Higher Screen Refresh Rate is one of the most sought-after features on smartphones these days. And that’s why we curated a list of 90Hz and 120Hz smartphones that are available right now. However, there is another metric called the Touch Sampling Rate which is somehow overshadowed by the higher Screen Refresh Rate trend. I believe that Touch Sampling Rate is equally important and users should understand its significance if they want the best smartphone experience. So if you are confused about the difference between Screen Refresh Rate and Touch Sampling Rate then follow our explainer below.
- Screen Refresh Rate
Unlike the touch sampling rate, screen refresh rate is very easy to understand so let me begin with its very definition in layman terms. Every screen – be it on mobile, TV or monitor – refreshes every second to update the current image and create a sense of motion. Standard TVs, monitors, and smartphones refresh the screen 60 times in one second. So you can say that the screen refresh rate is the number at which the display can render maximum frames in one second. Therefore, if the screen refresh rate is higher, more frames will appear in one second which will result in a smooth motion. Source: OnePlus / Upcoming OnePlus 8 Pro
Screen Refresh Rate
Touch Sampling Rate
Now we come to Touch Sampling Rate which is entirely different from Screen Refresh Rate. Let me start with a basic definition first. Touch Sampling Rate is the number of times a screen can sense a user touch input in a second. To explain it a bit more, it’s how many times your screen can refresh itself to register a user touch input in a second. It’s intrinsically linked to screen latency and let me explain how.
However, if you increase the touch sampling rate to 120Hz then it will reduce the cycle to 8.33ms. It eventually means that now the screen will refresh every 8.33ms (in comparison to 16.6ms on a 60Hz touch sampling rate display) to look for touch input from the user. So with the increase of touch sampling rate, you have a far better chance of registering your touch input. Similarly, if you increase the touch sampling rate to 240Hz (like on Asus ROG II) then the cycle will further be reduced to 4.16ms which is amazing. Basically, every 4.16ms, the screen will refresh to look for a touch input and your screen taps will instantly be registered and processed without any delay.
While that was all about the technicality between Screen Refresh Rate and Touch Response Rate, let’s go through some practical examples to understand why iOS generally feels smoother than Android. Here, I am going to talk about the software side of things and how both giants handle touch input.
