IPS-LCDs are commonly used on midrange and high-end smartphones and portable devices. All Retina Display Apple iPhones feature IPS-LCDs, as does the Motorola Droid and some TVs and tablets.
Information on IPS Displays
IPS-LCDs feature two transistors for each pixel, whereas TFT-LCDs use just one. This requires a more powerful backlight, which delivers more accurate colors and lets the screen be viewed from a wider angle. IPS-LCDs don’t show when the screen has been touched, which you might notice in some older monitors. This is particularly advantageous for touch-screen displays like those on smartphones and touch-screen laptops. The downside is that an IPS-LCD consumes more power than a TFT-LCD, possibly up to 15 percent more. They’re also more expensive to make and have longer response times.
IPS Advances in Technology
IPS has gone through a number of developmental phases within Hitachi and LG Display.
Hitachi widened the viewing angle with Super TFT (IPS) in 1996.It also released Super-IPS (S-IPS) in 1998 to remove color shifting.In 2001, Advanced Super-IPS (AS-IPS) improved transmittance from 100/100 (in 1996) to 130/250.Hitachi improved the contrast ratio in 2004, 2008 and 2010 with the releases of IPS-Provectus, IPS Alpha, and IPS Alpha next gen.
LG Display’s IPS technology timeline looks like this:
Contrast ratio was improved in 2007 with Horizontal IPS (H-IPS). Enhanced IPS (E-IPS) improved the viewing angle and reduced the response time to five milliseconds, while also widening the aperture for light transmission. It was released in 2009. 2010 saw Professional IPS (P-IPS), which offered more than a billion colors and more orientations per pixel. IPS-Pro is highly advanced and expensive. LG Display released Advanced High-Performance IPS (AH-IPS) in 2011 to improve color accuracy, increase the resolution, and provide more light when in lower power mode.
IPS Alternatives
Samsung introduced Super PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) in 2010 as an alternative to IPS. It’s similar to IPS but with the added benefits of a better viewing angle, a brightness increase of 10 percent, a flexible panel, better image quality, and a 15 percent lower cost than IPS-LCDs. In 2012, AHVA (Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle) was introduced by AU Optronics to provide an IPS alternative that featured IPS-like panels but with higher refresh rates.
