Why no transflective LCD portables?

The Daylight DC-1 was discussed earlier this year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40456834

As a person who still wishes he could really replace his Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4110, it pains me to note that:

- they're dim (in comparison to an otherwise equivalent display)

- they don't showroom well (because they're dim)

- marketing them is difficult --- not many folks are willing to pay a premium to avoid the need to do the "hipster dance" and shade their screen (or just wait a bit to use their device)

The ideal would be for a retailer to set up a daylight viewing booth in all their spaces (expensive) and then convince folks to test/compare devices in what is essentially a suntan booth (health implications).

I wish that someone would revisit the Lenovo Yogabook which had a secondary e-ink display as keyboard/drawing area/e-ink tablet as a reasonable compromise.

EDIT: I will note that there are (or were?) some such devices available from specialty suppliers for nautical use, or in rugged devices intended for use on construction sites.

The lack of transflective and reflective display in common use is a mystery to me too -- while e-ink dominates on power usage and contrast, reflective and transflective displays (potentially) allow much greater pixel density and refresh rates, and the power requirements keep going down to the point where I think that they would be competitive.

We modded x230s for a while with the Pixel Qi display: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNLMDiFjCjo

They were okay, each eye would receive a slightly different image due to the poor viewing angles of the 2010 tech.

It would be really cool if someone made a modern version that fit into a standard laptop housing: eDP 30/40 pin + 14.0" / 15.6" / etc.

Most of Garmin's smart watches use MIP transflective displays but that's slowly being phased out for AMOLED

Where's the demand for it? What's the use case that would make me want one over a traditional LCD or OLED-based device?

What benefit do I get from turning off the backlight? Battery life? Why do I need that when batteries are so cheap/abundant?

It's far easier to just toss in a big battery. For example, the Odin 2 is a handheld gaming device where you can get about 8 hours of battery life playing extremely demanding emulated games like PS2 and GameCube, or play longer than you can stay awake with older games like Super Nintendo or Game Boy Advance.

Or look at your typical PC or Mac laptop, these devices are going the entire workday with the backlight on with no problem.

And of course you'd get even more run time with an external portable battery.

These devices are clever but just make less and less sense over time as our more prevalent technology improves.

Plus, we have more panel choices in the traditional space than ever. Mini-LED devices are fantastic in bright sunlight because the backlight is just so powerful. OLED is incredible for contrast and great color quality and accuracy.

What is transreflexive offering over those solutions?

I spent a long time looking for one (and also just a transflective/reflective monitor that would work well in full sunlight) and I'm dumbfounded that there's nothing available. We had the tech for this 25 years ago and it's supposedly way cheaper than lcds. Refresh rate and colour quality are lower than LCD/oleds, but surely the vast majority of the working population doesn't care all that much about how true to life colours are? Especially if it means that you can actually _see_ those colours in bright sunlight? I'm hoping something will be available in the coming years as I really enjoy working outside but under the current conditions it's not really possible.

The Hannspree Hannsnote 2 is now available as well with more RLCD devices on the way. Biggest concerns with their first release include dark display (comparable to eink kaleido 3, but with more colors), no frontlight, and weak battery.

I had an amazfit smartwatch that used a transflective LCD for its display. It absolutely made sense for that use case. (Running in daylight). .

Maybe this is perfect for "beach reader" ereaders.

Physics prohibits the existence of one-way mirrors. If you make a transflective screen, it will also reflect less light than a purely reflective screen.

So it is better to make either a purely emissive (OLED) / transmissive (LCD) screen, or a purely reflective screen with an added front light.

And why are there so few devices with reflective LCD screens? They are quicker, but they reflect less light than the electrophoretic screens from E Ink.

E Ink in white state is white at the top, while transflective LCDs display black and white by blocking or allowing reflections at the other end to go back up layers of polarizers. I'd guess that that difference makes E Ink significantly superior to LCDs. This is totally "old man's why it can't be done" hallucination, though.

Simple answer - oled/(something)led are much better at daylight, because lcd have semi-transparent layer of electrodes over display, where lost about 20% of light.

If somebody invent cheap lcd without electrodes on cover glass (may be all electrodes on back side), things could change, but for now people buy lcd because of cheapness.

I don't think it's the same technology but the Playdate [0] has a very reflective screen without a back light. I belive the screen is made by Sharp.

[0] https://play.date/

Like the one in the Gameboy Color, that used colors but no backlight?

I've still got the Notion Ink Adam with Pixel Qi transflective display and it beats everything modern in bright sunlight.

I have an Eyemoo Epaper S1, and am very happy with it. It works great indoors with the front light set to a low brightness. The screen is noticeably more comfortable than a regular LCD or OLED. Combined with a tablet stand and either a Bluetooth speaker or wireless headphones, it's perfect for what it is. It filled the biggest gaps I had when only using a monochrome e-ink monitor. It allows me to comfortably view websites in color and watch videos at a normal refresh rate.

Unfortunately, most reviewers seem to have completely missed the point of the device. If you want high contrast and color accuracy, use an OLED. If you want to read outside in the sun, use e-ink.

https://eyemootech.com/