First Reflective LCD indoor monitor – 32“ FullHD true-color 60Hz

The lower power consumption claim seems to be against ordinary (backlit) LCD monitors, not e-ink. It's kind of surprising that their tech specs section doesn't actually list typical power consumption given that claim. Their technology page claims "Sun Vision Display's reflective LCDs consume less than 6 watts..." and also later "Sun Vision Display’s 32” reflective color LCD panel uses less than 5 watts of energy." (not a typo; the two numbers are different).

Still, if that's true, 5-6W is much better than the equivalent sized Samsung Frame TVs in art mode.

That's an amazing battery life.

Can confirm, it's amazing. The Bip 2 actually dipped in battery time, with first gen I could do 55 days even (HR off). It's the closest match for Pebble fans. It even has a custom firmware/apps scene. Truly beyond me why no one else pushes these. Is it hard to source? Or is display quality so important for the masses, that they rather charge every 2 days?

Coincidentally Sharp also makes 32” reflective 1080p LCDs.

Yeah I wondering the same think. All my screen are FullHD, however they are smaller (21" / 23").

I could like a smaller screen - e.g. 21". This could also be cheaper and more affordable.

Yeah it feels like they are targeting the wrong market. Could certainly be the display of choice for battery applications.

Wouldn’t my hand touching the screen of my phone block out the light that needs to reflect back to me?

What you describe around a two-mode screen is basically the whole IP around the transflective displays made by 'Pixel Qi' (Unrelated to google pixel).

I know they made a few devices and saw some projects of people retrofitting them in acer and thinkpad laptops. For a period maybe 10 years ago adafruit also sold the display and driver as a standalone. Then I assume they went bust (around 2015, according to wikipedia).

Would be great if someone made those again to retrofit on business laptops.

Edit: here is a demo with the transflective and light-up mode of the Qi10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi6DbFyZde8

A simple external light source could be enough?

The screen made already a descent job in "dark" places [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehqj0W3koP0

the technology for using this in low light is called a lamp!

in all seriousness, eink devices use something called front lights, which are embedded in the side of the tablet or device and project light from the edge of the screen. it works very well, even allowing red or amber light coloration which is great on the eyes. i have read that front lighting adds a little bit of thickness to a device, though my devices with the technology seem just as then as any of my regular lcd devices.

I recall old Thinkpads had a little lamp at the top of the screen as an early keyboard light. I guess we've come full circle and that ancient lighting technology will make a come back ;)

Interesting conclusion:

    In conclusion, the contrast of the Eink panel is obviously
    better in all the tested lighting conditions above.
    However, even without direct light and in dimmer conditions
    the Sun Vision Display RLCD works quite well for me
    (with my particular eye strain issues, I consider it to be
    actually more comfortable not using it in direct light,
    but your mileage may vary)

One of the biggest reasons LCDs are so inefficient is that they block most of the light. Each R/G/B subpixel blocks everything that isn't that colour and turns it into heat. The polarizer also has to block all the light that is the wrong polarization and turn that into heat.

This means that the backlight has to be incredibly bright relative ambient light. So even if you positioned it to harness the power of the sun as a backlight, it'd be a lot dimmer than the ambient sunlight.

The reflective LCD in the OP is nice because the sun is behind you instead of shining in your face.

TL;DR, you'd end up having to squint your eyes anyway since the display would be much dimmer than the sun you're staring at, unless you rigged up some cardboard so you didn't have to stare into the sun.

Transparent LCD display used to be commonly available for use with overhead projectors. Back in the 80s and 90s, "every" classroom had these projectors to put transparencies on, or just to write on with a dry erase pen. So, put together a transparent LCD screen to go on top and boom, LCD projector for your computer. Of course, integrating the bulb, the LCD, and the optics happened shortly after (with much smaller LCDs) with nicer output, but less flexibility.

Yes, same as paper.

Yes. There is no backlight; the screen doesn't emit any light whatsoever by itself.

It actually sounds more appealing than you would think. You could for instance run warmer lighting in your office after sunset and the display would not be blasting blue light in your face until bedtime. Great idea but I'll wait til the price comes down.

Demand and practicality. It's much harder to use a RLCD. Remember how everyone used to complain about how bad the GBA screen was and how bright a light you needed to view it? Early laptops had RLCDs too but those are harder to use on a plane or train and color only makes it harder.

Huh, glossy finish on a screen that always needs light shining on it? Probably necessary for the image quality and would be worse with matte, but seems counterintuitive.

The response time seems rather bad, at least compared to regular LCD displays. You can see the mouse cursor leave a trail: https://i.imgur.com/S1fNFFl.png

The outdoor performance looks amazing though.

I don't see a price at all. Of course, that usually means the price is extremely high.

I wonder if it'd be worthwhile, given it'd be difficult to control the light input - would it be possible to get accurate colour reproduction without intensely controlled light sources?

No, it'd be a terrible ebook reader display. RLCDs are very hard to view in poor light especially color ones and don't have the same perfect viewing angles.

For mostly static monochrome content like text in an eBook eInk is a good fit. There was a few reflective LCD eReaders in the late 2000s, early 2010s but they fizzled out pretty quick once eInk devices reached an acceptable price range. Their only value was being cheaper.

but eink doesn't refresh at 60hz. it's static. for text eink, but for video rlcd handles it better