Refresh rate explained: What does 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz mean?
High-end smartphones increasingly boast blazing-fast 90Hz and even 120Hz refresh rate displays. This sounds great on paper. It’s yet another way that smartphones attempt to differentiate themselves from one another. But should you buy a phone because of this latest display tech trend? It honestly depends. The benefits of high refresh rate phones and even how they work is rarely well understood. While games and content can look a lot smoother, whether it’s worth the extra battery consumption depends a lot on the user and the handset. With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about display refresh rates. Opinion: Here’s why I think the refresh rate wars are dumb What is refresh rate? Displays aren’t static. Content and motion appears smooth on your phone’s screen because every pixel updates to display the latest content from your handset’s processor. But this doesn’t happen randomly. Panels update their content at regular intervals, known as the refresh rate. The refr