The POCO X3 is one of the best value for money mid-range smartphones you can buy right now. Building upon the success of the POCO X2, the latest POCO X smartphone from Xiaomi’s spin-off brand offers much better battery life, a modest processor upgrade, and a refreshed design. Just like the previous model, the showstopper feature continues to be the 120Hz display, providing a fluid scrolling experience across system UI and first-party apps. Similar to the POCO X2, POCO controls the refresh rate using what it calls its Dynamic Refresh Rate feature, which intelligently adjusts the display refresh rate to maximize the battery life.

POCO X3 Forums

This has been a point of contention for many POCO X3 users as even when the 120Hz mode is explicitly selected, the phone would fall back to 60Hz in certain scenarios to save the battery. For example, the Dynamic Refresh Rate feature would dial down the refresh rate to 60Hz while watching a video and to 50Hz for static images. Conversely, the refresh rate would jump up to 120Hz if you're scrolling or playing a supported game. When this Dynamic Refresh Rate switch happens, it results in noticeable stutter and jank, disrupting an otherwise buttery smooth experience from time to time, much to users' frustration.

But rest assured, XDA Member Slim K has you covered. The user has found a way to disable Dynamic Refresh Rate, unlocking the super-smooth 120Hz refresh rate in all apps.

If you are a proud owner of a POCO X3 and want to have your display render everything at a smooth 120Hz refresh rate all the time, even if that means sacrificing battery life, we have put together a small guide to walk you through the steps. Before you proceed, it should be noted that your POCO X3 must have an unlocked bootloader and rooted with Magisk v21.0. With that out of the way, here are the steps to unlock the persistent 120Hz mode.

  1. Download the following pieces of software:
  2. Open the terminal app and run: "su"
  3. Next up, run: "props"
  4. From the list, choose option 5: "Add/edit custom props"
  5. Choose n "New custom prop"
  6. Now type in the following line of code:
            ro.vendor.dfps.enable
        
  7. The default value is true. Type false.
  8. Now choose 2 “post-fs-data
  9. Choose n, but don’t reboot yet.
  10. Type in the following line:
            ro.vendor.smart_dfps.enable
        
  11. Again, the default value is true, which indicates the Dynamic Refresh Rate is enabled. Type false to disable it.
  12. Finally, choose 2 “post-fs-data
  13. Reboot. Your device should now be consistently running at 120Hz.

The developer has only tested this workaround on stock MIUI, so it might not work if you’re running a custom ROM — you're welcome to try, though.

It goes without saying that enabling a persistent 120Hz refresh rate will severely tax the battery life — the user's personal testing indicates anywhere between a 10 to 18% reduction in screen on time. But if that doesn’t sound too bad to you, by all means, give this workaround a try to unlock the forced 120Hz mode. For more details, check out the original thread by the user at the link given below.

Disable Dynamic Refresh Rate for POCO X3