Phones with a high refresh rate have been around since the Razer Phone in late 2017, but the technology gained a ton of popularity in 2019 and 2020. Now, many flagships offer 90Hz or 120Hz displays, while even some budget phones offer this option.
High refresh rates allow smoother viewing as you swipe through system menus and home screens and scroll through pages. It also allows for higher frame rates in supported games, which makes for a more visually pleasing experience.
High refresh rates are often combined with premium OLED panels, but this combination is quite rare on budget and / or medium-sized smartphones. Instead, brands that want to offer high refresh rates often opt for cheaper LCD panels.
An example of this is the Realme 7 series. The standard model offers a 90 Hz LCD screen, while the Realme 7 Pro has a 60 Hz OLED display. In other words, there wasn’t an option that gave you the best of both worlds, namely those deep blacks combined with softer graphics.
That twist got us thinking about what you, the reader, would choose. If you were to choose between two otherwise identical smartphones, would you choose the one with the 60 Hz OLED screen or the model with the high refresh rate LCD panel? Take our poll near the top of the page and leave a comment with your feedback!