New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Nowadays, the craze towards higher refresh rate display is not limited to graphics designers or professional gamers. Thanks to the ever-competitive smartphone market, even typical end users can now feel the difference between regular 60Hz and 90/120 Hz display panels.

oneplus_7_pro_screen_refresh_rate_90hz_selected
OnePlus 7 Pro comes with an 90Hz capable display which can be downsampled to 60Hz as well

The possibility of tinkering within Android actually unlocked some new potentials in the field of display fresh rates too. PiunikaWeb covered a handy little trick that disabled the internal whitelist of OxygenOS and unlocked the true 90Hz refresh rate for all apps on OnePlus 7 Pro.

It took them some months since release, but aftermarket developers found a way to ‘overclock’ the refresh rate of the display panel of Mi 9. Believe it or not, Mi 9 users can now achieve up to 84Hz screen refresh rate with the help of a not-so-simple tweak.

mi_9_84hz_ufotest
Modded Mi 9 rendering the browser in 84Hz

Theoretically the nature of the mod makes it possible to expand itself to other phones, and we have already got our next candidate in the roster. None other than Redmi K20 Pro (codename: raphael), the “Flagship Killer 2.0“, got a similar treatment that enables 75Hz refresh rate.

redmi_k20_pro_ufo_test_75hz
Redmi K20 Pro rendering the browser in 75Hz after installing the mod

Why 75Hz? As the panels are not optimized for higher refresh rates than 60Hz, the battery consumptions are significantly higher. That’s why developer duo ZhenXin and Andy Chang decided to port the mod with a little bump first. A 90Hz variant is reportedly cooking.

Like the previous mod, all you need a modified DTBO (Device Tree Blob Overlays) image to be flashed to the /dtbo partition of Redmi K20 Pro. You don’t need to browse through Chinese download links, as someone has mirrored the file on XDA forum.

redmi_k20_pro_75hz_aida64
Indian Redmi K20 Pro units are supported by this mod too

The structure of the ‘hack’ enables it to be activated on any OS – be it MIUI or any stock Android based distribution.

In fact Xiaomi is currently rolling out a new stable MIUI update for Redmi K20 Pro in China with July security patch, and the refresh rate mod is working even after installing this OTA.

redmi_k20_pro_miui_china_10.3.16.0_ota_changelog

The changelog of this (MIUI 10.3.16.0) OTA is as follows:

System

– Optimization: Reduce noise at low volume for earphone and speakers

– Updated Android Security Patch to July 2019. Increased system security.

Game speed booster

– Fix: Hands-free call duration wasn’t displayed correctly in Game Turbo

The phone got June security patch as day-one update in India, while the July update came via China beta channel a few days ago. Now that it is available via stable channel in China, India rollout should be imminent.

  • Device: Redmi K20 Pro
  • Codename: raphael
  • Channel: China Stable
  • Version: V10.3.16.0.PFKCNXM
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: bd837a758b0a2662355f53d43a56a157

Credit goes to yshalsager and the Xiaomi Firmware Updater project for tracking the OTA update URLs.

Update

Someone ported the overclocking mod to regular Redmi K20 (sold as Mi 9T in Europe) as well. Take a look here for more info.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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