Apple said to have dropped 120 Hz display for iPhone 12 Pro models ahead of production

Apple vaunted next-generation iPhone 12 Pro models look set to miss out on a key piece of 2020 display technology when they start shipping in October. Tipster Jon Prosser has confirmed with his sources that the Apple iPhone 12 Pro models will lack a 120 Hz refresh rate. The news leaves the 2020 iPhone range on its own as the only flagship handsets stuck on 60 Hz display tech moving into 2021. Whether that puts any potential customers off and affects sales projections will remain to be seen.

There have been rumors circulating that Apple had been able to access 120 Hz panel, but not the driver ICs needed to deliver a variable refresh rate. Having a variable refresh rate is important in helping to preserve battery life. It was only last month that Samsung shipped the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with the first properly variable rate 120 Hz Super AMOLED display using a technology it calls “Variable Frequency.” It also announced that this technology is now available to other OEMs -- for whatever reason, it appears this won’t be making into Apple’s iPhones this year.

Apple can be quite pedantic about the components it uses in its iPhones for a wide variety of reasons, including price as well as being able to get parts with similar specifications from different suppliers. It is possible that even if Samsung could supply Apple with the parts it needed, other display suppliers to Apple such as LG and BOE mightn’t have been able to match what Samsung is delivering now. This will leave the iPhone 12 Pro models on similar OLED display technology to the non-Pro iPhone 12 models expected to appear on this line for the first time and will be one less differentiating feature as a result.