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The Pixel 7a, which was released last month as the final smartphone in the Pixel 7 series, might have a function that slows the phone's screen refresh rate when it is in direct sunlight. A Pixel owner recently published information on how their phone automatically adjusts the refresh rate of the display in bright sunshine and in the shade, implying that the behaviour is purposeful. Users who wish to always use the max refresh rate on their Pixel 7a can enable a special hidden feature on their phone.
When used in intense sunlight, the Pixel 7a drops the screen refresh rate from 90Hz to 60Hz, according to a Reddit post by user u/pawlikx_iron. The peak refresh rate is automatically restored when the phone is returned to an area lacking sunlight, according to the user.
According to the comments, it does not appear to be due to thermal throttling, which is the process of decreasing CPU speeds when the chip temperature is too high. According to recent reports, the Pixel 7a may be fitted with a slightly modified version of the Tensor G2 CPU that drives the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, which may result in lesser performance when compared to Google's flagship chipset.
Meanwhile, Esper's Mishaal Rahman claims that the Pixel 7a's display refresh rate has been intentionally reduced, citing a commit in Google's open-source code for the smartphone that is meant to lock the phone's refresh rate at 60Hz when the ambient brightness is more than 50,000 lux. He said that other Pixel phones should have the same capability.
Users who wish to disable this feature on their Pixel 7a can apply a workaround given in the comments to force the smartphone's display to always refresh at 90Hz. Enabling the secret developer settings menu by going to Settings > About phone > Build number is the solution.
After this is enabled, users may open the settings app and go to Developer options > Force peak refresh rate to permanently change the refresh rate of the display to 90Hz. It is worth mentioning, however, that activating this function may result in greater battery drain because the smartphone will not optimise the refresh rate for optimal power use.