Update (7:15am ET): Commenters on the MacRumors forum have suggested that the 8K mentioned in the original leak refers not to video recording resolution but the price of the phone in Chinese yuan. The original article follows.
Ahead of the iPhone 16 Pro launch, there was evidence to suggest the device had been recording 8K video in testing.
This ability wasn’t available on the final product and it wasn’t wholly unexpected given the 12MP telephoto lens would’ve capped at 4K, leading to a jarring experience for users.
But with the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max expected to get a 48MP upgrade on their telephoto lenses, it looks like the ability will finally be unlocked on this year’s models.
On Weibo, the leaker Fixed Focus Digital seemed to confirm what was anticipated last year. The relevant bit, somewhat awkwardly machine translated, reads: “With 8k in your hand, iPhone17 series should expect more.”
Fixed Focus Digital has a history of being right with Apple predictions, most notably in getting the name of the iPhone 16e right back when people were still calling it the iPhone SE 4.
8K filming for all?
Despite the clunkiness of the translation, one detail seems clear: this isn’t going to be a Pro-exclusive feature, and will instead be available to both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air too.
On one hand, that makes perfect sense: without a telephoto lens holding it back and with broadly the same chipset, the iPhone 16 could presumably shoot 8K now. It would just look odd for the cheaper phone to have an advantage over its Pro siblings.
On the other hand, we shouldn’t bank on this. Even if the cheaper iPhone 17 models can technically do this, it might make sense for Apple to artificially lock it to the Pro version as another reason to upgrade to the iPhone 17 Pro.
The line between Pro and non-Pro iPhone has gotten a bit blurry in recent years, as demonstrated by the fact the tagline on our own iPhone 16 review is “no more Pro envy”.
Given that the gap is expected to close even more this year, with all iPhone 17 models set to get 120Hz screens for the first time, Apple would likely welcome some upsell-friendly differentiation.
There’s probably a question mark over how big an upsell 8K recording really is. Despite 8K televisions being available for some time, outside of YouTube, relatively little content is made to take advantage.
Of course, the most popular smartphone in America getting the ability to create 8K content could be just the kind of boost that the best 8K TVs need to start selling in significant numbers.
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