When evaluating a display, power consumption is often treated as a secondary specification. But in many real-world applications, power has a direct impact on battery runtime, thermal management, system design, cost saving, and overall performance.

That is where Mini-LED with Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) offers an important advantage over conventional edge-lit LCD technology.

At Lincoln Technology Solutions, we put that difference to the test.

What is FALD (Full Array Local Dimming)?

Instead of lighting the screen from the edges, like the traditional edge-lit, FALD places LEDs in a full grid behind the panel. Each zone can dim or brighten as needed, giving:

• Ultra-high contrast (deep blacks and bright highlights side by side).
• Reduced halo/blooming effect around bright objects.
• Exceptional HDR performance, critical for industries like broadcast and medical imaging.

Figure. LTS’s LCD display stack, (a) Edge-lit and (b) FALD typical film arrangement

FALD requires more hardware and control algorithms but yields superior performance. FALD dramatically improves power efficiency by illuminating only the parts of the display that need it. With hundreds or even thousands of independently controlled zones (or even individual LEDs), FALD dynamically adjusts brightness of each independent zone in real-time. A simple downscaling FALD algorithm can compute in an inexpensive field programmable gate array (FPGA). The algorithm buffers data line-by-line until the final pixel row of a designated LED zone is reached. Then, the total grayscale value of each zone in the row is calculated during horizontal blanking. By performing the calculation at the end of each row in this manner, frame buffers and computational time at the end of the frame aren’t required. This method prevents latency between the backlight and video stream.

The Test: FALD vs. Edge-Lit Over Time

We ran a side-by-side comparison of a Mini-LED FALD display and a conventional edge-lit display, showing the same dynamic content continuously while monitoring energy consumption.

The time-lapse makes the difference easy to see.

At the 12-hour mark, the Mini-LED FALD display had consumed approximately 13 Wh, compared with 57 Wh for the edge-lit display. That represents approximately 77% lower energy consumption under the tested conditions.

In this specific test configuration, the Mini-LED FALD display demonstrated approximately 77% lower energy consumption than the edge-lit display. Read our Whitepaper.

Over extended operation, the difference became substantial:

Results are based on this specific test configuration, content, brightness settings, and operating conditions. Actual power consumption and savings will vary by display design, brightness requirements, content, dimming algorithm, and application.

The number is interesting. But why FALD can reduce power is the more important engineering story.

Why FALD Can Use Less Power

A conventional edge-lit LCD illuminates the panel using LEDs positioned around its edges. The backlight generally remains active across the display, even when portions of the image are dark.

Mini-LED FALD takes a different approach.

Instead of treating the backlight as one largely uniform light source, FALD divides it into independently controlled dimming zones. The display can increase illumination behind bright portions of an image while reducing it significantly behind darker areas.

In simple terms:

Edge-lit: Light the backlight, then block the light where it isn’t needed.

FALD: Deliver more light where the image needs it and less where it doesn’t.

For content with a mixture of bright and dark areas, that difference can translate into meaningful power savings.

Lower Power Is Really a System-Level Benefit

For many embedded and industrial applications, reducing display power is valuable for reasons that extend far beyond the electricity itself.

Longer battery life and runtime. In portable and battery-powered systems such as drone controllers, field equipment, mobile medical devices, and rugged handhelds, every watt matters. Lower average display power can help extend operating time between charges.

Reduced heat and thermal load. Power consumed by a display ultimately contributes to heat. Reducing average power can lower the thermal burden inside the system, potentially simplifying thermal-management challenges and improving operating conditions for surrounding electronics.

Greater flexibility for system designers. When the display requires less of the system’s overall power and thermal budget, engineers may have more flexibility elsewhere in the design.

And power efficiency is only part of the FALD story.

Better Light Control Means Better Image Control

The same local-dimming architecture that can reduce power also enables one of Mini-LED FALD’s biggest optical advantages: significantly improved contrast.

Because individual zones can dim behind dark image areas while others remain bright, FALD can produce deeper blacks alongside bright highlights. This supports:

• Higher dynamic contrast
• Improved HDR performance
• Better black levels
• Greater perceived image depth
• Improved visibility of detail in mixed bright and dark scenes

This becomes particularly valuable in applications where image information matters, including medical imaging, professional monitors, broadcast equipment, outdoor displays, industrial systems, and high-performance controllers.

What About High-Brightness Outdoor Displays?

There is an important distinction.

The 77% reduction demonstrated in our test should not be interpreted as a universal power-saving figure for every Mini-LED FALD display.

A high-brightness, outdoor-readable display operating at elevated luminance may have very different power requirements. Zone count, image content, target brightness, LED architecture, local-dimming algorithms, panel efficiency, and operating environment all influence actual consumption.

For this reason, we view the demo as an illustration of the power-saving potential of intelligently controlled backlighting, rather than a blanket efficiency claim.

The bigger engineering question is not:

“Will every FALD display consume 77% less power?”

It is:

“Can we deliver the required optical performance while using light, power, and thermal resources more intelligently?”

With Mini-LED FALD, the answer can be YES.

It’s Not Just About a Better Picture

Mini-LED FALD is often discussed primarily in terms of contrast and image quality. Those benefits are significant, but for embedded applications, the technology can contribute to the performance of the entire system.

Lower average power. Longer potential runtime. Reduced thermal load. Higher contrast. Better control over light.

That combination makes FALD particularly compelling when display performance cannot be considered separately from the power and thermal constraints of the product around it.

At Lincoln Technology Solutions, we develop Mini-LED FALD solutions across a range of display sizes, brightness levels, zone architectures, and application requirements. Because the best display is not simply the one with the highest specification. It is the one engineered around how the entire system needs to perform.