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Smartphone maker HTC is switching back to older LCD technology for some of its smartphones because of a shortage of active-matrix OLED displays.

The new crop of HTC phones coming this summer will include a technology called SLCD, or Super LCD, instead of the newer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays used in several current-model smartphones, including the HTC Desire and the Google-designed, HTC-built Nexus One.

HTC says SLCD will give consumers a visual experience comparable to HTC’s current 3.7-inch OLED displays. SLCDs will also offer better battery performance, contrast and more-natural balanced color than AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) displays, says the company.

“HTC is experiencing high demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7-inch displays,” Peter Chou, CEO of HTC said in a press release. “The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high demand.”

But just what exactly is Super LCD technology? Two analysts Wired.com spoke with say it may just be a marketing jargon for a variant of the traditional thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) that powers almost all mobile displays currently on the market.

“There’s Super AMOLED, Super IPS and now Super LCD,” says  Raymond Soneira, president of research and consulting firm DisplayMate Technologies. “Its like eggs in a supermarket: You can’t buy a small egg anymore. They all start at medium.”

When Google launched its Nexus One phone, the device’s AMOLED screen made a splash because of its vivid colors. Unlike LCDs, AMOLED screens are not backlit, which means they were expected to consume less power than traditional LCDs.

But they have also been plagued by problems. AMOLED screens are more difficult to read in bright sunlight when compared to LCDs.

The screens are also more expensive, and their supply is limited, says Jennifer Colegrove, director at DisplaySearch.

“AMOLED is about 20 to 50 percent more expensive than LCD,” she says, “and currently only three companies — Samsung, LG and CMEL — supply it.”

Meanwhile, Samsung has developed the Super-AMOLED display to reduce some of these flaws, make the OLED screens thinner and improve on their visibility in direct sunlight. But Super-AMOLED displays are proving to be an even scarcer component for handset makers.

HTC says the SLCD technology it is using as an substitute can meet its demand without significantly sacrificing quality. SLCD is an improvement over most other LCD panels, because it provides approximately five times better power management and offers wider viewing angles, says HTC. But those claims have yet to be tested.

Details about the SLCD technology itself are scarce and further muddled by a joint venture that Samsung and Sony set up a few years ago that has the same name. In 2004, the two companies set up a joint manufacturing venture for LCD screens and called it S-LCD. The manufacturing facility initially produced LCD screens for TVs but later began focusing extensively on mobile devices. Until now, SLCD was used to refer to the name of the Samsung-Sony manufacturing plant, rather than a specific technology, says Soneira.

But if you are itching to see the differences among all the display technologies for yourself, Mobile Tech World has linked to a video comparison of Sony SLCD vs. AMOLED and Super AMOLED.

In the video, an HTC Desire phone sporting the new SLCD panel is pitted against a Nexus One with the AMOLED display, a Motorola Droid with IPS (in-plane switching, a kind of LCD technology used by many TVs as well as Apple’s iPad), and a Samsung Wave with a Super-AMOLED display.

“I thought all the displays were really good, they all had decent color and respectable viewing angles,” says a user who did the comparison on Howard-Forums.

“The super AMOLED was noticeably less reflective than the others and was blacker with the best viewing angles. Super LCD had a superior horizontal viewing angle compared to a regular AMOLED display. The AMOLED had slightly better blacks  and slightly better vertical viewing angles. Both Super LCD and AMOLED were very reflective.”

Check out the video:

Photo: spieri_sf/Flickr