The Pixel 4’s refresh rate is inexplicably tied to its display brightness

Enlarge / The Pixel 4.

After trying out the Pixel 4 at Google's hardware show and at home for a bit (review coming eventually) my working description for the new, 90Hz display has been that it's... "inconsistent." Sometimes it seems smooth, and sometimes it doesn't. Now Reddit user Brian Sefcik has discovered why: the display refresh rate is tied to the display brightness.

Wait what? 

Yes, that's right—at high brightness, the display runs at the full 90Hz; at lower brightness, the display inexplicably drops back to the normal 60Hz. XDA's Mishaal Rahman figured out the exact cutoff point is 75 percent brightness, and this is easy to confirm on any Pixel 4 by loading up the testufo.com display test and watching the frame rate fluctuate with the brightness.

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