One of the power-hungry features of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is the 120Hz ProMotion display. This dynamically adjusts the screen refresh rate between 1Hz (which is always displayed when the phone sleeps) to 120Hz for things like scrolling content and gaming.
But if you want to maximize your phone’s battery life, is it worth turning off the feature? New tests show no…
You can limit the refresh rate to 60Hz using the settings in Accessibility, which will prevent the display from going up to those high refresh rates that drain battery power. Of course, this also means you don’t get the smooth scrolling and animations of ProMotion , so you’re giving up one of the key features of buying a “Pro” iPhone. Maybe if the Apple cellphone battery life was longer it would be worth it?
He first conducted a Geekbench 4 battery test, and the results showed that the smart iPhone battery life increased by about 5%. A less scientific but more realistic test showed similarly small differences. As he concluded, it’s important, but not enough to give up ProMotion’s smoothness.
He said you do see a big difference when you play games that support 120fps.
Shooting games “Call of Duty: Mobile” and “PUBG” mobile support high refresh rates, and games such as “Brawl Stars”, “League of Legends: Wild Rift”, “Genshin Impact” and “Alto’s Odyssey” High refresh rates are also supported.
In most of these games, you have to turn on the in-game options to select a special 120fps or high frame rate mode.
It’s impossible to do any scientific testing here because there are so many variables, but he said that as a rough guide, he noticed that when ProMotion was turned off, battery usage was roughly cut in half. This is because high frame rates impact Apple battery life through more intensive GPU usage and faster frame rates.
This is obviously a huge gain, and something you might consider if you do a lot of mobile gaming without battery, but in general you don’t need to turn ProMotion off – as 120fps is usually what you need in every game Something that is actively enabled.
So unless 5% charge affects whether your iPhone battery lasts all day, enable ProMotion. If you’re a gamer and want to saveiPhone battery, just turn off high frame rates when playing without a power outlet handy.