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Leaker hints that iPhone 17 Pro will shoot 8K video

The rumored iPhone 17 Pro camera update may support 8K video -- image credit: Digital Chat Station/Weibo

A new rumor posted about the iPhone 17 Pro's chassis design has tantalizingly alluded to the cameras being able to shoot video at much more the current 4K resolution.

Apple is shooting its forthcoming Bono music documentary in 8K for the Apple Vision Pro, but to date no iPhone has been able to shoot at greater than 4K. Now, however, the very briefest of references in a new leak on Chinese social media site Weibo suggests that the resolution will increase on the iPhone 17 Pro.

"With 8k in your hand, iPhone 17 series should expect more," says leaker Fixed Focus Digital in the post (in translation).

That's the sole reference to 8K video, or the cameras. The rest of the post is practically a musing about how good the iPhone 17 will feel with its "half-aluminum and half-glass" design.

It does also refer to the iPhone 17 series rather than specifically the iPhone 17 Pro. Nonetheless, it's close to certain that any significant camera upgrade will come to the Pro models first.

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This isn't the first time that 8K video has been suggested as coming to the iPhone, however. In September 2024, it was reported that Apple had been testing 8K with the then-forthcoming iPhone 16 Pro.

If 8K does come to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, it will presumably also enable spatial video recording for the Apple Vision Pro at that higher resolution — but this depends very much on if Apple uses one video-capable 8K sensor for video recording or two in the iPhone 17.

4 Comments

Stabitha_Christie 4 Years · 665 comments

That’s what that big bump is about, room to store all that 8k video. 

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M68000 8 Years · 926 comments

Really?   8k video from a tiny phone sensor?  Will it also usher in 2TB of storage option storage since storage increases dramatically? Other than some interesting tech achievement,  I doubt this is much use to most people and doubtful it will ever be.

i remember a few years back using a Nikon z6 camera and doing 4k, not 8k video, it struggled to keep up and had heat issues.  Will an iPhone be able to do 8k video without overheating \melting?  

0 Likes · 1 Dislike
muthuk_vanalingam 9 Years · 1421 comments

M68000 said:
Really?   8k video from a tiny phone sensor?  Will it also usher in 2TB of storage option storage since storage increases dramatically? Other than some interesting tech achievement,  I doubt this is much use to most people and doubtful it will ever be.

i remember a few years back using a Nikon z6 camera and doing 4k, not 8k video, it struggled to keep up and had heat issues.  Will an iPhone be able to do 8k video without overheating \melting?  

Absolutely, without breaking a sweat. 8k video recording is available in Android phones for last 5 years. They don't overheat or melt. If Android phones with inferior SoCs can handle 8k video recording without issues, Apple's iPhones will be able to handle it effortlessly.

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charlesn 12 Years · 1383 comments

M68000 said:
i remember a few years back using a Nikon z6 camera and doing 4k, not 8k video, it struggled to keep up and had heat issues.  Will an iPhone be able to do 8k video without overheating \melting?  

iPhone has had 4K recording for a decade now--it was introduced on the 6s in 2015. So if your Nikon z6 was choking on 4K a few years ago, that's Nikon's problem. I'm sure that after 10 years of shooting 4K, the iPhone Pros will be ready to shoot 8K without a problem, other than the storage required. How useful 8K video will be is another question entirely, beyond specific applications for which the higher resolution will have real benefits. For general consumer applications, I'm doubtful. The visible difference between 8K televisions and 4K televisions will not be nearly as great as the difference between 4K and HD/1080P. And even THAT difference wasn't huge if you were viewing 8+ feet away with average screen sizes. The bigger benefit of 4K has been HDR/Dolby Vision. It's also worth noting that most subscribers to the 800 lb. gorilla of streaming services, Netflix, aren't even getting 4K yet, they're still stuck with HD. 4K Netflix is only available with its most expensive plan, which is really a travesty. 

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