Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
We asked, you told us: You prefer adaptive over static refresh rate
August 17, 2025
Ahigh refresh rateis one of the key selling points for top-end smartphones in 2021, delivering a smoother, more responsive screen experience in supported apps and games. Whether it’s 90Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz, it’s hard to find a flagship phone that doesn’t offer this feature.
We’ve also seen the emergence of phones with an adaptive refresh rate, automatically offering a much lower refresh rate (e.g. 10Hz) when reading an ebook but scaling up to 120Hz or more when playing games or scrolling through system menus. That got us wondering whether users prefer a smartphone screen with an adaptive refresh rate or display that’s always running at a high refresh rate.
Do you prefer an adaptive or static refresh rate?
Weposted the pollon February 18, and almost 1,500 votes were cast. It was a resounding victory for the adaptive refresh rate camp, with just over 72% of the vote. Comments suggest that many users would prefer increased battery life over having a high refresh rate in every situation.
Meanwhile, almost 28% of respondents felt that a static (i.e. always high) refresh rate would be the way to go. Presumably these users don’t trust a phone with an adaptive refresh rate to always give them the desired refresh rate.
For what it’s worth, theGalaxy S21 Ultrahas an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate but doesn’t actually let you force 120Hz all the time. So hopefully future smartphones offer a hybrid approach, giving you the option of a completely automatic adaptive experience or granting users granular control over the refresh rate.
That’s it for our static versus dynamic refresh rate poll results article, thanks for voting and leaving a comment. What do you think of the topic? Let us know below.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
