The new iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max support Super Retina XDR displays with ProMotion adaptive refresh rate technology, and support an adaptive refresh rate range from 10 Hz to 120 Hz, which can provide high frame rates when the user needs them, without Save power when necessary and extend battery life.
Although the device supports a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, developers found that most application animations are limited to 60Hz, which means that users will have a different experience when using them. When scrolling and switching between full screens, ProMotion can achieve a 120Hz refresh rate, but the animation is limited to 60Hz.
Am I correct in seeing that UIView.animateWithDuration APIs aren’t clocked at 120Hz on iPhone 13? On UIScrollView, system ones, and Metal by the looks of it, rest is still 60Hz? pic.twitter.com/t3MeM9cj0E
— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) September 24, 2021
For example, when using the Twitter application, the content scrolling is 120Hz, but some interactive animations are 60Hz. Some developers speculated that Apple added the 60Hz limit to make battery life longer because on the iPad Pro, there are no restrictions and animations can also run at 120Hz. Finally, the animation of Apple’s own App can run at 120Hz, while the animation of the third-party App cannot. This may be a bug or Apple may solve it in the future.
Note that this isn’t the case on iPad Pros, those do use 120 Hz for all animations. See attached.
I assume this is a purposeful battery life optimization choice on iPhones. 🔋 pic.twitter.com/Utg0oaDzdi
— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) September 24, 2021
