It’s usually the iPad that inherits features from the iPhone, but there’s one feature that Apple fans have been hoping for quite some time now would trickle down to the iPhone. It didn’t happen with the iPhone 11, but things might change as soon as next year when the iPhone 12 launches.
Introduced with the second-gen iPad Pro series, Apple’s ProMotion display tech is coming to the 2020 iPhones, Digitimes reports (via 9to5Mac).
ProMotion refers to displays that can support 120Hz refresh rates, a feature that gaming Android handsets have had for a couple of years as well. More recently, Android vendors, including OnePlus and Google, launched flagship devices featuring higher refresh rate displays of their own. The OnePlus 7/7T and Pixel 4 phones feature 90Hz OLED screens, but aren’t sold as gaming phones even though they can deliver the same experience as gaming handsets.
It’s unclear why Apple failed to upgrade the iPhone’s display to higher refresh rates in recent years, but if Digitimes is to be believed, the iPad’s ProMotion experience will come to iPhones next September.
The iPhone 12 will have an advantage over the iPad Pros when it comes to ProMotion tech. The iPhone is expected to get 120Hz OLED screens, whereas all iPads ship with LCDs. Higher refresh rates can improve the phone’s responsiveness to touches, but also content consumption, whether it’s gaming or video.
The report ties the adoption of higher refresh rate smartphone panels to 5G technology, and that makes some sense. Faster data speeds could deliver all sorts of new smartphone experiences, like streaming high-end games, for example, and a 120Hz screen might come in handy for those games. It’s also worth noting that the iPhone 12 is also expected to be Apple’s first iPhone to come with 5G support.
