What does a 120hz screen refresh rate mean for a smartphone?

Over the past couple of years, leading phone manufacturers like Google, Samsung, and Xiaomi have been pushing smartphones that have high screen refresh rates. The Samsung S20 series and the Google Pixel 4 came with a 90hz screen, and new offerings this year like the Samsung S20 Ultra even boasts of 120hz, which effectively doubles the 60hz refresh rate people have been used to in the last decade or so of using mobile phones. Joe Cianciotto. While higher display refresh rates may be familiar to those into modern computer monitors and TV sets, the technology is relatively new to the smartphone industry. The reason many phone companies have not focused on it is that there’s no good-enough reason for the update. But, firstly, let’s explain what refresh rate means: It’s the number of times a display blinks per second. For most people, a 60X standard is fine, as one barely notices the refresh rate anyway with the naked eye. But since most modern screens are touch-based, the speed of scrolling becomes noticeably smoother with a higher refresh rate. Joe Cianciotto. 

More importantly, a higher refresh rate is crucial when watching video content and playing games on our mobile phones. The higher the refresh rate, the higher the frame rate, making the experience of watching a film or playing a shooter more immersive. Joe Cianciotto. The elephant in the room that must be addressed, however, is that high screen refresh rate demands massive updates in circuitry and materials, making manufacturing phones that feature them significantly harder. It’s why smartphones that boast of this tech are still more expensive. More importantly, on the user end, the main issue is that these high refresh rates greatly contribute to battery drain. So, is a higher screen rate worth the upgrade? Only if one is into consuming vids and gaming on their phone. For the general market, it would be better just to wait until the tech becomes the norm and the price of phones that feature it stabilizes. Joe Cianciotto.