The refresh rate or rather the "hertz" have become the new "megapixels" of today's smart phone, and it is that many companies venture to offer a greater number of hertz on the screens of their mobile devices as a signal. of quality, potency or status. However, as with the number of megapixels, more does not always mean better.
We are going to show you what the refresh rate of your smartphone consists of and what are the differences between all the alternatives on the market. Only then will you know if it is really worth buying an iPhone that has a higher refresh rate on the screen.
What is the refresh rate of your screen?
To explain what the cool rate consists of, it is important that we stop for a moment in the operation of a screen. Far from what we can imagine, the screens do not offer us a static image, the screens turn off and on constantly at a very high speed, in this way and alluding to at the beginning of retinal persistence, It gives us the impression that the screen is maintaining a permanent image, but nothing could be further from the truth.
How does this information lead us to the concept of the refresh rate? Very easy, the refresh rate is basically the number of times the screen is able to turn on and off, that is, to show different content, in a single second, you read that right, in a single second.
Until relatively recently, all mobile phones had 60 Hertz screens, this means that they turn on and off 60 times per second. However, technology has been advancing and how could it be otherwise mobile phones, especially iPhone, too.
Thus, Most mobile companies have been launching terminals in recent years that have refresh rates above 60Hz. as a sign of the quality of its panels and especially of its software. Apple, despite taking its time, has ended up also including this "higher" refresh rate technology to its iPhone, although some devices such as the iPad Pro already had it previously.
Advantages and disadvantages of a higher refresh rate
Obviously and as you could come to imagine, they are not all advantages within the possibility of having a higher refresh rate with respect to the one we have been using lately. In fact, it is possible that despite the previous explanations you still have doubts about its benefits, quoting the movie Little Warriors: "How does this affect the gorgonites?"
The main disadvantage of using a higher screen refresh rate is higher power consumption. We take into account that if previously the screen was turned off and on 60 times, now you will have to do this work between 90 and 120 times in the same period of time, that is, one second. Obviously, this will require a greater flow of lighting and, among other things, greater energy consumption. Although we must take into account the fact that they turn on and off more times but this does not have a proportional impact on consumption because these ignitions are of shorter duration, however, the increase in energy consumption is notable.
And it really is not only energy consumption that is responsible for being part of the list of negative points of the use of higher refreshment rates. Following the logic, the processor of the mobile device or the iPhone in question will have to work more in terms of image processing, That is why, in addition to greater energy consumption, there will also be greater consumption of resources from our mobile phone.
However, for many people these disadvantages do not outweigh the fact that with higher refresh rates, generally between 90Hz and 120Hz, our screen will offer the content more fluidly, appreciating the movement more accurately. This is especially interesting when we play through the mobile phone or navigate through the iOS menus, However, it has hardly any repercussions when it comes to consuming multimedia content since the videos that we regularly watch as well as movies are usually produced at refresh rates significantly lower than 60 Hertz.
How does my iPhone prevent increased battery consumption?
As we have already told you, one of the main disadvantages of using or having a higher refresh rate is precisely the energy consumption. For this reason Most Android phones that have refresh rates above 60Hz have a setting that allows you to disable these higher refresh rates. to have a more adjusted battery consumption.
- Settings> Accessibility> Motion> Limit frame rate
Apple has already thought of all of that and released a software tweak called ProMotion, it is neither more nor less than a software adjustment that allows a variable frequency arrangement in real time, going from 60Hz to 120Hz on the screen depending on the needs of the application that we are using. However, if you wish, you can easily deactivate ProMotion.
In this way, Apple has decided to include refresh rates of 120Hz in its iPhone range, thus mitigating the negative effects of the use of this technology, despite the use of the ProMotion system, in any case a higher refresh rate always implies a higher battery consumption, no matter how small.
What is the refresh rate of my iPhone?
The arrival of the new iPhone 13 was a new assault on the smart mobile phone industry by Apple, however, not all its new devices have ProMotion, that is, a refresh rate of 120Hz, This technology is reserved for iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max only, although the rest of the company's launches in the future are expected to include ProMotion technology in all its versions.