Product face-offs
. Plasma or LCD?
Our verdict
Each one of these technologies has its advantages and disadvantages. You need to choose which will suit you better based on how you use your television and your own priorities.
Nevertheless, the market is increasingly flooded with LCD models, especially since Panasonic, who had previously only worked with plasma screens, diversified its range to include LCDs.
Nevertheless, the market is increasingly flooded with LCD models, especially since Panasonic, who had previously only worked with plasma screens, diversified its range to include LCDs.
Vincent Lheur
Test date: 2008-09-03
Test date: 2008-09-03
For the time being, two different screen technologies are fighting it out on the consumer market. Other technologies are in the pipeline, and new developments are often announced involving lasers, as well as OLED and SED panels, amongst others, but as often as not the press releases herald delays, rather than real progress. So, what are the principal advantages and disadvantages of the two technologies available today?
Plasma
LCD
Plasma
- These screens generally offer better blacks than LCDs, which improves the contrast. The colors are accurate, and very natural, and the amount of afterglow (the effect produced by rapidly moving images leaving a trace behind them) is virtually nil. On the other hand, using these screens with a computer is generally not advised because of a problem known as screen burn, which occurs when a single image which is on screen for too long ends up remaining as a ‘phantom image’ even when other things are displayed. This can be a crippling problem with the Windows desktop, for instance, or some console games which display the same image constantly. A further notable difference is that, in general, plasmas are larger and heavier than LCDs.
LCD
- While plasma TVs offer a picture quality that is, overall, satisfactory, LCDs provide as many good results as they do bad. The latest generation of components has made up a lot of the shortfall that their predecessors had by comparison to plasmas, namely their poor handling of black and gray shades. Without being as good as plasmas, the black offered by LCD screens is getting very close to matching it. Likewise, their colors are getting a lot better, and the latest generations of screens are making solid progress on this front too. Their major drawback remains their poor viewing angles. Even though most LCD screens now allow people sitting off to either side to see a great image, the quality really suffers when the screens are tilted backwards and forwards, an effect that you might be familiar with from laptop computers. For more information on the different types of LCD technology available, you might like to have a look at this detailed article where we covered competing versions of the LCD technology.
