If you are evaluating the purchase of one smartphonethe characteristics of the display They are one of the specific ones that you should look at with greater interest. By doing it you will come across the terms “Refresh rate“And in the values 60 Hz, 90 Hz or 120 Hz And this could lead you to ask you what the refresh rate of smartphones is and what is best among these values. To do it simple, with refresh rate you mean the Display updating frequencya technical feature that directly affects the fluidity With which you see the images on the screen move: the higher the refresh rate, the more frequently the content of the screen is updated every second and, of reflection, the more fluid the visual perception returned from the display itself will be. To go more on the practical, a 60 Hz panel updates 60 times per secondone to 90 Hz does it 90 timeswhile one to 120 Hz reaches up to 120 updates every second. This means that animations, scrolls and interactions with the interface are more fluid and natural.
But is it really worth choosing the highest number? Not necessarily. A 120 Hz display can be a huge advantage in video games or during the fast scrollingbut in more static contexts-such as reading an e-mail or vision of a video-the benefits become marginal, while the battery consumption increases. Regarding this last aspect, it must be said that the most recent devices optimally manage consumption, thanks to technologies such as panels Ltpo (Low-stump Polycrystalline Oxide), the refresh rate can be dynamically adapted to the content shown. If you are therefore wondering if a 120 Hz display is always preferred to one with a minor refresh rate, the answer is … it depends on how you use the phone.
What is refresh rate
THE Smartphone displayUnlike what happens in reality, they do not show continuous movement. Instead, they display a very rapid sequence of static images, and our brain reconstructs the continuity of the movement by filling the lowercases between one frame and another. This process is similar to that of cinema, where 24 frames per second (or FPS) are sufficient to give the impression of a continuous flow (as evidenced by the empirical test that can be carried out online on this page). However, smartphones can do much more: updating the image several times to the second makes the movement perceived even more fluid and realistic.
The refresh rate, expressed in Hz (Hertz), indicates exactly How many times the contents of the screen is updated every second. An update a 60 Hz It involves an interval of 16.6 milliseconds between one image and another, while a 120 Hz display reduces this time to just 8.3 milliseconds. The result is a lower latency, or a minor delay between the user’s input (like a swipe) and the visual response returned by the device. But this improvement has a “price”. Each update of what appears on the display consumes some energy, and a screen that is updated more often consumes inevitably more. In the first smartphones with 120 Hz panels, this feature was constantly active, with a remarkable impact on autonomy. Today, fortunately, the most advanced panels exploit advanced technologies, such as that Ltpo (Low-stump Polycrystalline Oxide), which allow the Refresh rate to adapt in real time. Thus, while reading a static page, the frequency can also drop to 10 Hz, significantly reducing consumption.
This intelligent management allows smartphones to balance performance and battery life. Not all telephones support these variable frequencies, especially in the low range of the market, so watch out what you buy to avoid bad surprises later. Economic models usually offer only “fixed” refresh rate at 60 or 90 Hz, and in these cases the impact on the battery can be more marked. Even if a 120 Hz panel may seem the best option ever, it should not be forgotten that not all the contents take advantage of it. Many videos, for example, are recorded a 24 or 30 fps. In these cases, increasing the refresh rate does not improve the fluidity with which the video will be displayed: the screen can also update one hundred times, but the video will still provide 24 frames per second.
When playing, however, the story changes. THE Games optimized for high frame rate They can fully exploit a 90 or 120 Hz display, offering not only a higher visual yield but also a competitive advantage: the images are updated more quickly, and this allows shorter reaction times. For those who regularly play from smartphones, a high refresh rate can make a difference.
However, it must be said that the refresh rate alone does not define the quality of a display. A 120 Hz panel with ax colors, low brightness or slow response times will still be a lower quality screen than a good 60 Hz panel with excellent “factory” calibration. When you evaluate a screen of a smartphone, then, make a 360 degree evaluation and also consider parameters such as the chromatic loyaltythe maximum brightness (expressed in Nits), the support HDR (High Dynamic Range), the resolutionthe pixel density (expressed in Ppi or Pixels for inch), and so on.
Which display to choose between 60, 90 and 120 Hz: advantages and disadvantages
At the end of our topic, therefore, let’s understand Which display to choose between 60, 90 and 120 Hz. A good starting point is to reflect on the use that you will go to make the phone. If you use it to navigate, scale on social media, write or watch video content, a 90 Hz panel often represents a good compromise between fluidity and efficiency. If, on the other hand, you are interested in a visual experience at the top or use the smartphone as a “portable console” with which you play many titles, focus on a 120 Hz display (possibly with variable refresh rate) has much more sense. The 60 Hz, while still remaining a standard in the phones entry-leveltoday they start to stay close to everyone, especially after you try panels with higher frequencies: afterwards it is impossible to go back.
