True variable refresh rate support for Android 15 is here

These days, swift screens are not limited to the the greatest Android phones. The majority of premium and mid-range Android phones, as well as many low-cost phones, have displays with refresh rates higher than 60 Hz.

However, because their displays do not support variable refresh rate (VRR) technology, the majority of these phones only refresh at a few set speeds, such as 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz. As it turns out, Android has not had real VRR support up until now, although certain phones do feature VRR-capable screens.

Google claims that Android 15 is the first version of the Android operating system to feature adaptive refresh rate (ARR), also known as variable refresh rate. The operating system allowed for multiple refresh rates with refresh rate switching prior to Android 15. In essence, the OS would instruct the screen to alternate between the many display modes that it supported, like 1080p@60Hz and 1080p@90Hz.

Therefore, it would track the type of view that is displayed in an attempt to do this intelligently, but it was never really adaptive. Nevertheless, Android 15 introduced adaptive refresh rate, which allows the refresh rate to alter within a single display mode in addition to adapting to the content frame rate.

According to Google, there are two main advantages to Android 15’s adaptive refresh rate functionality. By allowing devices to “function at rates lower than their maximum refresh rates, switching to higher rates only when critical for the user experience, which eliminates wasteful power consumption,” it first lowers power usage. Second, by removing the need to switch between display modes—which Google claims is a “known cause for jank”—ARR enhances performance.

Many of you are probably asking if this adaptive refresh rate feature is indeed new. What gives, considering that smartphone manufacturers have been promoting variable refresh rate as a key feature made possible by the advent of LTPO screens for years? Although I am not very knowledgeable about display technology, from what I gather, even these gadgets have never offered full VRR on Android, unlike PC players. For instance, unlike many PCs, Android smartphones with LTPO OLED screens are unable to synchronize their display refresh rates with games.

Many of you are probably asking if this adaptive refresh rate feature is indeed new. What gives, considering that smartphone manufacturers have been promoting variable refresh rate as a key feature made possible by the advent of LTPO screens for years?

While We aren’t very knowledgeable about display technology, from what I gather, even these gadgets have never offered full VRR on Android, unlike PC players. For instance, unlike many PCs, Android smartphones with LTPO OLED screens are unable to synchronize their display refresh rates with games.

Rather, the introduction of LTPO backplanes to OLED screens just improved the power efficiency of operating those screens at lower refresh rates. This expanded the range of available refresh rates by enabling Android devices with LTPO OLED displays to operate at 1Hz or even 10Hz when necessary.

These refresh rates were still connected to distinct display modes, though, and Android controlled them by calling lower-level display software through the Hardware Composer (HWC) hardware abstraction layer (HAL). As a result, the Android OS would alter the refresh rate by switching the display mode even on devices having a real VRR/ARR panel.

Some Android devices already have the ability to switch refresh rates inside the same display mode, but their OEMs had to add kernel-level support for this, according to display expert Dylan Raga.

The drawback of this strategy is that every OEM would have to create their own logic for determining when to reduce the refresh rate. This is difficult not only because Android requires a generic kernel image, but also because the kernel does not know as well as the OS does what content is displayed.

Because it offers a uniform method of reducing the refresh rate using data and cues that are more easily accessible to the OS, Android 15’s implementation of appropriate support for VRR/ARR at the HAL level is crucial. However, OEMs must implement version 3 of the HWC HAL APIs in addition to supporting the necessary kernel and system updates on Android 15 or later devices in order to allow VRR/ARR.

It is hoped that more apps would utilize lower refresh rates once Android devices have this adaptive refresh rate capability enabled. Dylan Raga cited the fact that most Android phones now run at 60 Hz when a movie is playing rather than 30 or 24 Hz, which this feature may correct.

Yet, according to Google’s documentation, this functionality only permits the panel to operate at refresh rates that are “divisors of the panel’s tearing effect (TE),” therefore it is unlikely to bring PC-like game refresh rate syncing to Android. It is long overdue that Google disclose more information about this function and whether it is available on any of its current Pixel smartphones.