In 2024, many people (especially Android users) take their high refresh rate phone screens for granted. Android flagships have had these for generations, and we’re at the point where most midrange and even budget phones have them. However, there is one glaring exception to this trend: the standard, $799 non-pro iPhone has only ever had 60hz displays. If you want a 120hz display, you’ll have to shell out an extra $200 to the Pro model. Do people just not care, or is it just Apple’s way of upselling the people that want this? Does iOS somehow feel smoother at 60hz than Android, or are people just used to it?

For me personally, a high refresh rate display is one of the most important “premium” features on a phone (though as I will talk about soon, it’s not so premium anymore). I could care less about 120hz on my computer or TV, but something about the way you interact with your phone via touch just makes it a must. I used to have a cheap phone with a 60hz display, and once I made the step up to 120, I couldn’t go back. Despite how I feel about it, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who don’t notice it. There are countless forums online about people saying they just don’t see the difference. This would be an obvious explanation for why people are okay with the base iPhone being stuck at 60: they simply can’t tell. If you asked the average user on the street what the refresh rate of their phone display was, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you.

However, despite that, it’s still odd given all the budget Android options that have at least a 90hz display. The iPhone is by far the most expensive phone you can buy that hasn’t made the jump to a high refresh rate. We’re not just talking mid-range Android phones here, we’re talking the very bottom of the lineups. The Galaxy A15 for example, one of the most popular budget phones on the market, has a 90hz display at just $200 factory unlocked, and you can even get a 120hz display for cheaper on an unlocked Moto G 2024, which MSRPs at $180. Of course, the overall display experience is definitely lesser on these cheap phones, given that they use LCD or AMOLED panels instead of the gorgeous high resolution OLED panels of the iPhones. However, that’s besides the point because they’re a fraction of the cost. The bottom line is that these budget Android phones have high refresh rate displays at a very low cost and the much more expensive iPhone does not.

Apple definitely has a history of upselling people by withholding desirable features from their base products, even though those base models are already expensive as is. Some of these are more understandable than others. For example, it is definitely a bit outrageous to charge a full $200 to go from the paltry 8 gigabytes of RAM on the base MacBook Air to 16 gigabytes, which most users should really have, however it’s just plain absurd to charge an extra $400 for a height-adjustable monitor stand like they do on the Studio Display. Only Apple could get away with this sort of thing. You don’t see other monitor manufacturers charging hundreds of dollars more for an adjustable stand on their $1600 monitor, do you? With Apple, however, many people just roll their eyes and hand over the cash anyways. This is why you have to shell out for the Pro model to get Apple’s poorly named “ProMotion” displays, which is a fancy way of saying that it’s a 120hz LTPO display with Variable Refresh Rate. Simply put, there’s nothing unique about it compared to what Android flagship phones have, it’s just marketing. (I could probably write a whole separate article about why ProMotion is one of the worst marketing terms ever created. It’s just the word promotion which makes it very confusing.)

Another question that hasn’t been answered yet is why doesn’t the dated display technology used in these iPhones make them feel slow? I can tell you from experience that the Galaxy A03s, a low end Android phone with a 60hz display, feels incredibly sluggish, however the 60hz display is not the only factor there to blame. There’s also the fact that it had 3 gigabytes of RAM and a budget chipset from 2018. It was just slow. Really slow. It would struggle with basic navigation around the operating system. The iPhone, on the other hand, is running a flagship chipset, ensuring that all the animations occur fluidly with a consistent frametime. That consistent frametime is key to making everything feel smooth, and some argue that frametime is a more useful measure of overall “smoothness” than framerate.

The other question posed at the beginning of this article is if the iOS UI lends itself better to being used at 60hz; does the iOS interface mitigate the slower responsiveness of 60hz somehow? However, this is unlikely to be the case because many of the system animations share a few fundamental similarities. When you swipe out of an app, the app shrinks back into the home screen icon on the iPhone basically the same as it does on stock Android (and most other Android skins), and vice versa for opening the app. Quick settings is a little different, however it’s still the similar effect of a menu sliding down from the top of the phone to open it. Closing quick settings has a slight difference; the icons just kind of fade away on iOS instead of repeating the opening animation like stock Android does. However, this difference is subtle and only really noticed when viewed in slow motion. We can look at minute animation differences as much as we want and it doesn’t really show any significant design decisions that would answer our question, so this possibility can be ruled out.

Another fact that can’t be overlooked is that phones are the only piece of tech that so widely uses high refresh rate technology. Most every monitor, laptop and TV outside of the most premium offerings are 60hz, and you don’t hear anyone complaining. Other than smartphone displays, the other most popular use case for high refresh rate displays are gaming monitors and laptops. Apart from that, people are just used to it, and that brings us back to the most obvious explanation pointed out earlier: the average user simply does not care.

So now the big question is if Apple will finally catch up to the rest of the smartphone market and equip the iPhone 16 with a shiny ProMotion display, or are users going to be stuck with these 60hz displays indefinitely? Initial rumors are not promising, at least for now. According to a Tom’s Guide article from February 2024, it looks unlikely that the iPhone 16 will get the upgrade. Numerous additional sources back this up. However, the article continues to say that there are reports that the entire iPhone 17 lineup will get LTPO panels, the technology used in ProMotion. We’ll have to wait to find out if that is credible or just a rumor. In the meantime, millions of iPhone users remain behind the high refresh rate trend whether they realize it or not.