The iOS 14 developer beta is out, giving users their first taste of exciting new features such as widgets and App Library. But it also may have revealed a huge display upgrade for the upcoming iPhone 12.
Concept artist and noted leaker Ben Geskin posted a screenshot of the iOS 14 accessibility menu that appears to have a new "Limit Frame Rate" option. According to the description, this option "sets the maximum frame rate of the display to 60 frames per second." But since the current iPhone 11 series is already capped at 60Hz, this could be a sign that Apple is prepping for faster 120Hz displays in the iPhone 12.
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If you got to Settings - Accessibility - Motion, you can see an option to limit the maximum frame rate of the display to 60 frames per second (@JunoTecho sent me the screenshot)But why, if iPhone 11 Pro Max display can’t go higher than that anyway? https://t.co/GmcVjcTFQ3 pic.twitter.com/Otgc8GEkjfJune 23, 2020
The iPhone 12 has long been rumored to sport a 120Hz Pro Motion display on the higher-end iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max models. This would allow the new iPhones to have incredibly fluid scrolling, as well as smoother framerates for games and video.
A recent leak from EverythingApplePro suggests that the Pro Motion screens may be able to adjust between 60Hz and 120Hz on the fly, allowing your phone to conserve battery life when the higher framerate isn't needed. We hope that's the case, as we found the Galaxy S20's 120Hz display to eat up a significant chunk of battery life with the higher refresh rate activated.
Geskin later noted that he also discovered the "Limit Frame Rate" option in his iPad Pro, which already has a 120Hz display. So it's possible that this is an iPadOS 14 feature that somehow made its way to the iOS 14 beta as well. But given the existing rumors about a 120Hz iPhone, this upgrade seems more likely than ever.
The iPhone 12 is expected to come in up to four different models, each with 5G support and OLED screens. The phone will likely be powered by Apple's latest A14 processors, with the Pro models tipped to get the same advanced LiDAR sensors as the iPad Pro series. We should know more about the iPhone 12 as its expected September launch nears.
