iPhone 14 Pro Max ProMotion not being used much on iPhone 14 Pro Max!

[Fat_Guy]

I downloaded “Lock Launcher” and have the Hz notification in the left side of the Dynamic Island. If anyone has this running, is it me or does 120 rarely kick in. Occasionally I will see it or flashes of like 80Hz but scroll up and down at MacRumors and just shows 60Hz after 120 and 80 but not a constant at 120 on the scroll.


This would tend to explain why I can’t see the difference in ProMotion and yes it’s enabled.


Anyone else ever monitored its use on day-to-day apps and websites?

 

[Shirasaki]

No day-to-day apps and few if any website would bother actively implementing 120hz contents without a reason. Otoh, gaming is the prime target for 120hz screen.
That’s largely why you don’t see 120hz being used much if at all if you don’t game.

 

[Fat_Guy]

No day-to-day apps and few if any website would bother actively implementing 120hz contents without a reason. Otoh, gaming is the prime target for 120hz screen.
That’s largely why you don’t see 120hz being used much if at all if you don’t game.

Well then let’s turn it on its head…


ProMotion also means it can drop down low like 10Hz on the iPhone 13 Pros and 1Hz on the iPhone 14 Pros. I can’t test the lock screen as there is no Dynamic Island functionality, but just the static home page and that is at 60Hz.


Reading something in the Books app shows 60Hz and nothing lower which they said it would do to save battery life. lt never goes lower than 60Hz!


And what is this love affair Apple has with 80Hz? I figured it would be 90Hz instead? And why couldn’t Apple at least let 120Hz linger more in places like opening apps or swipes on the home screen, better yet give us the option to just lock it in at 120Hz or 90Hz and just take the battery hit? I did go into settings and “limit frame rate” and it worked pegging everything at 60Hz. So the readings are accurate.



In other news I also have cpu values on the other side of the Dynamic Island and it never got above 22%! I know, gaming, but if you don’t game the Promotion and SOC improvement seem moot.



I will say that now that third parties are using the Dynamic Island it is no longer a gimmick to me…

 

[Cobold]

I really doubt that third party apps are able to read the exact refresh rate of the screen. It’s like all those CPU usage tools, they are all more or less just guessing what’s going on.
That’s one downside of a closed system like iOS is.

 

[The Game 161]

I wouldn't trust any app on ios to know the true refresh rate

 

[Fat_Guy]

So the timer, cpu usage, uploads and downloads, Hz Promotion, and battery percentage all seem to work.


Funnily, the battery percentage in the Island is easier to see than the icon and number on the right, some may find that beneficial. The only thing that does not
seem to work is the frame rate that stays at 60 but I’m still playing with that.



What we have here is a mashup of apps I used to track systems on my phone but with the advantage that it is contained in the Island which is huge as you get constant feedback on internal systems while you just use your phone! I played around with this after Christmas dinner, then when I got up again, then paid a buck forty for the “Pro” version, and played around with new stuff that he admits is experimental - which is a plus for me as I made three cellphone Android apps in the past and this one really caught my attention.


There is more like Instagram and Whatsapp and such - I’ll look at that later. Dynamic Island now ROCKS!!!!!


But I was never sure if Promotion on my iPhone 14 Pro Max worked and now I know. It works but in a very scarce way if you don’t game. If you hit “low power mode” you will really see the stutter but that is not the 60Hz of my iPhone 12 Pro Max. That is not the old 60Hz like when you turn off Promotion in the Accessibility section. The Hz number may be constrained to 60-120 but turning off Promotion and the number never changes, then on and by my swiping and scrolling I can get it to stay shortly at 80Hz or 120Hz but never for long. It works well enough to explain why I don’t see a big difference. The difference is there but over-hyped of course..

 

[CaptainTrips]

I downloaded “Lock Launcher” and have the Hz notification in the left side of the Dynamic Island. If anyone has this running, is it me or does 120 rarely kick in. Occasionally I will see it or flashes of like 80Hz but scroll up and down at MacRumors and just shows 60Hz after 120 and 80 but not a constant at 120 on the scroll.


This would tend to explain why I can’t see the difference in ProMotion and yes it’s enabled.


Anyone else ever monitored its use on day-to-day apps and websites?

You’re telling me you can’t see the difference in a ProMotion screen? You mean you’ve had two phones side by side, one ProMotion the other not…and you STILL can’t see the difference?

If that’s really true then I know you’re crazy lol.

 

[Fat_Guy]

You’re telling me you can’t see the difference in a ProMotion screen? You mean you’ve had two phones side by side, one ProMotion the other not…and you STILL can’t see the difference?

If that’s really true then I know you’re crazy lol.

Ok - You are right!


I have a 14 PM, a 12PM and a 6S Plus. I powered them all up and swiped from screen to screen and opened and closed apps and such. After three months of 14 PM ownership I have to admit I can see the difference now! But why only now?



Did I need all that time to get used to it? Or something else? The 14 PM did have a stutter problem at launch - could this have been the reason? I can only guess but it’s smoother now in comparison. And is it my imagination or is the LED 60Hz display a bit smoother than the 12’s OLED?



Anyway I have to admit you are correct! I still would like it if they held the 120Hz a bit longer before dropping it down…

 

[BigMcGuire]

Ok - You are right!


I have a 14 PM, a 12PM and a 6S Plus. I powered them all up and swiped from screen to screen and opened and closed apps and such. After three months of 14 PM ownership I have to admit I can see the difference now! But why only now?



Did I need all that time to get used to it? Or something else? The 14 PM did have a stutter problem at launch - could this have been the reason? I can only guess but it’s smoother now in comparison. And is it my imagination or is the LED 60Hz display a bit smoother than the 12’s OLED?



Anyway I have to admit you are correct! I still would like it if they held the 120Hz a bit longer before dropping it down…

A lot of people on Macrumors are already complaining how bad the battery life is on the 14 Pro/Pro Max phones. I imagine holding 120Hz longer would result in significant battery usage vs what it does now.

I have a new iPad Air 5. I previously owned an iPad Pro 11 for the last 4 years. I thought I’d notice the loss of 120hz but … in every day usage it’s hardly noticeable. Even with the Apple Pencil 2 - it’s not that bad (in Notability).

Even on my iPhone 13 PM, iOS 16 for me was a bit “stuttery” and the latest update (.2?) really smoothed it out.

Just my thoughts on the thread. I think 120hz really shines in gaming and apps that utilize it. For the most part, it is not used.

 

[now i see it]

And is it my imagination or is the LED 60Hz display a bit smoother than the 12’s OLED?

Natively, LCD displays (6S) scroll smoother than OLED, so promotion is more like a band-aid for OLED

 

[Jamalien]

Ok - You are right!


I have a 14 PM, a 12PM and a 6S Plus. I powered them all up and swiped from screen to screen and opened and closed apps and such. After three months of 14 PM ownership I have to admit I can see the difference now! But why only now?



Did I need all that time to get used to it? Or something else? The 14 PM did have a stutter problem at launch - could this have been the reason? I can only guess but it’s smoother now in comparison. And is it my imagination or is the LED 60Hz display a bit smoother than the 12’s OLED?



Anyway I have to admit you are correct! I still would like it if they held the 120Hz a bit longer before dropping it down…

The LCD 60 hz looks smoother than OLED 60HZ because OLED has much much faster pixel response times (under half a millisecond for almost all transitions). THe 60hz on the LCD is 'smoothed' i.e. 'smeared' by the slow pixel response of the LCD display. Thus, 60Hz on a LCD display will often look smoother but more smeary whilst on an OLED will look sharper and more responsive, but often perceived as more stuttery. In purely technical terms, the OLED refresh response is vastly superior to the LCD.

 

[S7N]

My Pixel 7 feels amazing scrolling through everything on the phone at just 90hz. Makes my 14PM feel like it isn’t even working near 90hz when comparing them side by side. I would like an option to keep it at either 90 or 120hz regardless of battery drain.

 

[Fat_Guy]

My Pixel 7 feels amazing scrolling through everything on the phone at just 90hz. Makes my 14PM feel like it isn’t even working near 90hz when comparing them side by side. I would like an option to keep it at either 90 or 120hz regardless of battery drain.

This is Apple, and you had to have everyone and his mother bitching about rudimentary AOD just to get some options. Good luck with locked 120Hz or 80Hz. I never saw 90Hz on Promotion on the 14 Pros - Apple goes its own way so - 80Hz.


There may be a programming reason for this but that got my post “disappeared” in the past, so - beats me why it’s 80Hz… 🤣

 

[FrostLK8]

Well... As detailed on several other threads, ProMotion *is* being used extensively after all - to ruin gaming.

Both iPhone 14 and the M2 iPad Pro suffer from visible adaptive frame rate-caused stutter in games that downgrades even 60 FPS performance to much more laggy looking than it has to be, as evidenced by the fact that the entire problem evaporates the moment the display is limited manually to 60 HZ (that's the patchwork "solution" for 60 FPS, but there's no solution for 120 FPS games).

So, yeah - it's being used insofar as it actively makes games laggy looking even when they don't actually lag themselves.

There would be many possible workarounds: from allowing users to set frame rate for specific games in Accessibility Per-App settings, to allowing users to set frame rate to fixed 120 FPS, to even at least adding a Shortcut for 60/120 FPS so it could go to Control Center and be manually switched.

But instead, we get beta after beta on iOS/iPadOS 16 without changes or fixes.

 

[JamesMcFlyJR]

Maybe its a possibility that "Lock Launcher" is forcing the iPhone to stay at above 60hz? That might be an explanation.

 

[FrostLK8]

Maybe its a possibility that "Lock Launcher" is forcing the iPhone to stay at above 60hz? That might be an explanation.

I don't think it's that, it's the shoddy ProMotion itself interfering with in-app FPS settings - because iPad Pros don't use Lock Launcher or Dynamic Island for that matter, but the problem is still present regardless.

 

[severi]

Seriously, this **** is still not fixed on 16.3 RC. Does apple think that their users are blind or something? Android devices with 120hz or even 90hz displays look more fluid. I used to be a huge fan of Apple but i don’t get them right now to be honest.

 

[negative_]

A lot of people on Macrumors are already complaining how bad the battery life is on the 14 Pro/Pro Max phones. I imagine holding 120Hz longer would result in significant battery usage vs what it does now.

I have a new iPad Air 5. I previously owned an iPad Pro 11 for the last 4 years. I thought I’d notice the loss of 120hz but … in every day usage it’s hardly noticeable. Even with the Apple Pencil 2 - it’s not that bad (in Notability).

Even on my iPhone 13 PM, iOS 16 for me was a bit “stuttery” and the latest update (.2?) really smoothed it out.

Just my thoughts on the thread. I think 120hz really shines in gaming and apps that utilize it. For the most part, it is not used.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/will-battery-get-better-iphone-13-pro-max.2317286/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/13-pro-max-battery-dies-very-quick.2335806/

Short iPhone 13 Pro Battery Life

What kind of battery life are people seeing on their new iPhone 13 Pro? I’ve lost 50% of my battery life in barely 2 hours (it also it quite warm to the touch). All I’ve been doing is looking at the MacRumors website. :(

forums.macrumors.com

ohh sorry..You said 14 series, right?(!) i am so sorry...

 

[The Game 161]

Seriously, this **** is still not fixed on 16.3 RC. Does apple think that their users are blind or something? Android devices with 120hz or even 90hz displays look more fluid. I used to be a huge fan of Apple but i don’t get them right now to be honest.

there's nothing to fix

this is how LTPO is supposed to work. It's not supposed to be 120hz at all times.

pro motion was not right early on but this was fixed many updates ago.

 

[The Game 161]

I downloaded “Lock Launcher” and have the Hz notification in the left side of the Dynamic Island. If anyone has this running, is it me or does 120 rarely kick in. Occasionally I will see it or flashes of like 80Hz but scroll up and down at MacRumors and just shows 60Hz after 120 and 80 but not a constant at 120 on the scroll.


This would tend to explain why I can’t see the difference in ProMotion and yes it’s enabled.


Anyone else ever monitored its use on day-to-day apps and websites?

no app will give you a dependable reading for 120hz. I wouldn't trust those if I were you. Even on android it says samsung phones are going no lower than 48hz when it's supposed to go down to 10hz

 

[severi]

there's nothing to fix

this is how LTPO is supposed to work. It's not supposed to be 120hz at all times.

pro motion was not right early on but this was fixed many updates ago.

So LTPO is supposed to lower the framerate during animations, causing it to look like a stuttery mess? Why don’t we have this issue on other LTPO screens?

 

[The Game 161]

So LTPO is supposed to lower the framerate during animations, causing it to look like a stuttery mess? Why don’t we have this issue on other LTPO screens?

There's something wrong with your device/software if it's a stuttery mess that's certainly not a pro motion issue. pro motion was clearly slower but was fixed with maybe 16.1 if not earlier.

 

[severi]

There's something wrong with your device/software if it's a stuttery mess that's certainly not a pro motion issue. pro motion was clearly slower but was fixed with maybe 16.1 if not earlier.

Certainly it’s a software issue. It wasn’t fixed with 16.1, many people have this on 16.2 and 16.3. Happens on the devices in the Apple store as well.

 

[FrostLK8]

There's something wrong with your device/software if it's a stuttery mess that's certainly not a pro motion issue. pro motion was clearly slower but was fixed with maybe 16.1 if not earlier.

It was absolutely not fixed, ProMotion is currently (as of OS 16) making new iPhones and iPads run a very wide range of games ten times worse than previous models ran in iOS 15.7.

The problem magically disappears if OS is downgraded to pre-16 on devices that Apple even offers that option for - which annoyingly, they don't for new devices so the new devices are stuck running like crap.

Check the threads around here, there are hundreds of people in multiple threads seeing it in games and the issue has been consistently narrowed down to specifically being due to ProMotion - not app optimization, not user error, not anything else.