Products · Pattern or everyday thing
E-ink displays
Raised as a usability problem by 49 people on Hacker News over 11 years (2016–2026), in 39 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Slow e-ink screen refresh makes interaction frustratingUnreviewed
20162026- Screens refresh slowly in an annoying way, making interaction frustrating2026-10-15
- Scrolling and typing are too annoying without a high refresh mode2025-05-01
- Screen takes about 12 seconds to refresh each update2023-10-02
Colour e-ink screen refreshes too slowly for comfortable useUnreviewed
20162026- E-ink screen updates lag behind fast scrolling, so content and position feedback is unsatisfying2026-08-11
- Touch interfaces copied from phones suffer slow response, ghosting, and poor scrolling on e-ink displays2026-08-11
- Drawing on the e-ink tablet lags because the screen refreshes slowly, so it is not instantaneous2025-12-14
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Colors wash out with the front light, hurting readability and contrast2026-10-15
- Screens refresh slowly in an annoying way, making interaction frustrating2026-10-15
- No feedback after clicking, so user can't tell if the click registered2026-08-18
- E-ink screen updates lag behind fast scrolling, so content and position feedback is unsatisfying2026-08-11
- Touch interfaces copied from phones suffer slow response, ghosting, and poor scrolling on e-ink displays2026-08-11
- Missing a small touch target forces a slow screen refresh that must be undone before retrying2026-08-10
- Drawing on the e-ink tablet lags because the screen refreshes slowly, so it is not instantaneous2025-12-14
- Everything is there but the phone is unpleasant to use2025-08-31
- E-ink refresh lag and ghosting make on-screen typing much slower2025-08-31
- Scrolling and typing are too annoying without a high refresh mode2025-05-01
- Image refreshes take seconds, making it unusable for handheld devices2025-02-11
- E-ink pixel refresh limits make regular laptop software a bad user experience2024-12-15
- E-ink screens are basically unusable for interactive tasks2024-05-24
- E-ink displays are extremely slow to update, worse with color2024-05-15
- Scrolling on e-ink displays is very annoying to use2024-01-31
- Images are artefacted and automatic refresh is jarring; small text hard to read2023-10-02
- Screen takes about 12 seconds to refresh each update2023-10-02
- Screen takes over 10 seconds to redraw, slowing interaction2023-09-25
- Color e-ink screen is slow, ugly, drains battery and strains eyes in the dark2023-05-04
- Screen refresh flashing is distracting when reading2023-01-11
- Considerable pen lag depending on software interpretation2022-12-05
- Colour e-ink screens take 15-20 seconds to update and lack partial refresh2022-11-14
- Old and new text overlap in blurry, low-contrast mess while scrolling or editing2022-06-09
- Full refreshes take longer and cause marked flashing, hurting complex dynamic displays2022-05-17
- Loading spinners and animated GIFs are annoying; mouse pointer leaves trails on E-Ink2022-05-16
- E-ink latency makes typing annoying when manufacturers don't get it right2022-05-16
- Modifying text blocks and scrolling quickly cause ghosting and slow refreshes2022-04-29
- Significant lag between keystroke and character appearing breaks typing flow and makes corrections hard2022-04-28
- Display refreshes too slowly, making it unsuitable for e-readers2022-04-28
- Scrolling and UI transitions become worse than LCD due to slow refresh and ghosting2022-04-20
- Greyed-out or coloured text on shaded backgrounds is hard to read on e-ink2021-12-03
- Custom scrolling mimics smooth scrolling badly, feels jarring for users2021-02-18
- Slow display refresh makes typing text frustrating2021-02-09
- Refresh is so slow that typing or scrolling would be almost impossible2021-01-17
- Screen flashes black and white multiple times whenever it refreshes, which is disruptive2020-11-12
- Full screen refresh takes 20+ seconds, making it unusable for real-time interaction2020-08-27
- Color e-ink screen refreshes too slowly to use comfortably2020-08-02
- Switching windows leaves faint artifacts on the screen2020-07-20
- Slow refresh makes e-ink unusable for video and scrolling2020-07-20
- Mouse cursor is essentially unusable due to slow e-ink refresh2020-07-20
- Lag makes writing in Google Docs slow to interact with2020-04-13
- Users can't find the close button on the pop-up, blocking reading the article2020-04-10
- Slow refresh makes touch UI unresponsive; no controls means you can't read past the front page2020-04-10
- Page hijacks the scroll bar on Safari and clicks stop working2020-04-10
- Ghosting requires pressing the clear button; dark themes are basically unusable2020-04-10
- Screen takes 10-30 seconds to refresh, so interaction is very slow2020-02-16
- Switching to Firefox causes a full screen refresh that takes a second2020-01-16
- Reviews say the device is very slow to respond when used2020-01-10
- Low framerate causes lag between input and what is shown2019-07-09
- Slow screen updates make it impossible to rapidly scan through a book2018-12-28