Greetings, Dana!

The refresh rates (or what they call “optical response” on e-Ink displays) I’ve read range between 300 and 1000 ms. This is intrinsic in the e-Ink technology, and processor speed has no bearing from what I’ve been able to determine. So, one or two times a second. If you are seeing numbers significantly different than that, I’d love a reference!

For comparison, pixel refresh rate on LCD panels is typically under 10 ms, and full screen refresh rate is usually 60-80 times a second. That’s thirt or forty times as fast as e-Ink is currently. They are working on speeding up the refresh rate on e-Ink, but I’m skeptical that it will ever be suitable for anything like animated video.

Other, completely different technologies might come along that have the same benefit (I.E.: persistance without electrical current, ease of reading/visual similarity to paper). And there are several other display technologies like OLED that have a ton of potential for things like flexible displays and the like.

Regarding waiting for the next generation: that is probably a wise choice. Especially if you are happy with an ebook reader (not e-Ink based) that you have already. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? 🙂

I’m a “if it ain’t broke, that doesn’t mean you can’t spend money trying to get something better” kind of guy 🙂 And I’ve never really had a satisfactory electronic book reader in the past. The iLiad is a great “first generation” e-Ink based reader, but I am absolutely certain better choices will come in the future.