Months Using the iPhone 15 Pro’s ProMotion Display: What I Wish I’d Known About the 120 Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate

A few years ago, we were perfectly happy with 60 Hz screens. Everything seemed fluid, fast, and more than enough. This changed with the arrival of 120 Hz panels, and once you try them, there’s no turning back.

Personally, I own the iPhone 15 Pro, one of whose main virtues is its 120 Hz ProMotion display. With the use I give it, I want to answer the question I’ve titled this post with and determine whether 120 Hz really are worth it or if this figure is merely marketing. The truth is, at first glance, the answer is clear: once you try a screen like this, picking up an older phone will make it feel slow.

What happens when you start using a phone with a 120 Hz refresh rate?

In the case of my iPhone 15 Pro (or any other device that has a 120 Hz display), the best way to explain what it feels like at this rate isn’t by looking at this phone’s screen, but at another one with a lower refresh rate.

When you first turn on the phone, you’ll notice a certain elasticity and that everything feels airy on the device, and iOS animations will seem fluid. But the moment you pick up a standard iPhone 15 or another 60 Hz device, you’ll feel as if everything is jerky and there’s a kind of delay on the screen and it doesn’t respond. Although, in reality, it’s not that the other phone is slow—it’s that your brain has already grown accustomed to the fluidity of twice as many frames per second.

Another key concept to consider is the touch sampling. We often confuse fluidity with responsiveness, but they are not the same. The 120 Hz handles visual latency (making motion appear smooth), but touch sampling (240 Hz or higher) is equally important, as it’s the speed at which the phone’s screen reacts to your fingers. If the sampling is high, the time from tapping a button to the action completing on the display is dramatically reduced. Here, it’s important to know that you can have a cinema-like screen (120 Hz), but if the sampling is low, you’ll notice controls feel heavy or slow.

The fear I had was battery life

For as long as I can remember, I’ve thought that having such a fast screen would drain my battery, but that isn’t the case. The secret of my iPhone 15 Pro (and any modern LTPO panel) is that its refresh rate is adaptive. This means the phone intelligently manages the refresh rate, using only what’s needed for what you’re doing, so battery life isn’t spent faster thanks to this management.

But, what does LTPO mean? These are the initials for Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (in Spanish, Óxido Policristalino de Baja Temperatura) and they’re the ones responsible for the screen’s “smart” behavior.

This is the technology that makes the display dynamic, because without it, the panel couldn’t drop down to 1 Hz when the image is still (something that dramatically saves battery). What’s important is that LTPO doesn’t jump straight from minimum to maximum; it works like a staircase with many steps. Depending on whether you’re watching a movie (24 or 48 Hz), scrolling (80 Hz), or gaming (120 Hz), the panel chooses the exact rung.

That said, this is now a quality standard we see not only in Apple, but also in the high-end ranges from Samsung or Google, enabling displays to stay on all the time (Always-on Display) without sacrificing battery life.

The two scenarios in which I’ve noticed the 120 Hz refresh on my phone

I’m not a hardcore mobile gamer nor a heavy editor of photos and videos, but I do use my iPhone for everyday tasks such as browsing social networks, checking email, sending WhatsApp messages, taking photos, and even some photo editing. Looking at my usage, there are two main advantages I see in the ProMotion display, and they are these:

• Scroll on social networks and web browsing: you’ll see the screen fly at 120 Hz and even text remains legible as it moves. By contrast, if you have a phone with a 60 Hz display, you’ll notice scrolling on screen is slower; it’s not unbearable, but the phone clearly feels much slower.
• Series and films: watching movies or TV shows on the phone is another scenario where ProMotion makes a difference. Although on Android the display often translates FPS into Hz (the number remains the same), on iOS it’s different, as the LTPO screen of the iPhone 15 Pro adapts its refresh rate to multiples of the framerate. In other words, on iPhone, the screen refreshes 48 times to display 24 frames. Everything fits together perfectly and looks stable. That said, you may occasionally notice micro-stutters, but that’s not the screen’s fault—it’s related to apps like YouTube or Netflix, which sometimes don’t communicate well with iPhone’s system and deliver frames out of sync.

Is it worth investing in a smartphone with an adaptive refresh rate?

If you’re coming from a basic phone and you make the jump (like I did) to an iPhone Pro or any other device with adaptive hertz, the investment is justified. It’s true that it’s a quiet improvement, but once your eyes get used to this kind of display, going back will cost you, and when you hold a 60 Hz device in your hands, you’ll notice everything you had been missing up to that moment.

Some adaptive-display phones that might interest you

It isn’t only the iPhone 15 Pro (or later) that features an adaptive display. Here are other models we can recommend:

• Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Samsung’s latest release ships a fourth-generation LTPO panel, with intelligent and predictive energy management. Compared to previous generations, its main new feature is the ability to drop to as low as 0.1 Hz in Always-On Display mode.

• Google Pixel 10: released late last year, the base model of Google’s latest release uses a panel that ranges between 60 and 120 Hz. It’s adaptive, but it doesn’t drop to minimum levels, thus prioritizing smoothness for everyday use. By contrast, the Pro versions of Google Pixel 10 do mount an LTPO panel that can drop down to 1 Hz in Always-On mode.

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