Change This Setting As Soon As You Get Your Pixel 10 For Smoother Visuals

The Google Pixel 10 is finally here, bringing with it a slew of new AI-powered features to figuratively knock your socks off. Before you dive into all the AI goodies and technological upgrade that await you, there's one setting you'll want to change on your Pixel 10 to ensure you have the smoothest visual experience possible while using Google's latest flagship.

Like previous Pixel devices, the OLED display on the Pixel 10 supports up to a 120Hz refresh rate. However, to save battery life, the device comes set at 60Hz out of the box, as Android Authority noticed. Now, there's certainly an argument to be made about getting the most out of your Pixel's battery, especially with Google throttling the Pixel 10's battery after just a few hundred charging cycles. But if you're buying a flagship device, you want flagship performance. As such, you will likely want to up the refresh rate to 120Hz, even if it takes a little extra juice to do so.

To increase the refresh rate on your Pixel 10, you'll need to open your phone's Settings and navigate to the Display & touch menu. There are several settings you can change here, including brightness and appearance (like light and dark mode). If you scroll down a little, you'll see an option called Smooth display — it's located under the Other display controls section.

This feature is toggled off by default, locking the phone's refresh rate to 60Hz so it doesn't use more battery than it needs to. If you're not especially worried about battery life, turn on Smooth display. This will automatically increase the phone screen's refresh rate to 120Hz for content that supports it. The phone will display smoother visuals in games and certain apps.

Unlike the Pixel 10 Pro models, the base Pixel 10 can only swap between 60Hz and 120Hz. While both are technically OLED displays, they're different panel types. If you're rocking one of the more expensive variants, you can take full advantage of scalable refresh rates, which means the phone can range from 120Hz to as low as 1Hz depending on what's on the display. Jumping up to 120Hz will deplete your battery more quickly, but it's also one easy way to ensure your brand new phone feels as snappy and responsive as possible.