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MagyarSamsung comes clean about Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ display refresh rates
Last weekend, we reported that Samsung had admitted the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ have nearly a 5x higher minimum display refresh rate than the company initially advertised. To recap, Samsung claimed that the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ could vary their display refresh rates between 10 Hz and 120 Hz, compared to the 1-120 Hz that the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers.
Theoretically, the ability to vary refresh rates allows the Galaxy S22 trio to minimise power consumption when viewing static content, such as text. Many smartphones already do this, including the Pixel 6 and iPhone 13 series. However, Samsung informed the press that the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ could go as low as 10 Hz, before quietly changing this to 48 Hz in a press release.
Now, Samsung has sought to explain the discrepancy between the two minimum refresh rates in statements to Hardware Info and Android Police. Funnily enough, the company has since adjusted its marketing materials to the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ offering 48-120 Hz refresh rates, not 10-120 Hz. Samsung's statement to Android Police is as follows:
The display refresh rate was originally listed between 10 and 120Hz (10 to 120 frames per second), and we later opted to update how we communicate this specification in order to be in line with the more widely-recognized industry standard. Consumers can be assured there has been no change of hardware specifications, and both devices support up to 120Hz for super smooth scrolling.
Incidentally, Samsung issued a longer statement to Hardware Info, a Dutch-speaking website. Samsung Netherlands has added some more context to its explanation, although the overall message remains identical:
We want to clarify the refresh rate of the screen for Galaxy S22 and S22+. While the display component of both devices supports 48 to 120 Hz, Samsung's proprietary technology offers adjustable screen refresh rates, minimizing AP-to-screen data transfer rates to 10 Hz to save power consumption. The display's refresh rate was originally stated to be between 10 and 120 Hz (10 to 120 frames per second). We later chose to communicate this specification in line with the widely recognized industry standard. Consumers can rest assured that the hardware specifications have not changed. Both devices support up to 120 Hz for super-smooth scrolling. (machine translated from Dutch)
In short, Samsung got caught using a dodgy way to measure display refresh rates and u-turned. Based on Samsung's statements, the GPUs in the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ render as few as 10 frames per second, but both displays still refresh at 48 Hz. In other words, the displays in the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ operate at a low of 48 Hz, not 10 Hz, as Samsung previously advertised.
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