Quote:
Originally Posted by Frenzie
They've had reflective color LCDs for years:
And of course color E Ink, too:
It must either be really expensive or they just think that reflective LCD doesn't "pop" in the store like your typical oversaturated "who can tell if this is any good with these settings" display.
Supposedly this thing will enter mass production soon:
That and some people think that because you need a light on the side a lack of backlighting is a bug, not a feature. I wonder if frontlighting could work on those reflective LCDs…
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It worked fine when Compag and Dell did it in their PDAs.
https://www.mobiletechreview.com/Dell_Axim_X50v.htm
Transflective LCD has the avantages of saturated color, direct sunlight visibility and fairly good battery life.
Problem is nobody manufactures it in enough volume to make it cheap enough to use in a tablet or ereader.
As for sidelight, lots of cheap thin TVs up to the 70in range use sidelighting.
It's a common approach. Backlighting is nominally better but really only if used for local dimming. And not too many people can tell the difference.
The problem with LCD-alternative displays isn't the tech per se but the economics. It has infrastructure, scale, and history behind it. That makes it cheap enough to swamp out would be competitors.
I wouldn't hold my breath for anything to displace it any time soon.
Even OLED has a tough row to hoe and that's the best candidate out there.