8K video on a smartphone is closer than you think, and Qualcomm shows off what it looks like with a new video on its YouTube channel that was captured by a phone using the Snapdragon 865 mobile platform.
Using a prototype phone running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile platform with a Sony IMX586 images sensor, videographers shot professional quality video and images of Arizona’s sprawling, colorful landscapes.
It’s important to remember that the phone used is a prototype. And not necessarily something that will be available on the market. The mobile platform however will be when it launches inside of phones later this year and forward.
The Snapdragon 865-powered 8K video is packed with 33-megapixels per frame
8K video is massive. Thanks to the amount of megapixels in each frame of the video being recorded.
Qualcomm states that the video shot on this prototype phone has a whopping 33-megapixels per frame. That’s no doubt a lot of data to be held in one particular video file. More to the point though videos captured in 8K quality are likely to be large in file size.
Something to keep in mind with videos like these is that they will probably take up a huge amount of space on your device. How much space will of course depend on how long the video file is before editing and cutting it down, if that’s needed.
Even a short 39-second video shot in 4K on the Pixel 3a XL is about 238MB though. Considering this, a video of the same length but in 8K quality is likely to be double that size.
Still, shooting 8K video isn’t something that a phone is currently able to do, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 mobile platform is going to change that.
Qualcomm’s Spectra 480 Signal Image Processor makes this possible
A big part of how this will work is the signal image processor that Qualcomm has developed. It’s using this inside of the Snapdragon 865 mobile platform.
This ISP allows for 8K video because it can process 2 gigapixels per second. 8K video is just one of the new features of the ISP too. Alongside the 8K video, phones running with this mobile platform would be able to record 960 fps slow-motion video without a recording limit.
Meaning users would have a much wider array of possibilities when recording content. The Spectra 480 ISP also allows for Dolby Vision Video Capture and 200-megapixel photos.
To put it more simply, phones running on the Snapdragon 865 mobile platform will be able to do some amazing things with pictures and video.