The critical splay‐to‐bend‐alignment transition in a liquid‐crystal cell treated by parallel rubbing (&pgr; cell) was investigated to improve the optical performance of the display mode using this cell with a compensator. By analyzing the free energy in liquid crystal cells, it was found that nematic media with a smallerK33/K11ratio can reduce the transition voltage considerably, and therefore, also reduce the required optical anisotropy of the liquid‐crystal cell. The significantly improved viewing angle for this mode, achieved by using these newly designed parameters, is also confirmed theoretically and experimentally. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.