Comment Re:Should have stayed old school (Score 2) 174
LEDs most certainly can be "partially on", by regulating the current through them rather than operating at a fixed current (and thus fixed voltage). There are ICs that do that, e.g. the On Semiconductor CAT4016, though that is used for indicator LEDs rather than high-power illumination.
LEDs don't even have a specific "fully on" current. They are specified by their manufacturers with a maximum continuous current, but that isn't "fully on". The specifications also give a maximum pulsed current at some particular duty cycle, but that isn't really "fully on" either, because the maximum achievable current may be higher with a lower duty cycle. It's not clear that "fully on" actually has any specific meaning for an LED.
It's less expensive and more efficient to pulse-width modulate LEDs than to adjust the current, so pulse width modulation is definitely the most common way of varying LED intensity.