Pixel 4’s screen scales down to 60Hz when brightness is set below 75%

One of the biggest additions to Google’s new Pixel 4 line is the new 90Hz refresh rate screen. This is a key trend in 2019 flagship phones but now it seems that both Pixel 4 and 4 XL automatically switch to 60Hz when their brightness is set to lower than 75%. The discovery was made by a group of Reddit users and has since been confirmed by many early adopters.

Apparently, there is a workaround to this issue through the developer setting where you can lock the 90Hz refresh rate in all scenarios. In addition, Twitter user Jeff Springer noticed that the 90Hz mode stays locked at lower brightness settings if the Ambient EQ is enabled and there is strong surrounding ambient lighting near the phone.

This is the first time that we’ve seen this type of refresh rate throttling as other manufacturers would lock the refresh rate at all times unless you manually set the phone to work at 60Hz in the display settings. Google has yet to issue an official statement on the matter.

Source | Via 1 | Via 2