What is a refresh rate, and how does it affect your smartphone? Here's an explainer of what a 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate on a smartphone actually is.
A number of manufacturers have added 90Hz and 120Hz displays to smartphones — like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra — and lots of numbers are being thrown around , but what do they mean? Most importantly, what will they mean for how you’ll use your smartphone?
Related What is refresh rate? Before we can explain how a 90Hz or 120Hz display will benefit you, we need to unravel exactly what refresh rate is, and to do that, we need to know how displays work. There’s a lot of technical stuff involved here, but at its most basic level, a display works by showing you a series of images, or “frames.” To make a video, displays need to show a series of frames, one after another. The refresh rate of a monitor is how many times an image is updated per second.
What difference will you notice between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz? We’ve already covered this in the last section, but it’s worth mentioning again that an increase in smoothness and responsiveness are the primary benefits you’ll get from an increased refresh rate. Scrolling through your apps and swiping across menus will feel smoother and more responsive as a result of the higher refresh rate.
Does it have downsides? Like many technological advancements, an increase in refresh rate does come with a few potential pitfalls. The biggest disadvantage is increased battery consumption. Pushing out twice as many frames means an increased burden on the battery, and if your phone struggles with slim battery life at the best of times, you may want to disable the higher refresh rate in order to save juice.
In basic terms, the phone is able to change the refresh rate to match your actions on screen. If you’re looking at a still image, it’ll pull the refresh rate down, as there’s less need to refresh the image every second. Or, if you’re playing a fast-paced game, it’ll ratchet the refresh rate up so you can get the best possible experience.
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