El Galaxy S20 it is without a doubt one of the most powerful devices that Samsung has released in recent years. And it goes without saying that the entire family of phones is impressive down to the last core, bringing premium features to users looking to get the best on the market.
One of the best features of these phones is the beautiful 120hz display which will make for smooth transitions.
However, this refresh rate comes with some limitations; For starters, it can't be used in WQHD+ resolution, so it's limited to FHD+, which isn't much of a tradeoff. However, we just got word that the 120Hz screen refresh rate isn't consistent across the board.
Various factors affect the refresh rate on the Galaxy S20
This shouldn't be a surprise, but there are some apps that won't work in 120Hz, so the phone will have to switch back to 60Hz. Apps like the camera or Google Maps will work in 60Hz mode. It makes sense to use a lower refresh rate because these applications alone consume a lot of battery.
Also, according to Samsung, all three phones will switch to 60Hz when the battery temperature exceeds 42 degrees Celsius or the battery level drops to 5% or less.
At the time of writing, we are not sure if Samsung plans to offer the 120Hz refresh rate in WQHD+ resolution via a software update or not. However, looking at these limitations, all that can be said for now is that interested users can find a workaround by using root.
Such limitations have been a part of the Android ecosystem for some time, but are usually bound by software rather than hardware, and can be easily circumvented via admin access.
However, Samsung is right, as keeping a display running at 120Hz will not only be hard on the GPU but also put a lot of stress on the battery. Reviews of these devices are not yet available, so we have yet to see how the battery works with such a powerful display.