We asked, you told us: You want high refresh rate phones, but 90Hz is enough

Starting in early 2019, the new smartphone feature trend became displays with high refresh rates. Since then, we’ve seen a ton of phones adopt the feature, with some even taking the refresh rates to incredible new heights (for smartphones, anyway).

However, some trends in the tech world are manufactured by companies and others are demanded by the audience. Is the new hype surrounding phones with high refresh rates the genuine deal or just that — hype? We figured we’d poll the Android Authority audience on the topic and see where things land.

As usual, the polls referenced here took place on this website, but we also encouraged our social media followers to get involved with the conversation.

A pair of refresh rate polls

The first poll we have is a simple yes/no question: would you still buy a phone without a high refresh rate display? You can check out the results for that below, based on over 2,000 responses.

The second poll, based on just over 1,000 responses, goes a little bit further. In this one, we asked if you care about your phone’s refresh rate and broke it down into four possible responses:

• Yes, I want 120Hz or higher.
• Yes, but 90Hz is good enough for me.
• Maybe, I’m still not sure if I can tell the difference.
• No, I don’t care about it.

Check out the results from that poll below.

Together, these polls make it clear that a phone with a high refresh rate is pretty important to a slim majority of our readers. However, the feature hasn’t proven itself to be indispensable yet, and even for those who really want it, the 90Hz refresh rate is all that’s necessary.

Now, let’s dive into what the readers have to say.

Comments

Here’s what some folks had to say about these questions. These are sourced from Android Authority as well as our Twitter feed.

UnoriginalTechGuyName:
Most of the people saying that high refresh rates are useless haven’t used a high refresh rate phone for long enough. For me it makes a huge difference and I just can’t downgrade to a 60Hz screen because the difference in fluidity is recognizable in my eyes.

RMadan:
A high refresh rate is overhyped and it’s targeted towards users to make them believe that it’s a great feature to have in their phones.

MissingDjinn:
Just FYI: Most current apps and games cannot even use the higher refresh rates and it needs to be turned down for them to work properly. Wait a few years for higher refresh to be utilized more than browsing through the UI…

Technical Vox:
I don’t think people really need a high refresh rate display.

It looks like the jury is still out on whether phones with high display refresh rates are the new must-have feature or not. Let’s see how long the trend lasts into 2021!