Weekly poll: picking the perfect display (refresh rate, resolution, curved or flat)

10 January 2021
Which would you prefer - a 1080p+ display running at 120Hz or a 1440p+ one at 60Hz. Also, flat or curved?

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I feel like for the time being, 90hz should be the minimum with it switching to 60hz while the optimisation, battery etc. is worked on. Once that's done, I feel like the new standard should be 120/60 on higher end phones and 90/60 on mid rangers. 60hz is just fine on low-end devices and as mentioned, helps preserve battery (unless it comes with a big one)

    ALPHABOY17, 10 Jan 2021I guess people prefer 1080p 120hz displays. I wonder why...... moreYou do realise most games dont support over 60? And those 120hz can be noticed on everything else too, right?

      ALPHABOY17, 10 Jan 2021I guess people prefer 1080p 120hz displays. I wonder why...... more2K is great but on the 4K panel as a sweet spot for gaming and even so badly supported (Nv GPU's 30 Hz only but it can be tweaked) while it doesn't actually tax a GPU or a whole system more than 140% compared to the base 1080p (100%). On the mobile or even tablet 1080p is still perfectly fine and even so much with a rather good GPU (Adreno 540 at least).

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        • Anonymous
        • mpq
        • 10 Jan 2021

        With the s20 series, Samsung's been secretly checking user's settings and learned most people chose combo of 120hz with lower resolution.

        So for S21, why would they still give a high resolution screen with a higher cost when they know most users would choose the 120hz setting anyway?

        I suppose if we cannot have both it is still important to leave the choice to user themselves as I am one of the few that would prefer high resolution over 120hz.

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          • AnonD-909757
          • 3g5
          • 10 Jan 2021

          Anonymous, 10 Jan 2021The poll is about gaming phonesNo, it isn't, read again, and even if it was, diversity is still a no brainers.
          Some will prefer gaming on a 1080p to avoid too small UI, other prefer higher resolution.
          Some will prefer smooth high refresh rate, other will be perfectly fine gaming on a 60Hz display ans will prefer gaming longer thanks to the saved battery.
          Plus, almost no one buy a phone dedicated to gaming, in almost every cases, it also serves as main phone, and other non-gaming related specs can be as important if nor more important.

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            • Anonymous
            • HBj
            • 10 Jan 2021

            People prefer 120Hz and 1080p... Wtf is wrong with you all.

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              • Display Mate
              • StU
              • 10 Jan 2021

              I see the future of gaming phone display's screen refresh rate at 240hz with 1080p or 2k. Sharp was the first, do who is to follow with a 240hz display. I'd like to see Nvidia re-enter the smartphone market with a g-sync gaming phone display optimized.

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                • Anonymous
                • pN4
                • 10 Jan 2021

                AnonD-909757, 10 Jan 2021As usual, there ISN'T a single perfect choice, everyon... moreThe poll is about gaming phones

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                  • AnonD-909757
                  • 3g5
                  • 10 Jan 2021

                  As usual, there ISN'T a single perfect choice, everyone will have its own preference, the ONLY real answer is DIVERSITY!
                  We need phones to be different from each others with enough variety that most non-niche set or criteria can be found in each brands, alongside more specific/niche products.

                  Even Oled vs LCD is still a relevant option variety.

                  Rule of thumb :
                  If a feature only add stuff, can be perfectly ignored by those who don't want/need it and it have a minimum impact on design/other specs/price, then it should be a default feature that should only be removed/not included in some rare and justified circumstances, otherwise it should be part of the variation.
                  Exemple : The 3.5mm Jack, the IR Blaster, the NFC are perfect exemple of features that if you don't like it you can perfectly ignore and make almost no difference what so ever if it is there or not, but is day and night difference for those who want or need it.
                  On the contrary, punch hole, bezel, flat/curved display, camera setup, display type, etc, are things you can't just ignore and certainly shouldn't have to "deal with it", there should be enough available options for everyone, period.

                    ALPHABOY17, 10 Jan 2021I guess people prefer 1080p 120hz displays. I wonder why...... moreHigher screen resolution also requires more CPU power, same as higher refresh rate. Higher resolution also may make things clearer (more detailed, finer lines etc). But higher frame rate just makes any image transition smoother and the screen feels more fluid. If I can, I'd love to have both. If I had to choose one, I'd pick higher refresh rate for two reasons: for me, 1080p on a phone is plenty, and I've been spoiled by high refresh rates for years. I also tried iPad pro with 120hz refresh rate in a shop and loved it. Most of the time you won't see it but page flips in reading apps and general browsing just feel much more fluid. Or maybe this is just my experience, so try it yourself before you buy.

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                      • Anonymous
                      • gD6
                      • 10 Jan 2021

                      Who tf votes for curved

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                        • Dave
                        • n2n
                        • 10 Jan 2021

                        I really don't understand the appeal for curved displays. They are a deal breaker for me. Makes the device less comfortable to hold, prone to accidental touches and more fragile.
                        120hz is great, kinda hard to go back to 60hz after that.

                          LG Superfan, 10 Jan 2021I would pick a 1080p display with variable refresh rate upt... moreOh I forgot to mention the phone should also be waterfall curved with Huawei like palm rejection

                            1440p has diminishing returns, you pay more for a more power hungry resolution

                            Plus that resolution isn't even standard the standards are 720p,1080p, and 4k there is barely any 2k content overall so what's the point?

                            As for refresh rates any high refresh rate is better on LCD it's a no brainier not only do you get to have a higher quality panel for less money LCD doesnt run into color/curve calibration problems at different levels of brightness so no worries about refresh rate issues like what happened to the pixel phones

                            High refresh rate Gaming monitor are LCD for a reason

                              I would pick a 1080p display with variable refresh rate upto 144hz so when I'm playing games the VRR will push the display to 144hz and when just scrolling and browsing on web 90hz for good smoothness without killing battery and go as low as 15hz atleast (even lower would be better) when screen is locked with AoD or just idle at any point to save some good amount of battery

                                Resolution is usually preferred over refresh rate, but what phone companies should really do is let us choose between those options. Make a phone with a high resolution (up to 4K), 120/144Hz refresh rate and let the users choose between resolutions and refresh rates in the settings for their liking. Obviously this will raise the price of the phone (and battery usage depending on your settings), but I'm speaking about premium devices anyway. I think though that other stuff like color depth and the panel type (Micro LED please!!!) are also as important.

                                  ALPHABOY17, 10 Jan 2021I guess people prefer 1080p 120hz displays. I wonder why...... moreIt's only obvious on an OLED display seeing that modern smartphone OLED is pentile and and loses out on about 30 percent of pixels

                                  1080p looks like 720p on an OLED

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                                    • RC255
                                    • 0Fb
                                    • 10 Jan 2021

                                    Given that a majority of users can't see a difference between 1080 and 1440 or between 90 and 120 (60 to 90 is noticeable to more people) a 90hz 1080p display is perfectly acceptable for most users. Some people just like higher numbers and bragging rights (they always want more ram too despite nothing needing more than 6gb). Curved displays are an acquired taste, I personally prefer them. Some hate them. Most of the 'hate' group haven't even tried them. It's a stupid poll really designed to create arguments in the comments.

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • KiT
                                      • 10 Jan 2021

                                      My sweet spot for smartphone,,
                                      1080p 90hz flat/slightly curve panel

                                      Battery life different of 60hz and 90hz is meager but offer noticeable smoothness

                                        About curved screen: I completely disagree with a statement that "It also looks so much better". It only looks better in advertisments that have been planned and created in such a way to make it look so much better. Once I tried to use it in real life, I found it to be:
                                        - inconvenient, as it makes it harder to hold the phone on the edges
                                        - inconsistent, the image quality may degrade at an angle (get elongated, for example, distorted or just looking weird, or slightly zoomed it, splitting into sub-pixels at the edges, so instead of seeing a white pixel you see all three separate sub-pixels for each color separately)
                                        - hard to protect (glass screen protectors are immediately out of the question, outside of a few dedicated brands, which are quite expensive, and for a select number of ultra-premium devices, because you wouldn't buy a $100+ screen protector for a $200 device)
                                        - infringe on the case - curved screen means less protection on the sides to allow you to see and touch those sides, meaning there's a better chance to break the screen in a drop, and drops will happen at some point in life of a phone

                                        For me a curved screen is a no-go. Sadly, my Samsung Galaxy S7 "flat" version has a tiny screen curve (because, why not, right?) which means I use a rubbery screen protector (screen doesn't feel nice to touch). But that allowed me to use the same phone for 4 years and protected it from scratches and cracks for years... except there are a couple of tiny cracks that keep growing under the screen protector, meaning I'll have to replace the phone at some point. And my next phone will have a perfectly flat screen and a glass screen protector. If I can find a decent phone with a flat screen for a decent price by that time.

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