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OLED vs LCD screen replacement: what's the difference?

When you replace a cracked iPhone screen, you'll often get a choice between an OLED and an LCD display — sometimes with a fair gap in price. Here's what that choice actually means, so you can pick the right one for your phone and your budget.

The 30-second version

• OLED — the premium, original-quality choice. Deeper blacks, richer colour, higher brightness and better battery efficiency. It's what most modern iPhones came with from the factory. Costs more.
• LCD — the budget, aftermarket option. It looks fine for everyday use, but blacks are greyer, brightness and colour are a step down, and it isn't the same technology Apple shipped. Costs less.

If you want your screen to look exactly like it did out of the box, choose OLED. If you're keeping the phone short-term or just want it working again for the lowest price, LCD does the job.

How the two technologies actually differ

OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screens light up each pixel individually. When a pixel shows black, it switches off completely — so blacks are truly black and contrast is effectively infinite. Colours pop, and because dark pixels use no power, dark mode is genuinely more battery-friendly.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens use a single backlight shining through the whole panel. "Black" is really the backlight dimmed as far as it can go, so it looks more like dark grey. LCDs are a mature, cheaper technology and perfectly usable — they're just not as vivid, and can't match OLED's contrast or brightness.

Which iPhones use which?

Knowing what your iPhone shipped with helps you decide:

• LCD from the factory: iPhone 11, XR, and older non-Pro models (8, SE). For these, an LCD replacement is the "as original" fit.
• OLED from the factory: iPhone 11 Pro / Pro Max, and every iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. For these, an OLED replacement restores the original look — while a cheaper "LCD copy" is also available as a budget option.

So for an OLED-era iPhone, the OLED-vs-LCD choice is really "original-quality vs budget aftermarket". For an iPhone 11, the screen was LCD to begin with, so LCD is the natural match.

Does the screen type affect Face ID or True Tone?

A quality replacement — OLED or LCD — keeps Face ID working, because Face ID lives in the sensors and front camera assembly, which we carefully transfer to the new screen. True Tone and auto-brightness generally work too on good-quality panels. On very cheap, no-name screens you can sometimes lose True Tone or see touch quirks, which is exactly why we only fit screens we trust and back every repair with our 3-month workmanship warranty.

So which should you choose?

• Choose OLED if: you're keeping the phone a while, you watch video or take photos, you use dark mode, or you simply want it to look factory-fresh.
• Choose LCD if: you want the lowest price, it's a spare/kids' phone, or you're planning to upgrade soon anyway.

There's no wrong answer — it's about matching the screen to how you use the phone. If you're unsure, we're happy to talk it through and show you the difference.