[Certified]

Whatever happened to the transflective lcds that were popular in carputers in the 2000s? They seem to be a perfect fit for a tablet and I have been puzzled that no one has jumped on using them in one.

from the transflective wikipedia page [1]

"A transflective liquid-crystal display is a liquid-crystal display (LCD) with an optical layer that reflects and transmits light (transflective is a portmanteau of transmissive and reflective). Under bright illumination (e.g. when exposed to daylight) the display acts mainly as a reflective display with the contrast being constant with illuminance. However, under dim and dark ambient situations the light from a backlight is transmitted through the transflective layer to provide light for the display. The transflective layer is called a transflector. It is typically made from a sheet polymer. It is similar to a one-way mirror but is not specular."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-crystal_d...

[numpad0]

LEDs replaced CCFL tubes in backlighting. LED was still too dark until iPhone 4S or 5, but once it became bright enough and automatic brightness control matured, it quickly eliminated needs for transflective displays.

Transflective displays are also generally "low quality" in eyes of regular consumers. That drives down margins and eliminate less flashy options.

[xnx]

The daylight computer is a transflective LCD with fancy marketing.

[Certified]

Thanks for pointing that out. I thought it was some sort of variation on an E-ink display because of the black and white limitation. Nothing about transflective tech limits it from full color other than price. I guess that leads me to an evolution of my question: Why are no* tablets using full color transflective displays?

*I did find the HannsNote2 [1] does, but it only came out last year, and this tech has been around for donkey's years.

[1] https://www.hannspree.com/product/hannsnote2

[WillAdams]

They don't showroom well, so were discontinued outside of nautical usage and special-purpose outdoor devices.

Unfortunate, my Stylistic Fujitsu ST-4110 w/ transflective display was one of my favourite devices ever.

[layer8]

There is https://eazeye.com/.