iPhone 16 series unlikely to support 8K video recording

Apple ’s upcoming iPhone 16 series will not come with support for 8K video recording, according to a new report. While the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models are unlikely to feature any significant camera upgrades, the Pro models – iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max – may see better cameras, but still will not allow users to record videos in 8K resolution. Rival Android smartphones, however, have been offering 8K video recording for years.

9to5Mac has reported that the iPhone 16 Pro duo will continue to support 4K video recording but offer 120fps for better smoothness. It, however, did not suggest why Apple will not offer 8K recording on the iPhone 16 Pro models. The lack of 8K video recording support may have to do with the storage on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. A report by TrendForce pointed out that the base storage on the iPhone 16 Pro will be 256GB – double of what the predecessor iPhone 15 Pro offers but still not enough to enable recording at 8K resolution.

8K videos will naturally take up a lot of space, and the higher storage on the base Pro models is unlikely to solve the problem, especially due to the lack of a slot to use external storage. Case in point: Apple ’s 10-bit ProRes videos often hog the iPhone’s entire storage, forcing users to transfer videos to a different storage before the device is ready to record another video in the same format.

When Apple switched to 48MP cameras across the standard and Pro model lineups, it bumped up the photo resolution and introduced pixel binning technology for better clarity in photos. Yet, there was no support for 8K resolution, which is 7680x4320 pixels – about 33.2 million pixels. Since the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are likely to include 48MP cameras, the chances of them supporting 8K video recording are slim.

Apple ’s event kicks off at 10.30 PM IST in India where the company will announce full specifications of the iPhone 16 series.