The iPhone 16 is just over a month old and I’ve been using it almost non-stop since it was announced last month. I reviewed the phone for Digital Trends and bought one with my own money as my personal phone of choice.
Not long after the reveal, I wrote an op-ed complaining about the lack of a 120Hz display on the iPhone 16. I said it was “the only thing holding the iPhone 16 back” and that the 60Hz display was “an unfair specification’. I’d still like to see the refresh rate addressed with the iPhone 17, but after living with the iPhone 16 for over a month now, I’ve found that this isn’t nearly as big of an issue as I thought it would be are.
A 60Hz screen matters, until it doesn’t
I switched to the iPhone 16 after using the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Google Pixel 9 Pro – two phones with 120Hz displays. And I admit: it was a difficult transition. After my eyes saw a 120Hz refresh rate every day for months, moving to a 60Hz phone felt pretty bad. Whether it was scrolling through Reddit or swiping through my home screens, everything on the iPhone 16 felt slow and choppy.
But then something happened. I didn’t notice it anymore.
A little over two weeks into using the iPhone 16, I realized that the 60Hz refresh rate had stopped being on my mind. I could still see it, sure, but I didn’t notice it actively souring my time with the phone.
Fast forward to today, when I’ve been using the iPhone 16 for over a month, and the 60Hz display doesn’t even cross my mind. I’m using my iPhone 16 continual all day long texting friends on iMessage, watching my fantasy football league, completing my daily Duolingo classes, and spending too much time on X and Reddit. The iPhone 16 handles all of these things flawlessly.
Does it display all my apps and games with the same hyper-fluidity as an iPhone 16 Pro? No, and when I use the iPhone 16 Pro next to the iPhone 16, the difference between a 120Hz screen and a 60Hz screen is still noticeable. But normal people don’t do that. Almost everyone who gets the iPhone 16 will use it as their only phone; in that situation it is a non-issue.
Refresh rates don’t make or break a phone
There’s another factor at play: the rest of the iPhone 16. A 60Hz refresh rate doesn’t necessarily make a phone terrible, just like a 120Hz display doesn’t guarantee a phone will be excellent.
Take the Moto G Power 5G 2024 as an example. It’s a $300 smartphone with a 120Hz display. It’s a better spec than the iPhone 16’s 60Hz refresh rate, but it’s also an objectively worse screen in every other respect. It has extremely poor viewing angles, less impressive colors and terrible outdoor vision. And even with a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s much slower and laggy due to the less powerful chipset.
None of this should be surprising. That Motorola phone costs $300, while the iPhone 16 costs $799. Of course the iPhone is getting better! But that’s my point. We can point to cheaper Android phones with 120Hz displays as an example of the iPhone 16’s “poor value,” but that conversation ignores everything else that makes the iPhone 16 one of my favorite phones of the year. It doesn’t take into account the excellent and comfortable design, the great cameras, the reliable battery life, the top performance or anything else. Refresh rates should certainly be part of the conversation, but they are far from everything.
Don’t let this stop you from purchasing the iPhone 16
I want to make something clear. Don’t take this as my way of saying that Apple should get a free pass for not offering a 90Hz or 120Hz display on the iPhone 16. For $799 (or $899 if you buy the iPhone 16 Plus), the lack from a 120Hz panel is objectively poor value, especially when looking at competing Android phones.
However, I also think it’s fair to make that criticism while also recognizing that it’s not nearly as big of a problem as some people make it out to be, just as I did a month ago. Given how expensive it is, should the iPhone 16 have anything faster than a 60Hz refresh rate? Probably! But it’s also far from a deal breaker.
If you have the iPhone 16 in mind as your next smartphone purchase and are only putting it off because it doesn’t have a 120Hz refresh rate, then call it a day. It’s a fair complaint, but it’s not nearly as big of a problem as I and others online have made it out to be. Whether 60Hz or 120Hz, the iPhone 16 is a fantastic little phone that I still enjoy using – refresh rates be damned.
