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iPhone 13 Pro Serious question: Why is Promotion 120Hz such a big deal for you?

S

SW3029

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 22, 2019
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I keep hearing people say "now you can see text crisp and clear while you are scrolling..."

But how is that useful? Are y'all Barry Allen and can read as fast as the text comes into your line of sight? How is reading a constantly moving target of scrolling text comfortable at all? Why not just scroll, stop, read text, scroll on?
 
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Its smooth as sh*t and I love it but really you just have to try it in person and decide with your own eyes. I seen multiple posts/responses where people cant notice it so ones opinion may not reflect another's.
 
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I was using my Xs max and a S21 Ultra and trust me there was a heck of a difference between the 2. Im super glad Apple went the 120hz route. It’s so much smoother when scrolling and a whole lot less jidder. I enjoy using iPhone again. Now if they could bump up the resolution a bit that would be awesome!
 
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I definitely noticed it but I wasn’t sure if I was seeing what I wanted to. My wife, who has never heard of refresh rate, noticed it immediately the first time she touched her new iPhone 13 Pro.
 
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Takes the burden off of my eyes to naturally strain to try and focus on text/images as I scroll. It feels more natural, and thus, a more enjoyable experience.
 
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I don't own a iPhone 13, but I do have a iPad Pro, and this feature hasn't really excited me. Its something that's has been on other phones for years, so its good that Apple has caught up but in all honesty, I don't think (especially on a phone) its something that impacts my overall user experience.
 
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I thought it would be a neat little addition that would come in handy sometimes, but I find myself mentioning it first to my friends who’ve asked me about it. It’s noticeable. It’s smooth and crisp and everything just feels like you’re touching it directly. It’s hard to describe, but the improvement, for me, just in that screen quality alone, makes it worth the upgrade.

that said, I upgrade every year, so I would have gotten it regardless, but I am very pleased with the feature.
 
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Seriously, that’s like asking why do you need higher definition television. Or why do you need higher bit rate music. It’s a question of quality.

My problem was that after my iPad Pro, it ruined my iPhone experience. For people with good eyes like me, this is a crazy nuisance.

But you don’t need “Barry Allen“ eyes to read while scrolling or see the difference. The problem is that people who can’t see the difference have weak eyes who will never know the difference. Those are the people who didn’t notice anything great with their iPad Pros.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
It’s not a must have feature for me. I doubt the standard iPhone 14 will have it and that will mean my next iPhone will still be 60hz. I’m not going to lose sleep or feel inferior over it lol. A nice to have, not essential IMO.
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Exactly and very well said. I used a Galaxy S21 Plus with an adaptive Refresh rate display and went back to my iPhone 12. The difference in scrolling meant nothing to me.
 
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It just makes the user experience that much better. The animations and scrolling is superb. Although when I turn off the ProMotion the iPhone 13 Pro Max is still very smooth. The ProMotion does not seem to affect battery life due to the LTPO display.
 
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Ever since experiencing it on the iPad Pro a couple years back, I have been hoping they would bring the 120hz display to iPhone. As mentioned above, it is far from must-have, but it just makes the user experience much more fluid. Scrolling looks crisp.
 
I was going to create a thread for this question, but this thread seems like a good place to pose this question.

I'm confused about the 120hz refresh rate and eyestrain caused by lower refresh rates. Is this 120hz refresh feature what is expected to reduce eyestrain for those sensitive to it? I've read other posts talking about 240hz at dimmer light settings causing the eyestrain. One post said that the newer phones expected to refresh at 480hz. Apparently, using lower refresh rates 240hz can cause eyestrain. This does not seem to correlate to the 120hz feature remedying eyestrain.

My understanding is that the 120hz refresh rate (that can go as low as 10hz) is simply for screen updates (when things change on the screen)

The 240hz is supposed to be for simply keeping the screen lit, right? This would seem to be the issue for eyestrain, not the 120hz promotion feature, but I'm not sure.

Can someone help clear up this confusion for me? Which one or both are tied to the eyestrain problem?
 
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tedley said:
I was going to create a thread for this question, but this thread seems like a good place to pose this.

I'm confused about the 120hz refresh rate and eyestrain caused by lower refresh rates. Is this 120hz refresh feature what is expected to reduce eyestrain for those sensitive to it? I've read other posts talking about 240hz at dimmer light settings causing the eyestrain. One post said that the newer phones expected to refresh at 480hz. Apparently, using lower refresh rates 240hz can cause eyestrain. This does not seem to correlate to the 120hz feature remedying eyestrain.

My understanding is that the 120hz refresh rate (that can go as low as 10hz) is simply for screen updates (when things change on the screen)

The 240hz is supposed to be is shutting pixels on and off again to simply keep the screen lit.

Can someone help clear up this confusion for me? Which one or both are tied to the eyestrain problem?
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I think you might be confusing refresh rate with PWM, which is a technology by which screens flicker the backlight at different frequencies to dim/brighten based on brightness setting. This is different than refresh rate, which is how often a new image is drawn on the screen.
 
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SW3029 said:
I keep hearing people say "now you can see text crisp and clear while you are scrolling..."

But how is that useful? Are y'all Barry Allen and can read as fast as the text comes into your line of sight? How is reading a constantly moving target of scrolling text comfortable at all? Why not just scroll, stop, read text, scroll on?
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Once you interact with the screen for the first time, you ain't going back to 60hz, you had me at scrolling. 😍
 
Patcell said:
I think you might be confusing refresh rate with PWM, which is a technology by which screens flicker the backlight at different frequencies to dim/brighten based on brightness setting. This is different than refresh rate, which is how often a new image is drawn on the screen.
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Ok I get that. I've seen several posts where people have claimed that the promotion feature is addressing the eyestrain problem. I assume this is false and that it's increasing the frequency of PWM that will address the eyestrain, correct?
 
tedley said:
Ok I get that. I've seen several posts where people have claimed that the promotion feature is addressing the eyestrain problem. I assume this is false and that it's increasing the frequency of PWM that will address the eyestrain, correct?
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Honestly, I’m not sure… I think it may be eye strain caused by different things. Many people have issues with PWM, but I haven’t ever noticed a problem personally. As far as refresh rate goes, some people say that the judder effect of lower refresh rate screens causes eye strain, which is remedied by the 120hz display. Again, I wouldn’t say lower refresh rate causes me eye strain, but I think the 120hz refresh looks much nicer in the UI.
That being said, I hate the function on TV’s that simulate high refresh rate in movies and TV shows. Some call it the “soap opera effect.” This essentially renders television unwatchable for me with this option enabled.
 
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