Galaxy Note 20's new HOP display tech may still struggle with true 120Hz refresh specs
Samsung will take the best of both display worlds, and develop a brand new OLED screen technology for the Note 20 series called HOP that will also trickle down to the iPhone 13 next year, claims Korean media.
At the time, the LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) tech on Apple’s Watch combined both LTPS TFTs and Oxide TFTs (IGZO, Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide). While the backplanes switching circuits are using LTPS, for instance, the driving TFTs use IGZO materials, resulting in power draw up to a fifth lower than LTPS-only. If that sounds suspiciously like the HOP technology of Samsung, that’s because it probably is something similar.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 display refresh specs
Note20 series has completely solved the camera focusing problem, but WQHD+120Hz is still not optimistic.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 29, 2020
The OnePlus 8 Pro, however, has automatic refresh that defaults to, say, 120Hz when you are browsing, and drops to 60Hz when you are watching a frame-upscaled video. Thus, it is gentler on its battery in 120Hz mode than the S20 Ultra thanks to the auto refresh rate pick that the software will do, whereas the S20 runs the phone’s display on 120Hz at all times.
Moreover, and unlike the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the OnePlus 8 Pro display can be driven with a 120Hz refresh rate at the full 1440p screen resolution. Its 6.78″ panel, however, comes with the latest dedicated Iris 5 visual processor from Pixelworks that sits between the display controller and the system graphics chip, managing the dynamic refresh and MEMC abilities while watching video, while Samsung’s software-only solution is apparently light on fine tuning and big on power consumption.
We clocked abominable differences between the 120Hz display mode of the S20 series compared to the standard 60Hz in our battery test, and Samsung may have decided to address just that by employing the HOP technology in the Note 20, rather than spend on extra hardware components like the aforementioned Iris 5 chip that would allow 120Hz at 1440p resolution.
On the other hand, the Note 20+ model that is most likely to employ the HOP panel, is rumored to arrive with the 4500mAh battery capacity of the S20+, rather than the 5000mAh unit of the Ultra, so you might not see any amazing battery life gains in comparison to the S20 series. Well, at least there won’t be battery life shortening, so there’s that.