Only a few of you disabled your phone’s high refresh rate

High refresh rate screens have been around for several years now, trickling down from top-end flagships and currently available in ~$250 devices. The technology enables smoother scrolling and swiping, as well as smoother performance in supported video games.

This tech can come at the expense of battery life though, so we wondered how many people have disabled high refresh rate functionality on their phones. Here’s how Android Authority readers voted.

Have you disabled your phone’s high refresh rate?

Results

The poll was posted on October 13, and it proved to be a really popular one with over 9,700 votes being tallied. The end result? Well, over 70% of respondents say they haven’t disabled their phone’s high refresh rate. Reader comments suggest that people who voted this way don’t want to turn off a flagship feature, can’t go back to a standard 60Hz refresh rate, or are happy enough with their current battery life to not disable it.

We also urged people who leave their phones on a dynamic or adaptive refresh rate to vote “no.” And a couple of readers noted that this was the desired option on their phones, adjusting the refresh rate according to the displayed content.

Just over a quarter of polled readers said they had turned off the high refresh rate option on their phones. The comments indicate that people who voted this way either couldn’t tell the difference between standard and high refresh rates or that they experienced poor battery life with the option enabled.

Comments

• duckofdeath: If you disable all the flagship features on your expensive phone, you could have saved a lot of money buying the cheaper model…
• Sandeep: I’ve S20+, and I disable 120Hz because of poor battery life and amount of heat it produces. But then again it has mighty EXYNOS
• TheOracle: After experimenting with 120hz without any mind blowing difference I’ve left it on adaptive. With a 5000mah battery my phone has insane endurance anyway.
• deltatux: 60 Hz has been plenty smooth for the longest time. Sure it’s slightly “smoother” but I’ve been fine with 60 Hz the longest time. To me, anything higher than 60 Hz for non-gaming applications is just a gimmick. I don’t game on my phones so having a high refresh option is pretty useless. Yes, animations are “smoother” but I was never bothered with the OS animations on 60 Hz in the first place.
• SyCoREAPER: Nope. Mines adaptive. And on my tablet, which I don’t know why it isn’t adaptive, I have a Bixby routine that adjust on a per app basis
• Mario M: I have a Poco X3 Pro and when I first got the phone I spent a few days testing to see if I should limit it to 60hz. I realised the battery gain from disabling the 120hz is pretty negligible so it’s always on.
• Japes: No I can’t handle a slower refresh rate anymore. I can’t unsee the lagginess.
• Joni Komulainen: I’m little afraid to confess this, but I can’t really see the difference at least between 60Hz and 90Hz. I have 90Hz option on both of my phones, personal and work, and I’ve just left it off since there’s no difference to me in the animations

Thanks for voting in this poll, we appreciate all the votes and comments. Do you actually notice the difference between standard and high refresh rates? Let us know below.