120 Hz displays have been around for what, 2-3 years now?
I know it won't make any difference for the layperson, and this is mostly a tech enthusiast gripe, but still, it is disappointing to know Apple couldn't get 120 hz displays shipped.(I'm aware they were one of the first when they brought it to the iPad, and that the iPhone 12 pros are going to have LEDs which bring in different challenges from LCDs and that there will be major battery issues and that they chose to prioritize that over the refresh rate. Still.)
I think
if 120Hz isn't coming that either
A. Apple wasn't satisfied with the tradeoffs, Apple likely wants top-of-the-line 120Hz displays and possibly the 120Hz displays had some drawbacks compared to their best-in-class 60Hz displays (10bit, bright, no smudging at lower brightness, battery life, color accuracy, etc...)
B. They just can't supply enough of the 120Hz displays, you got to remember that Apple isn't just a company that creates a phone that's going to sell 500k-1m units. They need a lot of these displays and these displays have to be manufactured and there has to be enough capacity.
C. Combination of A and B.
People always say that Apple is late to adopt new tech (which is true), but Apple only launches a few phones/year and sells
a lot of those. Some tech just isn't ready to be manufactured on such a large scale that it can be put inside an iPhone.
Apple most likely wants an LTPO panel so they can have a Promotion-like display (variable refresh rate between 1-120Hz). Even though Apple developped LTPO and owns the patents on it, currently the only phones with that technology are the Samsung Galaxy Note Ultra (and Fold 2) and those phones have display issues on lower brightness (green tint, black bars). I don't think Samsung has the capacity this year to manufacture enough for an iPhone or maybe the quality just isn't there yet.
It's easier to create a phone and source components for that phone if you're only going to be selling 1million units/year compared to selling basically 5m+ units in the launch weekend.
120Hz would be nice to have but it has to be done well so I rather not have it then have a half-baked version of it. It's a tech-enthusiast feature in my opinion and the only thing I've ever seen youtubers say about it is "omg look how smooth it scrolls through my settings app".
The only thing I'm worried about is that there's not going to be enough to differentiate the non-pro models from the pro-models.
Both are rumoured to come in 6.1inch sizes, both will have OLED, same resolution. What will be the difference?
Slightly better screen on the pro model (which only tech-enthusiasts will talk about? a telephoto camera that most people don't care about? A LiDaR sensor that still has to prove it's usefulness? Stainless steel body instead of aluminium making the phone extra heavy?
Apple will need to come up with something compelling to differentiate the pro models from the non-pro models because from the current rumours I'm not too exited to go for the pro model instead of the regular.
