The whole truth behind smartphone screen refresh rates

6 min read

 

The feature of high refresh rates (High Refresh Rate) on smartphone screens is not born today or last year, but we saw it for the first time in the Razer Phone that was launched in 2017. But it was the year 2020 that we began to notice that high refresh rates are no longer limited to Screens for gaming phones only.

 

The whole truth behind smartphone screen refresh rates

Other phone manufacturers started craving this screen: OnePlus, Oppo, Samsung, Xiaomi, and soon the feature was included in their flagship phones. In fact, you can now ask which companies have not used the feature of high refresh rates in their phones yet, and you will find that LG was one of those who were one step behind. However, if you are looking for the feature of high refresh rates in your next phone, you should know a set of very important points, which we will review with you today in this article.

 

In 2020, we started to see high refresh rates on the screens of mid-range phones as well, which cost no more than $300. And you won't find one or two phones, but Realme, Oppo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus will find phones with the same technology oriented to the middle class.

 

At first glance, you may feel that your phone's support for such a feature is great, but what we missed is that the feature of high refresh rates is only an integral part of the phone's specifications. As high refresh rates will require more battery power and will impose more effort on the phone's graphic processing characteristics, especially while playing games. So, looking at it from a different perspective, having a phone with a screen with high refresh rates but poor processing characteristics would be self-contradictory and very frustrating.

 

Some sites are starting to use performance benchmarks based on phones with high refresh rates, and these results may give you an initial idea of ​​what you can expect with some graphics-intensive games, and you will eventually notice that there is a noticeable difference in the results.

 

performance benchmarks

For example, a phone like ROG Phone 3 has a screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz, while another phone like the Nord1100 comes with a screen with a refresh rate of 90Hz, and these results will give you a very important idea, which suggests that the display, no matter how different its refresh rates, is restricted and linked The type and strength of the processing chips inside. There is a very large discrepancy in performance when comparing the results between high-end phones and mid-range phones that have high refresh rates.

 

Phones like the Google Pixel 5 and OnePlus Nord powered by the Snapdragon 765G chip were unable to achieve 60fps by GFXBench benchmarks, and the situation was similar with the Nord N10 with the Snapdragon 690 processor and the Nord N100 with the Snapdragon 460 chip inside failed to produce 40 frameworks. Ironically, these phones had a screen with a refresh rate of 90Hz, but in reality, none of them managed to achieve 90 frames in graphics-heavy games.

 

A phone like the POCO X3 was able to skip 60 frames per second, but it has a screen with a refresh rate of 120Hz, and in theory, a phone is supposed to achieve the number of frames parallel to the speed of the refresh rate in order to benefit from the advantage of the high refresh rate.

 

There is another fact about smartphones in general and Chinese phones in particular, which is that the capabilities of the system and phones are manipulated to appear high in the results of third-party reviews, which guarantees them to achieve higher results and gain the satisfaction of a greater percentage of consumers. Perhaps this explains the superiority of the POCO X3 over the Google Pixel, even though it has a less powerful processor.

 

So where exactly is the problem?

 

We have to admit one fact there is a very big gap between the phones of the upper class and the phones of the middle of the economy. This does not mean that Qualcomm has not made any progress over the past years in favor of the middle-class phone processing chips, but what is clear to us on the ground is that the performance of the graphic processing characteristics in particular is very low in the middle-class phones compared to the top-class phones, but even the top-class phones, Suffer in results based on the performance of graphical processing characteristics.

 

Qualcomm 888

This may have prompted Qualcomm to announce the Snapdragon 888 Lite chipset. This chip will address the noticeable lag rate and a slowdown in high-end phones, but for us as consumers, we hope that careful consideration will be given to the Snapdragon 700 series chipsets in which mid-range phones are being developed, and they are the only chips that actually deserve upgrading from the state they are in Now, in order to reduce the large gap in graphics performance between it and the category of flagship phones.

 

How about daily use?

 

In general, high refresh rates mean that you will benefit from a faster user experience and move between pages more quickly, but when it comes to gaming, which is the right place to give our opinion about 90Hz screens, we will find that some mid-range phones like the Nord N100 that contained the Snapdragon 460 chip from Qualcomm It really "struggles" to even 60 frames. Precisely for this reason, most companies state: “Refresh rates will vary according to settings, applications used, and processing limitations.”

 

How about daily use

This means that the companies themselves understand that the processing chips are causing the bottleneck. But if we look at it more positively, like looking at light 2D and 3D games, you are sure to have a great gaming experience. So, it really depends on the type of applications and the form of use. But in the end, any user will be very disappointed as long as he was lucky to own a mid-range phone with high refresh rates.

 

Refresh rates are just one advantage

 

It is worth noting that the refresh rates are only among the classification factors of the phone screen specifications, and are not among the factors that determine the quality, the purity of details, the sharpness of the brightness, or all other features that are of greater importance to any user. If we put a 60Hz OLED screen and a 120Hz LCD screen, you will be surprised that the result is in favor of an OLED 60Hz screen, although it has the lowest refresh rates.

 

Refresh rates are just one advantage

The reason is pretty clear, an OLED screen offers the better color depth, operates at lower temperatures, and consumes less power - regardless of burn-in and normalization issues - companies are now struggling to enable their phones with OLED technology, meaning that the display technology itself is more important than refresh rates. For the consumer.

 

Add to that the color factor, as both Oppo and Apple have moved towards 10bit color support, and Oppo confirms that it plans to support HEIF 10bit, and this means we are fighting a new battle in better color reproduction and display on smartphones during the current world.

 

At the same time, most flagship phone users say that they are unable to tell the difference between a 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rate while using the phone, which means that they will later look at display type, color accuracy, and HDR technology more than refresh rates. That's not to underestimate the high refresh rates, but it's just a very small piece to solving the entire puzzle. So before you plan to buy a phone with a high refresh rate, first make sure that it is able to take advantage of these high rates.

 

 

 

 

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