An IMOD consumes as little as 6 percent of the handset's battery power compared to nearly 50 per cent for an LCD. This characteristic will play a very crucial role in the coming days as people increasingly use mobile phones for the Internet, text messaging, and playing games, music and videos. Such increased usage puts severe constraints on power management for LCDs, most of which cannot be read at all unless they have a backlight shining up through them.

IMOD displays simply reflect ambient light the way a printed paper or a butterfly wing does. LCDs rather turn black in bright daylight. Being reflective, IMOD displays are clearer and more vivid and far easier to read in bright daylight. An IMOD-equipped mobile set can run a lot longer on a single charge. While an LCD-equipped handset gives about 50 minutes of video playback, the same phone with IMOD display would give about 150 minutes. Also, IMODs are very sturdy.

Laboratory tests show that these can last about eight years at continuous operation without failure. They can switch on and off their basic unit cells within about 10 microseconds, which is about 1000 times faster than LCD displays, making them much better suited to video.