacts that were a cause for complaint in the past. This fast response time has been a heavily marketed aspect of TN displays, although in most cases this number does not reflect performance across the entire range of possible color transitions. However this marketing strategy, combined with the relatively lower cost of production for TN panels, has led to the dominance of TN in the consumer market.

IPS

IPS (In-Plane Switching) was developed by Hitachi in 1996 to improve on the poor viewing angles and color reproduction of TN panels. Most also support true 8-bit color.

These improvements came at a loss of response time, which was initially on the order of 50ms. IPS panels were also extremely expensive. A-TW-IPS - Advanced True White IPS, developed by LG.Philips LCD for NEC, is a custom S-IPS panel with a TW (True White) color filter to make white look more natural and to increase color gamut. This is used in professional/photography LCDs.

MVA

MVA (Multi-domain Vertical Alignment) was originally developed in 1998 by Fujitsu as a compromise between TN and IPS. It achieved fast pixel response (at the time), wide viewing angles, and high contrast at the cost of brightness and color reproduction.

PVA

PVA (Patterned Vertical Alignment) and S-PVA (Super Patterned Vertical Alignment) are more advanced versions of MVA technology offered by Samsung. Developed independently, it suffers from the same problems as MVA, but boasts very high contrast ratios such as 3000:1. Value-oriented PVA panels also use dithering/FRC. S-PVA panels all use true 8-bit color electronics and do not use any color simulation methods.