Illustration for article titled How to Force Googles Pixel 4 to Always Use a 90Hz Refresh Rate
Photo: Chara Ingram (Shutterstock)

Google’s Pixel 4 and 4 XL are the latest smartphones to jump on the high-refresh-rate craze, but when your new shiny Pixel is finally in your hand, you may find that its 90Hz screen isn’t always as smooth as you expected.

Unlike other high-refresh-rate displays, the Pixel 4's refresh rate changes dynamically, and you’ll most notice this is your screen’s brightness is below 75 percent. When that happens, your Pixel 4's refresh rate will drop from 90 to 60Hz.


While you can always try to keep your screen’s brightness maxed out to take full advantage of that slightly smoother display, certain features—such as Android’s battery saver mode, wind-down, digital wellbeing, or dynamic brightness—can change the screen brightness automatically. You can disable or change these in your device’s system settings, but most users will probably want to keep their phone’s brightness down in dimly lit environments. Nobody likes to stare at a super bright light while sitting in a dark room, which is partly why dark modes have become so popular.

And then there’s the issue of battery life; having your screen at full brightness all the time is an obvious energy drain. The same is true for running your device at 90Hz all the time, but here’s the workaround if you don’t mind trading a little uptime for a high refresh rate:

How to force a 90Hz refresh rate on your Pixel 4

The setting is hidden in the Android developer access it you need to put your phone in developer mode.

  1. Go to Settings > About.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and tap “Build number” seven times in a row. A notification will pop up saying you’re in developer mode.
  3. Next, go to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer options.
  4. Make sure Develop options is turned “On.”
  5. Scroll down and turn on “Force 90Hz refresh rate.”

The other thing to keep in mind is that certain types of media will force the screen into 60Hz mode. As Google told The Verge:




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