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Rumor: This Might Be Why The Vita Switched From OLED To LCD Screens

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Sony may not have been forthcoming on this, but the news trail seems to have revealed details that point to the real reason.

A fan site has proposed an alternate theory regarding the Vita 2000’s switch from OLED to LCD screens.

As you may know, Sony’s official position is they feel that LCD screens have reached the point where they can match the image quality of OLEDs, therefore, they have switched to LCDs. Unfortunately, we have to point out that this is a barefaced lie.

We’ll point to an Amazon feature explaining the differences between LCD and OLED screens to the average consumer, to decide on buying TV screens. While both are capable of displaying vivid colors, OLEDs can also display deeper, more accurate blacks, causing colored backgrounds to appear sharper. Furthermore, LCDs spend more energy. The only edge LCDs have over OLEDs is that they are cheaper.

Now, the alternate theory proposed points to the end of their OLED TV development agreement with Panasonic at the end of last year. They both confirm that they did not meet the desired targets in developing the technology, and it seems unlikely that they would be able to make it commercially viable in the near future. If things had worked out, OLEDs could have been popular enough that it would have driven manufacturing costs down, but that’s not what happened here.

So, as a consequence of the dissolution of that deal, Sony may have lost access to those OLEDs. Rather than buy the screens in a less than favorable deal, they opted to go LCD.

For what it’s worth, having tried the Vita 2000 firsthand, I think the switch from OLED to LCD does not matter in terms of portable play. The screens are not so big that the difference affects gameplay, and it’s not directly comparable to the images generated on a TV. Furthermore, Sony engineers did pull off some hocus pocus, making LCD power consumption equivalent to OLED power consumption. Overall, I do think the Vita 2000 is better at being a portable than the 1st model, even if it does not have all the ideal bells and whistles that fans claim they want. I think Sony would be better served being forthcoming about all this as well, so that consumers make informed choices.

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