What is the difference between IPS and TFT screen types

Screen man­u­fac­tur­ers are con­stant­ly devel­op­ing and invent­ing new tech­nolo­gies to pro­vide the best pic­ture qual­i­ty. The times when the dis­play could show only one col­or have long and suc­cess­ful­ly passed — 40 years ago. Mod­ern screens must dis­play mil­lions of col­ors (even if the human eye can­not dis­tin­guish one sub-tone from anoth­er), pro­vide wide view­ing angles, and ide­al­ly add some “dra­ma” to the image so that the pic­ture is tru­ly cin­e­mat­ic and impres­sive.

To date, the best col­or repro­duc­tion, con­trast and sat­u­ra­tion are pro­vid­ed by three types of matri­ces — OLED, AMOLED and QLED. But they are insane­ly expen­sive. AMOLED is found only in flag­ship smart­phones, while Sam­sung’s QLED pan­els can be found in TVs start­ing at $1,000.

In the mid­dle (“ade­quate”) price seg­ment there are two tech­nolo­gies — TFT and IPS. They can be found in almost all types of mobile and home elec­tron­ics — com­put­er and lap­top mon­i­tors, smart­phone and tablet screens, even in smart watch­es. And the ques­tion aris­es — what, in fact, are the dif­fer­ences between the types of IPS and TFT screens?

A bit of theory: how do screens work in general?

The design of screens can sur­prise a per­son who is not famil­iar with the tech­nol­o­gy of their pro­duc­tion. Each of the pix­el-points is not a small LED, as it might seem, but an electro­mechan­i­cal sys­tem of translu­cent thin films.

These thin films are dri­ven by elec­tric­i­ty. As long as no cur­rent is applied to them, they are locat­ed at an angle of 90 degrees to the light source locat­ed behind the matrix. In this case, the pix­el appears white (or black if the screen is off). As soon as elec­tric­i­ty is applied to the matrix, the film rotates — and there­by col­ors the light. In gen­er­al, it looks like just a sys­tem of fine fil­ters, they are just very small and are in huge num­bers.

These films work on liq­uid crys­tal tech­nol­o­gy. Actu­al­ly, that is why most mod­ern dis­plays are called liq­uid crys­tal dis­plays. Since they are made of semi­con­duc­tor mate­ri­als, they are, in fact, full-fledged tran­sis­tors.

That is why the LCD screen is called TFT-matrix. TFT stands for thin film tran­sis­tor.

In tra­di­tion­al mod­els of TFT screens (more pre­cise­ly, matri­ces, which are now col­lec­tive­ly referred to as “TFT”), the above thin col­or and polar­iz­ing films are arranged in a ver­ti­cal spi­ral. It is quite prac­ti­cal, and in pro­duc­tion it is sim­ple. But this tech­nol­o­gy also has small draw­backs, we will con­sid­er them fur­ther.

IPS (which stands for in-plane switch) is the actu­al evo­lu­tion of TFT tech­nol­o­gy. The only dif­fer­ence is the loca­tion of the translu­cent plates. They are not placed in a ver­ti­cal spi­ral, but in the same hor­i­zon­tal plane. And thanks to this, sev­er­al advan­tages are achieved at once.

Description and features of TFT screens

“TFT” most often refers to screens made using TN + TFT tech­nol­o­gy. How­ev­er, there are oth­er options, but they are not so wide­spread. Such matri­ces are now most often used in com­put­er and house­hold appli­ances — from mon­i­tors to dis­play sys­tems in advanced refrig­er­a­tors.

The main advan­tage of TFT is its low price. It is achieved due to the sim­plic­i­ty in pro­duc­tion.

In addi­tion, TFT screens are very often cho­sen by gamers. After all, such dis­plays have anoth­er major advan­tage — high response speed. Translu­cent films rotate almost instant­ly, pro­vid­ing a quick change in the “pic­ture”. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant in dynam­ic games — shoot­ers, action games, as well as var­i­ous online projects. So, for exam­ple, mod­ern TFT-screens pro­vide a response speed of 1 mil­lisec­ond.

How­ev­er, for a low price, you will have to “pay off” with a rel­a­tive­ly aver­age col­or ren­der­ing. Hue sat­u­ra­tion is weak, which makes the image look some­what dull com­pared to IPS, LTPS or AMOLED matri­ces. Also, TFT screens have very small view­ing angles — if you look at the dis­play from the side, above or below, the shades are dis­tort­ed up to com­plete black­out in some cas­es.

Key advan­tages of TFT screens:

1. The response speed is from 1 mil­lisec­ond. This pro­vides an almost instan­ta­neous change in the image on the dis­play, which is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for games;

2. Low pow­er con­sump­tion. Smart­phones and tablets equipped with such dis­plays have a longer bat­tery life than their coun­ter­parts;

3. Low price. Mon­i­tors and dis­plays with matri­ces of this type are rel­a­tive­ly cheap, with the excep­tion of spe­cial gam­ing options.

4. Key dis­ad­van­tages of TFT screens:

5. Rel­a­tive­ly low col­or ren­der­ing. Col­ors and hues on such a dis­play can appear very dull. This is a major dis­ad­van­tage when using mon­i­tors in design and print­ing, because what will be seen on them will not match the shades on paper or oth­er media;

6. Small view­ing angles. Already at a devi­a­tion of 20–30 degrees from the plane of the screen, the dis­played shades are deformed — they become dark­er or lighter. And at 70 degrees, the image on low-qual­i­ty dis­plays becomes com­plete­ly indis­tin­guish­able.

Today, TFT mon­i­tors are used main­ly by gamers, and have also sur­vived in the low­er price seg­ment. In the mobile device mar­ket, this tech­nol­o­gy is being replaced by a new one called LTPS.

Description and features of IPS screens

IPS is a rather “young” tech­nol­o­gy that appeared rel­a­tive­ly recent­ly: in 1996. And it was orig­i­nal­ly devel­oped in order to cor­rect the short­com­ings of TFT. As a result, we man­aged to achieve excel­lent col­or repro­duc­tion, deep blacks and whites, as well as a num­ber of oth­er improve­ments.

But the main advan­tage of IPS is that it sup­ports real­is­tic col­or repro­duc­tion — 8 bits per chan­nel. Thanks to this, the matrix is ​​able to dis­play the very 16 mil­lion shades that are the stan­dard in the indus­try. IPS screens are a solu­tion for design­ers, artists and oth­er cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als. Why, even the vaunt­ed Reti­na tech­nol­o­gy from Apple is a log­i­cal devel­op­ment of IPS.

IPS is a good solu­tion for home use as well. Screens made using this tech­nol­o­gy have excel­lent view­ing angles: up to 178 degrees. There­fore, even if you look at the dis­play from the side or from above, the image will not be dis­tort­ed and the shades will be pre­served. In open spaces, this may seem imprac­ti­cal.

At the same time, IPS tech­nol­o­gy TVs are prac­ti­cal­ly not made — and there is one impor­tant rea­son for this: such screens are char­ac­ter­ized by high pow­er con­sump­tion. More pre­cise­ly, it is greater than that of ana­logues from the fam­i­ly of liq­uid crys­tal matri­ces. Also, such screens notice­ably heat up dur­ing oper­a­tion, espe­cial­ly if you try to update them very often.

How­ev­er, to ensure a high response rate on such screens still does not work. Even the most mod­ern, top-end mod­els are char­ac­ter­ized by a “respon­sive­ness” of 3–5 mil­lisec­onds. This makes them unsuit­able for “hard­core” gamers.

Key advan­tages of IPS screens:

1. Real­is­tic col­or repro­duc­tion and extend­ed range of dis­played shades. This makes them suit­able for pro­fes­sion­al use — for exam­ple, for design­ers and artists;

2. Good black dis­play. It does­n’t look too gray. How­ev­er, it depends on the qual­i­ty of the matrix, some bud­get options still dis­col­or the shade;

3. The view­ing angle is 178 degrees. Shades do not change or deform when viewed from the side, bot­tom or top of the screen.

4. Key dis­ad­van­tages of IPS screens:

5. Increased pow­er con­sump­tion. In mon­i­tors or TVs, this leads to an unjus­ti­fied increase in pow­er; in mobile devices, to an accel­er­at­ed dis­charge of the bat­tery;

6. Rel­a­tive­ly high price, due to the com­plex­i­ty in pro­duc­tion;

7. Response time — from 3–5 mil­lisec­onds. Because of this, a “loop” may appear behind mov­ing objects, or they may “tele­port” on the screen. This is man­i­fest­ed in dynam­ic games or when watch­ing action scenes.

IPS screens are found in mobile devices, lap­tops and home com­put­er mon­i­tors. How­ev­er, in smart­phones or tablets, they are also grad­u­al­ly being replaced by new types of matri­ces like LTPS or AMOLED.

Comparison of IPS and TFT

So, let’s com­pare these two tech­nolo­gies. Com­mon fea­tures are tak­en into account, not the char­ac­ter­is­tics of cer­tain mod­els.

When choos­ing between IPS and TFT, it is bet­ter to give pref­er­ence to the first tech­nol­o­gy. Unless, of course, the response time is not crit­i­cal. But it is worth con­sid­er­ing that in every­day use (web surf­ing, work­ing with office pro­grams, oth­er “non-dynam­ic scenes”), the dif­fer­ence between a 1 ms and 5 ms update can­not be dis­cerned.