90Hz vs 60Hz display refresh rate revisited: can people tell the difference this time?
Reviewers often rave about the smoothness of 90Hz displays and how they can’t go back to using a phone with a standard 60Hz screen. Phone manufacturers also never miss an opportunity to boast how awesome this feature is.
60Hz vs 90Hz: Confused average users edition
We handed the two phones side by side to 15 people with a Gmail inbox opened on both, where one could scroll up and down to their heart’s desire. Then we told the participant to play with the phones without navigating to different pages. After that, we asked them to tell us if they could see any differences between the two displays. If they did, we asked what they were.
11 people didn’t notice any difference in smoothness. 3 people said one looked smoother and picked the one set to 90Hz. 1 person said one looked smoother and picked the one set to 60Hz… for some reason.
Eagle-eyed phone reviewer easily spots the 90Hz display
OK, maybe the average user doesn’t really notice a significant difference, but what about an expert? We brought in our colleague Victor to our test lab (desk). He’s been enjoying the 90Hz display of the OnePlus 7T for three months now and swears it’s much better than the peasant 60Hz. This was the perfect time for him to prove he actually knows what he’s talking about.
Since Victor is a pro, we cranked up the difficulty for this next test. Again, we handed both phones to him side by side, but we set the refresh rate setting on each randomly. And we did this for 6 rounds. Sometimes one phone was set to 90Hz and the other to 60Hz. Sometimes both were at 60Hz or 90Hz. Each round, Victor had to say what the refresh rate setting was on each phone. He was allowed to browse through different apps or menus (without the display settings menu, of course) before answering.
90Hz display vs 60Hz: the end results
Based on our tests, we can make the following conclusion:
There is a difference between a 60Hz and 90Hz display, but most people don’t really notice it.
So, does a 90Hz refresh rate matter then? Well, a 90Hz display phone will make a positive difference to some people, but for the great majority of users, it’s not really something that’s worth upgrading for. It is best to decide after you’ve used one yourself. As you can tell from our quick experiment, the benefits may not be obvious immediately or at all.