Asus ROG Phone 3 has a hidden 160Hz refresh rate setting that makes games run even smoother

The Asus ROG Phone 3 is one of the hottest gaming phones to be introduced this year and is slated to make its way to Malaysia by September. 

One of the highlights of the device is its 6.59″ Full HD+ AMOLED display that has a 144Hz refresh rate. Apart from that highest refresh rate, the phone can be set to run at 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz or Automatic.  

XDA-Developers recently uncovered a way to enable the ROG Phone 3’s panel to run at a hidden refresh rate setting that enables the screen to run at 160Hz. It seems that this hidden refresh rate was used for testing by Asus.

It was uncovered while XDA-Developers investigated how the ROG Phone 3 handled its refresh rate switching. Upon digging a little deeper, they discovered a debug command that can be used to surface the hidden mode in the regular settings. It seems that all you need to do is set up the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) on a PC and run a simple command prompt to enable to mode. 

Once that is done, all a user needs to do is reboot the phone then go into their display settings to toggle the refresh rate to the 160Hz option. But does having this additional option change how your experience with the ROG Phone 3?

XDA claims that the screen does indeed run at 160Hz and that select games, that are capable of running at 144 frames per second (fps) can also run at 160fps. The site also compiled a full list of games that take advantage of the ROG Phone 3’s screen as well as those only support 90Hz.

Given how easy it is to boost the ROG Phone 3’s refresh rate up to 160Hz, should you do it? The fact is this mode is essentially forcing the phone to run at a higher frame rate than what it is originally intended to do. In doing so it would draw more power and would adversely affect the phone’s battery life.

Apart from that, it could potentially lead to overheating issues similar to what XDA experienced with it played Fornite at 90fps on a OnePlus 8. So in short, while it may seem like a cool idea at first, the extra frames you gain by enabling the mode may not be worth it in the end.

Want to find out more about the Asus ROG Phone 3? Check out our story on everything you need to know about it.

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