LCDs are very inexpensive commodities; the Playdate has a Memory-in-Pixel display that I would guess costs a little more than an equivalently sized LCD.
So I think it's partly the battery life thing, and partly an intentional aesthetic choice -- this little thing is meant to evoke nostalgia for the days where the compute and display limitations defined a genre of games (see early Game Boy).
Would definitely suggest looking at videos showing the display at various angles before purchasing one. In the right light it is incredibly bright, crisp, and readable, and like any reflective tech it gets better, not worse, in sunlight. However, it really needs light coming from overhead to do its best -- if you are in dim or diffuse indoor light, the screen can be nigh unreadable, especially since it's so tiny!
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LCDs are very inexpensive commodities; the Playdate has a Memory-in-Pixel display that I would guess costs a little more than an equivalently sized LCD.
So I think it's partly the battery life thing, and partly an intentional aesthetic choice -- this little thing is meant to evoke nostalgia for the days where the compute and display limitations defined a genre of games (see early Game Boy).
Would definitely suggest looking at videos showing the display at various angles before purchasing one. In the right light it is incredibly bright, crisp, and readable, and like any reflective tech it gets better, not worse, in sunlight. However, it really needs light coming from overhead to do its best -- if you are in dim or diffuse indoor light, the screen can be nigh unreadable, especially since it's so tiny!