Samsung Galaxy Note20’s display to be capped at 60Hz refresh rate, only Note20+ gets 120Hz

Yesterday a rumor told us that both the upcoming Galaxy Note20 and the Note20+ would feature screens with 120Hz refresh rate, which makes sense considering that’s also a feature of the S20 line. 

Yesterday a rumor told us that both the upcoming Galaxy Note20 and the Note20+ would feature screens with 120Hz refresh rate, which makes sense considering that’s also a feature of the S20 line. However, today the same source has come back with some new information, and it’s not good for fans of cheaper Samsung flagships and high refresh rate panels.

According to the same Ross Young, founder and CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, the Note20 will miss out on the high refresh rate train, coming with a display that will only be capable of refreshing 60 times per second. The Note20+, on the other hand, is still slated to enjoy that 120Hz smoothness.

Note 20 Update – while the Note 20+ remains LTPO and 120Hz, the Note 20 will be LTPS and 60Hz. Makes sense since LTPO costs more and should appear first in premium models. You can do 120Hz with LTPS, but it consumes a lot of power. LTPO is the best implementation for 120Hz.

— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 12, 2020

Young says this info has been confirmed by Samsung, but even so, since the company has publicly stayed mum on the matter, perhaps do take it with the slightest pinch of salt. So it looks like the Note20’s screen will be a real downgrade from the one on the Note20+, both in terms of resolution (1080p+ and not 1440p+) as well as refresh rate (60Hz vs. 120Hz).

Hopefully all of this means the Note20 will have a much lower price, but given what’s happened to Samsung’s flagship pricing recently, we wouldn’t hold our collective breaths on this being an ‘affordable’ model by any definition of that word.

The reasoning for Samsung’s move has to do with tradeoffs in power consumption that are quite big when operating 120Hz screens built with current-gen LTPS technology. The Note20+ will have a panel that uses LTPO, which Young says “is the best implementation for 120Hz”, but it is more expensive and will thus stay confined to the ultra-premium price tier in the beginning.