Apple Upgrades iPhone XS Touch Display Refresh

In case you missed it, the latest IHS Markit tear down of the new Apple iPhone XS and XS Max flagship smartphones recently announced in an almost aside comment that the touch refresh rates of the new devices has doubled to 120 Hz.

This is a significant user interface upgrade that follows a similar pattern established with the iPad product line last year with the gen 2 iPad Pro 12.9- and 10.5-inch displays with Apple’s “Pro Motion” technology .

Here’s how IDC’s Wayne Lam put it in the recent IHS press release covered below in our recent issue of Mobile Display Monitor, “Also new this year is the 120Hz refresh rate for the touch overlay in both OLED display models, which is twice as fast as the refresh rates on all previous iPhones. Higher touchscreen-refresh rate is a new theme in the display improvement that all three new iPhones share,” Lam said. “Faster refresh rates ultimately improve user experience, as interactions with the display appear snappier and smoother.”

Unlike their larger cousin iPads, the new flagship Apple iPhone upgrade 6.5″ OLED display (Samsung and LG sourced) will not support the dynamic refresh of Pro Motion, (see linked article below) technology, primarily due to battery life issues. But the new device is claimed to offer a significant touch experience upgrade.

The table below provided by the Apple developers site and found in the last November’s IDG’s MacWorld article illustrates the point. The previous generation iPhone X samples touch at 120 Hz, but display at just half that rate at 60 Hz.

apple touch sampling 100740796 orig Apple touch sampling rates various devices circa 2017; source MacWorld.com by IDG

For more on Pro Motion see the Apple WWDC last June at iMore.com. They published a comprehensive article by Serenity Caldwell that gives an in depth explanation of the new touch technology first developed and released in the iPad line.

One last point; according to IHS, the overall 6.5″ touchscreen display cost is $120 and is similar to last year’s iPhone X 5.8″ display pricing. So the Apple iPhone flagship upgrade for 2018 includes a larger 6.5″ OLED display (Samsung and LG sourced) with a cost of approximately $120, almost the same price Apple was paying for its 5.8″ iPhone X display from last year. IHS see this as a “non-trivial price erosion” in OLED displays between the two year’s 5.8″ OLED display price, as small display OLEDs continue a solid move into mainstream devices. – Steven Sechrist

I found a nice video on YouTube that shows the difference that the faster refresh rate makes.