Just as good as the iPhone 12 series, it does not have one feature that the best Android phones have had for a while. But it looks like the iPhone 13 will address the weakness on the most premium models.
According to a report by ET News (via wccftech), Apple is offering a 120Hz OLED panel for the ‘top two among the four iPhone 13 models’, which will likely be the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. The higher refresh rate makes it easier to browse, as well as better play movies and play in supported content.
These dynamic panels should also help the higher iPhone 13 models save battery life.
Using LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) technology, the 120Hz iPhone 13 Pros can dynamically adjust their refresh rate from 120Hz to 1Hz. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra already has a 120Hz LTPO screen, and the technology should also appear on at least one Samsung Galaxy S21 model.
There were rumors that Apple would adopt a 120Hz ProMotion screen for the iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max, but that never happened. Apple apparently waited for more LTPO panels to be available to provide a better balance between performance and battery life.
As reported by ET News, “it is understood that Apple has decided to introduce LTPO-TFT to compensate for the increase in power consumption caused by the improvement of the refresh rate, and the performance of the next iPhone’s performance will expected to be noticeable. ”
In our own iPhone 12 battery test, Apple’s most recent series did not perform as well, especially when 5G was switched on, so the addition of LTPO on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max should help. In addition, Apple will offer a more efficient 5nm Qualcomm X60 modem for the iPhone 13 family.
Both Samsung and LG are said to be supplying the OLED screens for the iPhone 13 series. It looks like the sizes will be the same this time around: the 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini and 6.1-inch iPhone 13 will both get more traditional 60Hz LTPS panels, while the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max will reportedly increase to 120Hz LTPO OLED screens.
The only bad news from this ET News report is that there may be an ‘increase in the offer price’. But it is not clear whether Apple will pass on the increase to buyers or not.