I guess my question also applies to iPhone 13 since I assume it works the same but it becomes even more interesting to me with the new down-to-1Hz screens on the 14 Pro & 14 Pro Max. Do we know how the hardware/software decides what refresh rate to use? Are screen refresh rate changes implemented on a system wide basis down at the driver level (or below) based solely on the observed rate of change of display content or is there some API by which apps and bits of iOS can explicitly tell the hardware what refresh rate to set the screen to?
I'm hoping it's the former because if so then I assume that all apps, both built in and 3rd party, would automatically get the potential benefit of the extra power savings if their content is static enough to allow the screen to spend its time at very low refresh rates. If however an API is involved then the first hurdle for 3rd party apps is whether has Apple made that API publicly available and even if it has then the second hurdle is whether a given app developer will push out an update that makes use of that API.
This is all of particular interest to me because the major component of the screen-on time on my iPhone is spent on Kindle reading ebooks with other apps like WhatsApp, news readers, weather apps, Wikipedia and various other reference apps taking up the bulk of my remaining screen-on time. I'd guess that well over 95% of the time when I have my screen on I am looking at really quite static content (Kindle being the most static, 100% static content apart from a page turn every 45 seconds or so). If the refresh rate will clock right down to 1Hz whenever appropriate I'm thinking (hoping) that I might see a really spectacular increase in my battery life. Obviously the modem is connecting to my 4G service the whole time (I disable 5G) so that will ultimately drain the battery but right now if for some reason I haven't done much reading or anything else on my phone (a 13 Pro Max) and it's just been sitting on my desk with a few messages now and then it goes about 5 or even 6 days before I get the 10% warning and I'm curious whether, if the screen does go into 1Hz for Kindle etc, whether I might still get 4 or 5 days use between charges even with a few hours of ebook reading each day.
Such long between-charge times might seem a bit pointless to some people but one of my milestones for battery life is to get to the point where I could go away for a long 4 day weekend with a fully charged phone and still be OK even if I forgot to pack a charger or if one broke.
I'm hoping it's the former because if so then I assume that all apps, both built in and 3rd party, would automatically get the potential benefit of the extra power savings if their content is static enough to allow the screen to spend its time at very low refresh rates. If however an API is involved then the first hurdle for 3rd party apps is whether has Apple made that API publicly available and even if it has then the second hurdle is whether a given app developer will push out an update that makes use of that API.
This is all of particular interest to me because the major component of the screen-on time on my iPhone is spent on Kindle reading ebooks with other apps like WhatsApp, news readers, weather apps, Wikipedia and various other reference apps taking up the bulk of my remaining screen-on time. I'd guess that well over 95% of the time when I have my screen on I am looking at really quite static content (Kindle being the most static, 100% static content apart from a page turn every 45 seconds or so). If the refresh rate will clock right down to 1Hz whenever appropriate I'm thinking (hoping) that I might see a really spectacular increase in my battery life. Obviously the modem is connecting to my 4G service the whole time (I disable 5G) so that will ultimately drain the battery but right now if for some reason I haven't done much reading or anything else on my phone (a 13 Pro Max) and it's just been sitting on my desk with a few messages now and then it goes about 5 or even 6 days before I get the 10% warning and I'm curious whether, if the screen does go into 1Hz for Kindle etc, whether I might still get 4 or 5 days use between charges even with a few hours of ebook reading each day.
Such long between-charge times might seem a bit pointless to some people but one of my milestones for battery life is to get to the point where I could go away for a long 4 day weekend with a fully charged phone and still be OK even if I forgot to pack a charger or if one broke.
