Google presented Pixel 6a in May, and at the end of July he also brought it to Italy. In our review we told you about a convincing product, destined to establish itself as one of the most interesting proposals of the entire Android mid-range, but with some flaws. And among these, surely, the one that catches the eye (literally) is the presence of a display with a refresh rate that stops at 60Hz.
A decidedly anachronistic feature, given that not only has it been around 90 to 120Hz in the mid-range for some time, but also going further down towards cheaper solutions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find 60Hz screens. Perhaps, however, things are not exactly as Google presented it to us on the data sheet.
The Pixel 6a’s display, in fact, looks like it is capable of going up to an update rate of 90hz. It was the programmer who proved it TheLunarixuswhich on Twitter showed how it managed to “force” the refresh rate of its Pixel 6a upwards.
Budget phone of the year? Pixel 6a with 90Hz unlocked pic.twitter.com/3suHD88KyZ
– Nathan (@TheLunarixus) August 10, 2022
Things, however, are more complicated than that. First of all, at present we must still keep alive the hypothesis that the result obtained from TheLunarixus is a forgery, given that there is not yet sufficient evidence to support the truthfulness of the facts. However, it must also be said that this does not appear to be the case.
The programmer assumed that Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a have a very similar panel, and so he tried to figure out if there was a way to test 90Hz on the younger brother as well.
With the magic of modding, therefore, he was able to experiment with the hypothesis: but the well-known insider tech Mishaal Rahman, who tried the same procedure, was not successful. Rahman specified that after installing the display drivers modified by TheLunarixus the option “smooth display“for 90Hz between the settings, but then in fact the feature did not activate. Anyone who is familiar with modding, however, knows that these operations have numerous pitfalls, and there are a thousand potential reasons why a technically functioning process can fail .
Since the Pixel 6 and 6a have very similar display panels, and since that panel already runs at 90Hz on other devices, dev @TheLunarixus tried to get the Pixel 6a running at 2400×1080 @ 90Hz, same as the Pixel 6. I can tell you the mod is legit, but there are a LOT of caveats rn. https://t.co/upUbsakoHP
– Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) August 10, 2022
In short, if you have a Pixel 6a and want to get rid of this curiosity about the screen, you should wait: the procedure illustrated by TheLunarixus at the moment it is still immature (even where it hits, the calibration of the display ends up being affected), in addition to necessarily requiring the unlocking of the bootloader. Over time, there may be safer and tested methods, as well as further experiments and confirmations.
Google Pixel 6a
447€
- Google Pixel 6a is available online from Phone2go to 399 euros or from Amazon to 452 euros.
Google Pixel 6a is available onto 460 euros. (updated August 11, 2022, 10:47 pm)
