Take a look at the Apple iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Their displays look great: pin-sharp, blur-free and color-faithful. But the refresh rate is not a patch on many rivals, including Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. That’s going to change. But there’s a catch—you’ll have to wait until 2025.
The 60Hz refresh rate on the non-Pro iPhones has been a source of frustration for some users, not least because many rival phones that are cheaper than the iPhone have switched to faster refresh rates some time agon. However, Apple has always seen the ProMotion screens as the province of the Pro iPhones only.
According to a new report in The Elec, and spotted by MacRumors, the plan is that 60Hz displays, using a technology called Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon, will continue to feature in this fall’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
Then, for the iPhone 17 series, the plan is to switch to Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide panels across the board.
Why does any of this matter, you may ask, if the current 60Hz displays look so good? Apart from feature nerds, does anyone really notice?
Probably not in terms of general refresh rates: Apple has had consistently great-looking displays since the introduction of the first Retina Display on the iPhone 4, not least because it takes panels and optimizes them so effectively.
However, there’s another benefit to the dynamically changing refresh rates of the ProMotion displays, and that’s the Always-On feature.
If you have seen an iPhone 15 Pro, for instance, you’ll know that the display is always on, showing the time, date, widgets and an understated version of your lock screen wallpaper. This is a highly convenient feature, meaning you no longer need to tap the phone every time you want to see the time, for instance.
This effect is only possible with ProMotion because as well as rising as high as a 120Hz refresh rate for butter-smooth scrolling and video playback, it can save energy by taking the refresh rate right down to 1Hz for static content.
And there’s more. Phones running iOS 17 have access to a really useful feature called StandBy. If your iPhone is charging and sitting on its side, for instance on a suitable wireless charger, where the display is facing you, it can display the time, your calendar, photos and widgets. The screen is live for a brief time, though you can tap it or nudge the table to bring it back to life.
However, if the iPhone in question is an iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max or iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, that always-on display really delivers, keeping the screen on indefinitely. This is the feature regular iPhone can’t match.
But it looks like they will… next year.
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