Leaked Android 10 Source Code Confirms 90Hz display of Google Pixel 4

Google is yet to launch Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones. Since the last few weeks, the phones were rumored to sport a 90Hz display. Thanks to a new report on Google Pixel phones, it’s now pretty much confirmed that Pixel 4 will have a 90 HZ display, as seen by a comment in the Android 10 source code.

XDA Developers recently uncovered that the latest version of Android 10 release that Google announced, has several intriguing commits regarding display refresh rates. Content-based FPS detection has also been found along with the implementation of an overlay that will be visible when the device is running at 60Hz or 90Hz.

Google consistently adds to AOSP code that calculates the growth figures of all the devices globally from different types of OEMs and hence this seems to be quiet irrelevant with the Pixel 4, as it has nothing to do with display refresh rates. But one of the comments, as seen in the commit, has confirmed that Pixel 4 might sport a display with 90Hz refresh rate.

The code in question adds an enable/disable flag to toggle the 90Hz mode, and it’s only intended to be used temporarily until a proper solution is implemented. But the main takeaway line is this: “The switch in settings should only be available to P19 devices“, where P stands for Pixel and 19 for this launching year.

By uncovering some more facts inside this, it became clear that Google will try to implement a new toggle feature for enabling display rates from 60Hz to 90Hz only as a developer option. This seems to be impressing, that if any particular app needs to be run at 90Hz, it can be done easily for better user experience. Google might also implement an automatic function where the display will set its refresh rate automatically according to the content.

Further, Pixel 4 is expected to be launched with 5.7-inch 1080p+ OLED panel, and Pixel 4 XL might arrive with a 6.3-inch 1440p+ screen. The smaller model is to have a 2,800 mAh battery, with the XL version might have 3,700 mAh. Both might have the Snapdragon 855 chipset and 6 GB of RAM, and of course run Android 10 from day one.