An ‌iPhone‌ with a 60Hz display may automatically increase its variable refresh rate to 120Hz, 180Hz or 240Hz.

A new Apple patent released today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office describes an iPhone display that, with Variable Refresh Mode enabled, may be able to refresh content at two, three, or even four times the refresh rate. native.

For example, an ‌iPhone‌ with a 60Hz display could automatically increase its variable refresh rate to 120Hz, 180Hz or 240Hz .

For those unfamiliar with, refresh rate refers to the number of times a display refreshes every second . (The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the content on the display will be.) All current iPhones have a 60Hz refresh rate, but since 2017 all iPad Pro models are equipped with ProMotion technology, which allows for a refresh rate of 60Hz. variable update up to 120 Hz.

Last year, several rumors claimed that the 120Hz display would arrive on the iPhone 12, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. At the time, reports reported that the iPhone 12’s display would be capable of automatically switching between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on what the user was doing on their device, in an effort to preserve battery life. While a device’s ability to switch from 60Hz to 120Hz isn’t new, the patent describing an iPhone’s ability to push the refresh rate up to 180Hz or 240Hz is.

The lack of this technology on the iPhone could be linked to the fact that Apple tends to proceed with caution when adding features like ProMotion, which could be detrimental to battery life or system-level performance . However, recent rumors have reported that Apple will overcome these problems by adopting low-power LTPO display technology on iPhone 13 models.

A higher refresh rate could be useful for different use cases, such as gaming and augmented reality. If a user is simply watching a movie or texting a friend, the display may revert to its native 60Hz refresh rate as a means of saving battery life.

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