A liquid crystal display element accommodates a reflective portion provided with a concavo-convex reflecting pixel electrode for reflecting incident light from the display face side and displaying information, and a transmissive portion provided with a transmissive pixel electrode for transmitting light that is output from the backlight. The voltages applied to the reflective portion and the transmissive portion are controlled independently. The reflective portion and the transmissive portion have wide viewing angle characteristics. In a wide viewing angle region greater than a certain angle, the luminance of the reflective portion is greater than the luminance of the transmissive portion, whereas in other angle regions the luminance of the transmissive portion is greater than the luminance of the reflective portion. In a wide viewing field mode, the reflective portion and transmissive portion both perform normal display, whereas in the narrow viewing field mode, the transmissive portion performs normal display, while the reflective portion performs cancelling data display, thereby rendering unviewable the display content of the transmissive portion from beyond a certain viewing angle. It is thus possible to provide a semi-transmissive liquid crystal display device and a portable terminal device switchable between a narrow viewing field mode and a wide viewing field mode.