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Comment by 1718627440 | Hacker News Reader

Actually latency is way less of a problem, if the input is buffered, as you can just type ahead.

I think we're talking about different interpretations of the word "latency", both valid. You are thinking more about UI freezes and missing input, right? EDIT: or do you mean that bad latency numbers are less crucial as long as input isn't dropped or out of order? In that case I think it depends on the task.

I meant "time between input and visible change on screen", or lag between writing on a tablet and the screen or eink showing the drawn line. It's not really as crucial when typing, but especially for writing or drawing on a tablet low input latency is the difference between getting in a real flow state or not.

Latency is subjective, but yes, I was referring to GUI latencies mainly. System design is increasingly more important when building new alternatives to existing architectures. x86, ARM are much larger chipsets than before, but smartphones do not really need a single operating system for making phone calls and browsing Youtube. What I'd like to see is more low latency devices that can compartmentalize applications and cores based on power consumption and speed requirements. Thinks like a notepad, calculator, and SMS app do not require Android 17, which, on my newest phone, takes over 2 minutes to reboot. In the past, the CPU would use big.LITTLE cores (like the ARM Cortex A53 and A72), but there's also a bootup cost to running those compared to a simple calculator or microcontroller. It would be ideal to have a dual display flip phone that is always on for phone calls and SMS (using something like Symbian OS), whereas the larger cores and OS can be turned off when not needed.

E-ink has had some improvements- I'm acquainted with the developers of this project: https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-paper-monitor

Refresh rate is only one component of the system- an integrated display controller can lower the latency, and of course, the choice of computer affects the speed as well. Their choice to go with USB-C Alt is a good idea.

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