Difference between Touchscreen and LCD Screen

It is generally assumed that touchscreen and LCD screen are the same, although as we see in the article there are notable differences.

In fact, there is also the concept that when you have a tablet or a mobile phone, you have a single screen.

In reality, this type of technology works with two types of screens that are usually assembled into a single piece.

Both technologies complement each other. Today, the majority of mobile devices on the planet, in addition to laptop screens and some television screens, are optimized to be touch-sensitive.

That is, they can be used with fingers, gloves, or styluses with rubber tips.

On this occasion, we look at the difference between a touchscreen and an LCD screen.

What is a touchscreen or touch digitizer, and how does it work?

Researchers developed a glass panel, behind which there was a glass camera that interpreted the contact of a person's fingers. Years later, a multi-touch category screen was developed, optimized to «feel» the activity of the fingers.

The concept of «feeling» refers to the «sensory» aspect of the screen's optimization. In other words, it is no longer about a technology like a camera optimized to interact based on an algorithm.

It is said that the screen perceives the touch on its surface and has an effect.

This effect is naturally the activity we indicate on the screen. This type of screen is usually quite thin, despite being developed in glass. What happens is that when pressure is applied to the glass, the system interprets the touch.

This simplifies the sensory condition of the screen. For this reason, as it is a glass optimized to be sensitive, it sometimes breaks and does not affect the functionality of the mobile device, although it may not respond correctly.

The glass maintains its essence, its optimization, even when it is fragmented.

What is an LCD screen or display, and what is it for?

What happens with LCD screens is that they are a more advanced technology. The LCD screen contains the liquid that materializes the quality of the pixels.

The pixels are the entire key architecture projected on the screen, defining the brightness.

The LCD screen is located just below the touchscreen.

So when there is a touch on the glass screen, the second layer recognizes the touch and links this activity to all the software architecture the mobile device possesses.

The LCD screen is the very essence of the phone. For this reason, special care must be taken to prevent falls from causing the liquid and incorporated technology to lose their functionality. Being below the touchscreen glass, it has protection backing it up.

We now see that there really isn't a glass screen, but rather you are looking at the LCD screen. You might be tempted to try what happens if you press on that screen.

When you do, you see that the liquid in that screen expands and returns to normal as soon as you lift your finger.

Perhaps you have tried this with the old screen of a PC. You may have even wondered why, if you are pressing on an icon, the system doesn't respond. This is precisely because in such a case, the screen only works to display images.

But it needs the technology of a touchscreen for it to actually have an effect.

What type of screen do mobile phones and tablets use?

This question is practically answered in the previous section, although we see some additional details.

And what better way than comparing the touchscreen system to what represents the click you make with the mouse on a computer. In the operating system, everything is set up so that the click generates a reaction.

When work began on the concept of the touchscreen, the goal was precisely to make the user's fingers function like a mouse.

And in fact, to some extent, this could have been achieved if the touch were made directly on the LCD screen.

However, in that case, constant touches on the screen structure would have caused stains to appear. So the idea of the touchscreen emerged precisely to prevent this problem from occurring.

That is why the touchscreen and the LCD screen work together.

If the touchscreen breaks from a fall, it is very likely that it will still «work».

But if the impact is too strong to damage the LCD screen, then the issue becomes complicated as it may not display correctly or lines may appear.

In our mobile and tablet spare parts store, you can find complete screens, touchscreens, or LCD screens for recent models, including devices from 2023 and 2024.

In summary, modern mobiles and tablets work with two screens: the touchscreen and the LCD.