Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A leaker and analyst has claimed that Apple’s base iPhones will only get 120Hz screens in 2025.
- That means you should expect the iPhone 17 to be the first base model with a 120Hz display/
Apple has restricted high refresh rate screens to iPhone Pro models since introducing the feature back in 2021. So that means those buying vanilla iPhone models are stuck with a standard 60Hz screen instead of a smoother, 120Hz display.
Now, display industry insider and analyst Ross Young has claimed on Twitter that Apple will only bring a high refresh rate screen to base iPhones in 2025. In other words, you’ll need to wait for the iPhone 17 if you want a cheaper iPhone with a 120Hz display.
This seems like an unnecessarily long amount of time to wait for a high refresh rate screen on a standard iPhone. We can understand if Apple took this approach because the vanilla iPhones had smaller batteries, but even the standard iPhone 13 and 14 have battery sizes on par with the iPhone 13 Pro and 14 Pro respectively. So it stands to reason that Apple is doing this to up-sell consumers to the Pro models. The company will also likely see higher profit margins on the standard models by sticking with a conventional 60Hz screen.
By contrast, the likes of Samsung, OnePlus, OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi have offered 120Hz screens on their base flagship phones for several years now. It’s also not uncommon to find sub-$500 Android phones with 90Hz or 120Hz OLED screens either, such as the Motorola Moto G72, Redmi Note 12 line, and Samsung Galaxy A54.
