Samsung’s biggest One UI updates tend to get all the attention, but sometimes the most useful changes are the ones buried in the patch notes. One UI 9 is rolling out in beta across several Galaxy devices right now, and tucked inside is a small but genuinely useful tweak: more display refresh rate options that could stretch your battery life a little further.
As reported by SamMobile, the update adds support for additional refresh rate steps on compatible Galaxy phones and tablets. The key addition is a 20Hz mode. That might not sound exciting, but here’s why it matters: when your screen isn’t doing much, like displaying a static page or idle UI, the phone can now drop to 20Hz instead of stopping at 24Hz. Less screen activity, lower refresh rate, less power consumed. Simple math.
LTPO displays already do this kind of variable refresh rate scaling automatically, and Samsung has had that tech in its high-end phones for a few years now. But more steps in the range means finer control, and finer control means the phone can make smarter choices about when to scale down. So far, the new modes have been spotted on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S25, and Galaxy S25 Ultra. And because the Galaxy S24, S24+, S25+, and S25 Edge also use LTPO panels, they’ll likely get these modes too.
The Galaxy S26 series running One UI 9.0 already has these options, though it’s not clear if they came with the phones or arrived through a beta update. Either way, the feature is spreading.
This isn’t the kind of thing that’s going to double your screen-on time. But in a market where flagship phones are competing hard on battery endurance, every optimization counts. And unlike some software “features” that are more marketing than substance, smarter refresh rate management is real, measurable battery engineering. No gimmick here. Just a quiet, useful improvement that most people won’t notice but might appreciate the next time their phone makes it through a long day without hitting the charger.