Qualcomm has made its newest flagship silicon official, the Snapdragon 865. Now we’re starting to learn more of the tidbits about the new chipset, including what it is going to enable for cameras on smartphones, in 2020.
The Snapdragon 865 gets a new and improved ISP (Image Signal Processor), in the Spectra 480. This new ISP is going to bring new features to smartphones in 2020, including the ability to snap 200-megapixel images, as well as record video in Dolby Vision, among a few other things.
Dolby Vision video capture makes its way to mobile
In the past few years, we’ve seen Dolby gain a bit more of a presence in mobile. With many more smartphones adding Dolby Atmos for their speakers. Like the OnePlus 7/7T series, Galaxy S10 and Note 10 series, to name a few.
We have also seen Dolby Vision on mobile devices before. But that was for watching movies and videos shot in Dolby Vision from other devices – like full-frame cameras. Now, Qualcomm has added support for Dolby Vision video capture on the Snapdragon 865. This is going to allow you to shoot eye-popping content from your smartphone, that works with Dolby Vision supported devices.
This is perhaps the biggest feature of the new Spectra 480 ISP this year. As this is the first time any smartphone will be able to capture video with Dolby Vision.
You’ll be able to capture 8K video with your smartphone, next year
Perhaps the second biggest feature of the Spectra 480 ISP is the fact that you’ll be able to capture video in 8K.
This is going to be the first generation of smartphones that can shoot video in 8K, which means it won’t be the best. Think about how 4K video from smartphones was, around five years ago, versus today. It’s been refined quite a bit, and many smartphones can shoot in 4K60 now (except the Pixel 4). While Qualcomm hasn’t confirmed it, it’ll likely shoot 8K at 30fps.
Other features that are coming with the Spectra 480 include 4K HDR with over a billion shades of color. The ability to take massive 200-megapixel photos. And with the new Gigapixel speed of the Spectra 480, you’ll be able to slow things down. That’s right, unlimited, high-definition slow-motion video capture at 960fps is also supported. Unfortunately it is still HD, so you’re looking at 720p resolution at 960fps.
These features will be available for Manufacturers to use, that doesn’t mean they will
Qualcomm is enabling these features on the hardware level. That doesn’t necessarily mean that manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Motorola are going to use them, in their new smartphones next year.
For example, one of the features with the Spectra 380 that was included on the Snapdragon 855 chipset last year, was HDR10+ support. But not all smartphones with the Snapdragon 855 chipset inside, support HDR10+ for video capture. So it’s important to keep that in mind here.
Manufacturers can use these features on its new smartphones next year, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every smartphone will have Dolby Vision video capture support. Or shoot in 8K. Basically, Qualcomm is just laying the ground work for its partners to use these features, if they wish to do so.