Briefly talk about the “high refresh rate” of the mobile phone screen
Since last year, the most popular term for smartphones may be high refresh rate.
We have witnessed that many mobile phone manufacturers use high refresh rate as one of their main selling points, and are still vigorously using it as one of the indicators of high display quality. Refresh rate is a property of the display, measured in Hertz (Hz), and manufacturers use it to emphasize a smooth user experience. Computer screen display manufacturers used refresh rate as a selling point a few years ago, and high refresh rate screens were not used on mobile phones until last year.
The release of OnePlus 7 Pro has made the screen refresh rate a topic of concern for smartphone enthusiasts and technical journalists. This device has a 90Hz OLED display, which is 50% higher than the standard 60Hz on the market at the time. Since the great success of OnePlus 7 Pro, many smartphone companies including Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, etc. have followed suit and used smoother displays in their flagship products. This year, this technology has matured rapidly, and many mid-range products are also equipped with high refresh rate screens.
In fact, as early as 2015, Sharp took the lead in launching the first high refresh rate smartphone product. However, they used LCD screens at the time, and Sharp mobile phones had limited influence. The product release did not make waves.
What is the refresh rate?
When the screen displays new content, every pixel needs to be updated. Therefore, every time the screen updates all pixels from top to bottom, it is called a “refresh”, and the refresh rate refers to the frequency of screen update or refresh.
The typical refresh rate for most TVs, PC monitors and smartphone displays is 60Hz. The 60Hz refresh rate means that the screen is refreshed 60 times per second. As for the OnePlus 8 Pro, it has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, which means that the screen can be refreshed up to 120 times per second. As long as the screen refreshes fast enough, the human eye will feel the content watched more smoothly.
Although our naked eyes cannot see the refreshed single frame, we can see a smooth sequence of frames on the display of a smartphone. When playing the same animation, the screen refreshed at 90Hz produces 50% more frames than a 60Hz monitor. Also because of these extra frames, sliding on a screen that supports 90Hz, 120Hz or even higher frame rates will be smoother .
You can use this website to try the difference between different frame rates.
What if the iPhone introduced a high refresh rate screen?
High refresh rate is no stranger to fruit fans. In 2017, Apple officially launched ProMotion dynamic frame rate adjustment technology on iPad Pro , achieving a screen refresh rate of up to 120Hz, but Apple has not yet used this technology on iPhone. However, the smoothness of the iPhone’s system, that is, the “following hand” is very good, and the smooth iPhone many years later has made many Apple users not cold about this suddenly popular technology.
However, we are expected to witness the performance of the high refresh rate iPhone for the first time this year. It is currently reported that iPhone 12 Pro Max will still be equipped with ProMotion technology. Compared with the LCD screen of iPad Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max will have better effect than LCD screen by virtue of the characteristics of OLED screen. Samsung has done statistics, also with a 90Hz screen, the smear length of OLED is about 20% shorter than that of LCD. A shorter smear length means a smoother user experience.
If Apple implements ProMotion technology on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, we will see the smoothest iPhone ever.
High refresh rate is not tasteless, but not all
The high refresh rate is an icing on the cake. A screen refresh rate higher than 60Hz can definitely provide users with a smoother experience. But now it has slowly become an indicator of screen quality, which I think is unreasonable. The higher the refresh rate does not mean that the screen quality is better, because the screen quality not only depends on the frame rate, but also depends on the manufacturer’s calibration and software and hardware level optimization. In my opinion, it is not a “function that can’t be returned after use.”
In addition, high refresh rates often lead to problems such as high power consumption, which is why Samsung, the monitor leader, has been slow to provide 2K+120Hz for its flagship products while opening options. For this technology, I am looking forward to this year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max to give a very good answer. “Do your best” is Apple’s consistent style.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.