According to one embodiment, a display device includes a plurality of light sources, a display panel illuminated by the light sources and a drive circuit which drives the light sources time-divisionally to emit light sequentially based on a first image signal for displaying an image in color. The drive circuit determines whether visibility of the image displayed in color deteriorates because of external light, extracts from the first image signal a brightness signal when determining that the visibility of the image deteriorates, generates a second image signal based on the brightness signal, and drives the display panel based on the second image signal when the second image signal is generated.