TheiPhone 16is a little over a calendar month sometime , and I ’ve been using it almost around-the-clock since it was announced last calendar month . I retrospect the telephone set for Digital Trends and bought one with my own money as my personal speech sound of choice .
Not long after its unveiling , I compose an op - edcomplaining about the iPhone 16 ’s want of a 120Hz display . I tell it was the “ one affair holding back the iPhone 16 ” and that its 60Hz filmdom was “ an unreasonable specification . ” I ’d still like to see the refresh rate addressed with the iPhone 17 , but after living with the iPhone 16 for over a month now , I ’ve come up that it ’s not closely as big of an issue as I believed it would be .
A 60Hz screen matters, until it doesn’t
I throw to the iPhone 16 after using theiPhone 15 Pro MaxandGoogle Pixel 9 Pro — two earpiece with 120Hz displays . And I ’ll admit , it was a rough transition . After month of my eye seeing 120Hz refresh rates every day , going to a speech sound with a 60Hz one felt pretty regretful . Be it scroll through Reddit or snarf through my home screen , everything on the iPhone 16 felt dim and jerky .
But then something happened . I break off noticing it .
A little over two weeks into using the iPhone 16 , I realized I had stop thinking about the 60Hz refresh rate . I could still see it , sure , but I did n’t detect it was actively souring my time with the sound .
tight - forward to today , when I ’ve used the iPhone 16 for over a month , and the 60Hz video display does n’t even occur to me . I use my iPhone 16constantlythroughout the 24-hour interval to text friends on iMessage , check my fantasy football league , complete my daily Duolingo lessons , and pass too much time on X and Reddit . The iPhone 16 deal all of those thing flawlessly .
Does it display all of my apps and games with the same hyper - fluidity as aniPhone 16 Pro ? No , and if I apply the iPhone 16 Pro side by side with the iPhone 16 , the difference between a 120Hz screen and a 60Hz one is still noticeable . But normal people do n’t do that . Almost anyone getting the iPhone 16 will use it as their only phone ; in that situation , it ’s a nonissue .
Refresh rates don’t make or break a phone
Another factor comes into sport : the rest of the iPhone 16 . A 60Hz refresh pace does n’t now make a phone fearful , just like a 120Hz cover does n’t insure a phone will be excellent .
Take theMoto G Power 5 GB 2024as an example . It ’s a $ 300 smartphone with a 120Hz showing . It ’s a good spec than the iPhone 16 ’s 60Hz refresh rate , but it ’s also an objectively bad exhibit in every other regard . It has extremely poor viewing angles , less impressive colours , and horrific outside visibleness . And even with a 120Hz refresh rate , it ’s much wearisome and more laggy due to its less powerful chipset .
None of this should be surprising . That Motorola phone costs $ 300 , while the iPhone 16 is $ 799 . Of course , the iPhone is going to be sound ! But that ’s my power point . We can taper to cheaper Android phones with 120Hz screens as examples of the iPhone 16 ’s “ pitiful value , ” but that conversation ignores everything else that makesthe iPhone 16 one of my favorite phones of the yr . It does n’t report for its excellent and comfortable pattern , great cameras , true electric battery spirit , top - snick performance , or anything else . Refresh rates should be part of the conversation , sure , but they ’re far from the be - all and end - all .
Don’t let it stop you from getting the iPhone 16
I want to make something clear . Do n’t take this as my way of say Apple should get a free whirl for not offer a 90Hz or 120Hz display on the iPhone 16 . At $ 799 ( or $ 899 if you get theiPhone 16 Plus ) , the lack of a 120Hz panel is objectively a miserable economic value — specially when you look at competingAndroid phones .
However , I also think it ’s fair to raise that criticism while also acknowledging it ’s not closely as big of an egress as some people make it out to be , just like I did a calendar month ago . For how expensive the iPhone 16 is , should it have something immobile than a 60Hz refresh rate ? Probably ! But it ’s also far from a deal - breaker .
If you ’re eyeing the iPhone 16 as your next smartphone purchase and are lay it off solely because it does n’t have a 120Hz refresh rate , block it . It ’s a reasonable complaint , but it ’s nowhere close as big of a deal as I and others online have made it out to be . Whether 60Hz or 120Hz , the iPhone 16 is a fantastic little phone that I proceed to enjoy using — refresh rate be damn .
