Telecommunications networks are rapidly advancing toward adequate capacity to support multimedia content transmission between mobile terminals. This development opens opportunities for terminal manufacturers to realize functions on the devices that previously have been considered impractical. It is necessary for the terminals, however to exploit advances in new display technologies, such as reflective-color liquid-crystal displays, bistable displays, organic emissive displays, and microdisplays, to make use of the new functionality. The state of the art of mobile phone and personal digital assistant displays as well as some of the emerging technologies are reviewed based on their applicability in new uses in mobile terminals.