How to Unlock 120 FPS on Android Without Root

Most Android phones sold in the last few years ship with a 90 Hz, 120 Hz or 144 Hz display, but a lot of games still render at a conservative default. This guide covers unlocking the higher modes with FPS Unlocker, and — just as importantly — how to work out whether your device can hold that frame rate once it heats up.

Before You Start

Check these four things. Skipping them is the single most common reason the steps below appear not to work.

Requirement	How to check
Display above 60 Hz	Settings → Display → Refresh rate
Android 8.0 or newer	Settings → About phone → Android version
Shizuku installed (optional)	Shizuku on Google Play
~2 GB free storage	Settings → Storage

If your panel is 60 Hz, stop here. No software can show you a 121st frame on a screen that refreshes 60 times per second.

Step 1: Set Up Shizuku (Optional)

FPS Unlocker does not require Shizuku to run. Certain utility functions use it as a local system interface on supported devices, so set it up only if you want those — otherwise skip straight to step 2.

Shizuku grants apps elevated permissions without root, using Android’s wireless debugging. Install it, then start the service:

1. Enable Developer options — Settings → About phone → tap Build number seven times.
2. Turn on Wireless debugging in Developer options and keep that screen open.
3. Open Shizuku and tap Start under the wireless debugging section.
4. Pair using the code Android shows, then confirm Shizuku reports it is running.

Shizuku stays active until you restart your phone. After a reboot you repeat step 3 — about fifteen seconds — while your frame-rate settings stay where you left them.

For a screen-by-screen version of this, see the Shizuku setup guide.

Step 2: Open FPS Unlocker

Open FPS Unlocker and give it a moment to read your device’s supported modes. If you set Shizuku up in step 1, approve the authorisation prompt on first launch — the status indicator on the home screen turns green when that connection is live. A grey indicator only means the Shizuku-backed functions are unavailable; the rest of the app still works.

Step 3: Choose a Frame Rate

Pick the target that matches your panel, not the highest number in the list:

• 90 FPS — the safe default on 90 Hz and 120 Hz panels. Noticeably smoother than 60, with a modest power cost.
• 120 FPS — for 120 Hz displays with a recent flagship or upper-midrange SoC.
• 144 FPS and above — only worth selecting on gaming phones with a matching panel.

Apply the setting, then launch your game. The change takes effect on the next launch, so fully close the game first — clearing it from Recents is not always enough on aggressive OEM skins.

Step 4: Verify It Actually Worked

A setting applied is not a frame rate achieved. Install FPS Monitor and put the overlay in a corner where your thumbs will not cover it, then play for ten to fifteen minutes and watch what happens as the phone warms up.

What you are looking for:

• Stable at target — the number sits at or near your target. Done.
• Starts high, settles lower — thermal throttling. Drop one graphics tier and try again.
• Never reaches target — the game is GPU-bound at these settings. Lower the resolution or shadow quality before lowering the frame-rate target.

A locked 90 FPS looks and feels better than a 120 FPS target that spends most of its time at 70. Stability beats the bigger number every time.

Step 5: Tune for Sustained Performance

If the frame rate sags after ten minutes, work through these in order:

1. Shadows — the cheapest quality setting to sacrifice for the largest gain.
2. Resolution scale — a small reduction is nearly invisible in motion.
3. Anti-aliasing — expensive on mobile GPUs, barely noticeable at phone pixel density.
4. Case off, out of direct sun — thermal headroom is a setting too, just not a software one.

Re-test after each change rather than all at once. Otherwise you will not know which one actually helped.

Common Mistakes

• Setting a target above the panel’s refresh rate. A 120 Hz screen cannot display 144 FPS.
• Not restarting the game. Frame-rate changes apply at launch.
• Forgetting Shizuku after a reboot. If you rely on the Shizuku-backed functions, this is the most-reported “the app stopped working” issue.
• Chasing the peak number. Frame consistency is what you feel; the average is what you post.

If 120 FPS still refuses to appear after all of this, the troubleshooting guide covers the device-specific causes in detail.