Just got a new phone (OnePlus Nord 3), turned refresh rate HUD in developer settings and I see some parts of the system and some apps display 120 Hz but I have problem noticing any difference, same with my wife’s Redmi Note 12, i have to look very carefully and maaaybe I notice some different, not sure
You’re blessed, I can’t use a 60hz phone anymore after having one with 90hz.
If you don’t think high refresh rate makes a difference, turn it to 60hz to save some battery and to not get used to it and end up with the same problem as me.
I switch between 60Hz and 120Hz pretty often. And while I do notice a huge difference, it’s not for long and I get used to it.
I was just playing with my wife’s phone the other day. She has the pixel 6a, and I have the pixel 7. So they are extremely similar looking and feeling phones, except hers has a 60Hz screen and mine has a 90Hz screen. I thought the phone was broken. I was like, “why is the screen so choppy???”
I can easily tell when a phone is at 120Hz, but the difference in actual use is minor, and I keep it on 60Hz to conserver battery
60 to 120 Hz is definitely noticeable to me; when scrolling, it makes a big difference. When my phone auto-switches to low battery mode and to lower refresh rates I can usually tell the difference very quickly.
The difference is massive to me but my parents struggle to notice, so it certainly varies person to person
I’m starting to worry it’s an age thing, I’m near 40😝
It’s all downhill from about 25.
You’ll start to notice it by 40-50.
Generally it is a slow, gentle downhill but it varies from person to person.
Haha definitely possible. Maybe compare side by side and see if you can learn to appreciate it a bit if you’re interested. It’s kinda nice to be able to tbh
I went from 30fps to 120fps and I can’t tell the difference
Edit: Now that I’ve experimented a bit more there definitely is a difference and 120fps feels nicer to eyes. It’s nothing huge but noticeable
Have you tried going back to the 30 Hz one?
When comparing side by side it’s obvious but on daily use I don’t notice it granted I don’t play games or anything.
That’s a bit extreme
I think in most cases it won’t matter, and many people cannot perceive the difference.
But from my own experience I did the csgo sniper test map (where you look down to the doors and shoot the random npc players that will jump across).
While I didn’t think it felt different I could consistently hit at more than twice the rate on 144hz vs 60.
After using 144hz for a while there is a more visible juddering when switching to 60. But it’s not jarring or annoying.
So I’d say for most cases it doesn’t matter. If you play fps games, there’s a definite advantage to a higher frame rate. Unconsciously I guess you’re able to use that extra info.
This isn’t new either. I used to play Cs1.6 on crt. We’d often play on a lower resolution to get higher screen refresh. My screen would for example show 800x600 at 120hz.
Yeah, I remember the Quake ]|[ Arena controversy, where people with 120hz had a real advantage over people with 60hz monitors, geez I’m old
After reading all the comments I’m thinking it really comes to what you’re able to see. If you see no difference between 60 and 120, good for you, set it to 60 and save some battery. If you’re able to see the difference, like I do, you’ll just enjoy the extra smoothness. I’ve always seen the difference between 60 and 90/120. I think it also comes to the content. For me it’s like this:
- For videos, whatever refresh rate is ok as long as that was the intent of whoever created it.
- For games 30 is playable, 60 is good, 120 is beautifully smooth. The type of game will also play a role here. An fps will benefit more from higher refresh rates.
- For moving UI elements 30 is unusable, 60 is ok, 120 is really comfortable.
TL;DR Some people will see it, some people won’t. Do whatever works best for you.
My current phone Pixel 7 supports 60/90, my previous phone had 60/120 Xiaomi Mi11.
Both run at 60, why? Because I’m absolutely buggered if I can tell the difference other than higher rate drains the battery quicker.
Please note as you go higher up in the framerate, the gains will be less noticeable.
There’s some term for this phenomenon, but I forgot it right when I wanted to type it. (please tell me again!😭)
After awhile at 120hz, use someone’s 60hz phone, you’ll notice it.
This is why I’m intentionally staying away from high-refresh-rate displays until I can feasibly upgrade everything I use to that standard (phone, TV+consoles, desktop monitors, etc). I don’t know exactly what I’m missing out on and ignorance here is bliss.
If it helps, I only have a high refresh phone display. I don’t notice the difference when I’m using my slower displays because I’m not used to seeing those applications at a higher refresh rate. It doesn’t seem to bother my mind.
I only notice it when I’m using another phone at a lower refresh rate.
You’ll only really notice it when things are moving and only when it’s about 60+ frames per second. Otherwise, your display is just refreshing static objects more frequently. It will not have anything to do with quality of images. You might notice an increase in responsiveness since the screen refreshed sooner, but that is generally minimal.
There’s a massive difference in smoothness between 60 and 120hz for me, even just scrolling you can tell straight away how deliciously smooth 120 is.
In fact, scrolling is the main difference to me. App opening/closing animations also appear smoother, but I find you get used to those much easier if you go back to 60 Hz after having used 120 Hz. Scrolling, however, isn’t the same…
I have an OG Nord and turned the refresh rate from 90Hz to 60Hz because it makes no difference to anything but battery life.
Always makes me laugh when YouTubers such as MKBHD say 60Hz is unusable in 2023. 60Hz is absolutely fine. I had 90Hz on my Pixel 4XL and never once noticed the difference.
Some people notice it a lot more. I wouldn’t want to go back from 144 to 60 on my phone, but I could live with it. Going back to 60 on my computer on the other hand… That would be a deal breaker. Especially for gaming, of course, but I literally have worse precision with the damn mouse pointer at 60 Hz now.
It’s harder to notice the difference at first. When I first got my 144Hz monitor I had trouble distinguishing between the two, but now I can immediately tell (and it’s made going back to gaming at 60fps really difficult lol).
If you keep using 120Hz mode, then after a while you’ll definitely feel the difference between the two.
That said unless you game on your phone a lot, I don’t know how useful it is to have it set to 120, especially if it drains more battery.Even moving windows around looks and feels stuttery on desktop at 60hz, which is a pretty simple action. Basic desktop navigation I find more bothersome than 60 fps in a video game, since the system just feels and looks less responsive when it comes to animations and scrolling and moving stuff around.
I had to replace my old monitor that was 60 hz that I was intended to use as my secondary, since it was way too jarring having the two side by side. I avoided using the second one because of how suddenly it felt laggy entering that domain. Just the cursor movement looked bad.