A8 Chip in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Capable of Playing 4K Video

[Kabeyun]

Interesting. One quibble: the video's term "stream" is a little misleading, since these aren't streams the way most people think of them. Streaming typically means content transferred from another source while playing, as opposed to content stored locally, which is shown and which is what WALTR does. (One might argue these are being "streamed" from RAM, but that's silly.)

As the article says, it's also silly to blow your device's storage on 4K video files. BUT, with 802.11ac (gigabit WiFi) the iPhone 6 and 6+ should be able to actually stream 4K video if this article is correct. Neat.

 

[dontwalkhand]

The display itself may not handle it but what about plugging the phone into my TV?

 

[mi7chy]

Edit: I checked the screen on the note 3 and it is 1920x1080 which means there is no use for 4k files on it

Being able to decode high bit rate 4K content even if the display is lower resolution is significant since you don't have to waste time, electricity and disk space to transcode and play at a lower resolution and bit rate. Plus, 2014 phones already have 2K display so 2015 will likely see 4K. All I really want though is 4K output to TV preferably via wireless WiGig or even wired. Phones will kill stand-alone media player like what it did to stand-alone GPS.

 

[thekeyring]

Wrong. The 2015 Apple TV will in fact have an A8 chip. It's Apple's only mobile chip that can decode H.265, which will be essential for decoding video better than 1080. Apple cannot wait until 2016 to improve the Apple TV, and they simply aren't going to make an entire new chip for it. It will be an A8, possibly single core variant.

Amazing how the power of reason can reveal things to you.

What if they put the A8X chip inside it? Or release it after the new iPhone, with the A9 chip? Too late you say? Well, they might release the new iPhone at WWDC. Lots of options.

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Being able to decode high bit rate 4K content even if the display is lower resolution is significant since you don't have to waste time, electricity and disk space to transcode and play at a lower resolution and bit rate. Plus, 2014 phones already have 2K display so 2015 will likely see 4K. All I really want though is 4K output to TV preferably via wireless WiGig or even wired. Phones will kill stand-alone media player like what it did to stand-alone GPS.

The thing is 4K on a 5 inch screen is around 800PPI. Not saying it won't happen, but realise what you're saying. We can't up the screen res x4 every year.

 

[dugbug]

What if they put the A8X chip inside it? Or release it after the new iPhone, with the A9 chip? Too late you say? Well, they might release the new iPhone at WWDC. Lots of options.

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The thing is 4K on a 5 inch screen is around 800PPI. Not saying it won't happen, but realise what you're saying. We can't up the screen res x4 every year.

a 5 inch screen has zero advantages of 4K video. It would waste battery life, be very expensive, and you are not seeing the advantage. It will never happen because its pointless.

What is more interesting is what they decide to put an A8 in, such as an apple tv. If said future apple tv has an hdmi 1.4, I would expect airplay streams of 25Mbps from your A8 devices (should your wifi support it) allow for streaming 4K ala netflix style quality.

 

[Going Digital]

Considering the iPad uses the same processor it is not inconceivable that a future iPad could be 4K capable.

 

[Tycho24]

At 50Mbps. lol.
Apple is playing catch-up. Again!

Lol.
Aren't you adorable?!
While I am no expert on mobile GPUs... Anand certainly is! His site doesn't even consider Note 3's Adreno 330 onto the same level as iPhone 6's GX6450.
His site noted... and I quote: "For the most part, we see that the GX6450 is at about the same level as Qualcomm's Adreno 420".
Nice try though.

 

[skellener]

And your battery is dead in 3...2...

 

[Michael Scrip]

4k capable video on a 16gb iphone is useless. 10 minutes video would "cost" you 3,5GB. Assume you don't install apps and no pictures on your phone with 12 gb free space on the 16 gb iphone, you would only get 30-40 minutes video... See where i'm getting at? Useless.

A 16GB iPhone also cannot store 10,000 songs.

That doesn't make it "useless" though...

 

[klover]

Sometimes I just have to stop and marvel at the absurd power of these small devices.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

This could be interesting more so for the iPad. Eventually the iPad will get a higher resolution and it's nice to know the A8 and (A8X) is already able to handle assets of much greater size.

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Show off.

If you got it, flaunt it

 

[creediddy]

4K video ? wait until apple provide iPhone with 64gb as the entry level.
with 16 gb space, it is pretty much useless.

This why I think Apple is going to go possibly 16GB, 128GB, and 256GB on the iPhone 7 or 32GB 128GB, 256GB next year. Signs point to larger storage as the camera is looking to be in the 20mp area.

 

[creediddy]

iPad Pro = 8X Quad Core clocked @ 1.5Ghz 2Gb RAM 12.2", 3840x2160 res
iPhone 7 = A9 Quad Core @ 1.6Ghz 2GB RAM, 4.7" 1920x1080 res
iPhone 7 Plus = A9 Quad Core @ 1.6Ghz 2GB RAM, 5.5" 2560x1600 res
iPad Air 3 = A9X Quad Core @ 2Ghz 2GB RAM, 9.7", 3840x2160 res

These will handle 4k with no problems.

Apple needs to increase screen size of 7 to 5" and 7 Plus to 5.7" for next year.

Can't wait....Let this be a dream come true in 2015

 

[proline]

What if they put the A8X chip inside it? Or release it after the new iPhone, with the A9 chip? Too late you say? Well, they might release the new iPhone at WWDC. Lots of options.

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The thing is 4K on a 5 inch screen is around 800PPI. Not saying it won't happen, but realise what you're saying. We can't up the screen res x4 every year.

A8X is possible if they go gaming. A9 is not as they won't be available in good supply until 2016, Apple will need them for the iPhone 6 Plus until then. And no, phone releases at WWDC are no longer possible. No iPhone can be released without a new iOS for marketing reasons, and iOS 9 won't be ready in June. Your understanding of the future leaves much room for improvement.

 

[Rocketman]

Since it can play 4K content, it ought to be able to send it via airplay to a 4K TV in the room as well, eh?

Rocketman

 

[scoobydoo99]

As to the article, this should come as no surprise.

exactly. my gosh, if it COULDN'T handle 4K, now THAT would be news.

 

[lombax54]

What they don't tell us is if it can support 5k...

 

[Smeaton1724]

Wrong. The 2015 Apple TV will in fact have an A8 chip. It's Apple's only mobile chip that can decode H.265, which will be essential for decoding video better than 1080. Apple cannot wait until 2016 to improve the Apple TV, and they simply aren't going to make an entire new chip for it. It will be an A8, possibly single core variant.

Amazing how the power of reason can reveal things to you.

That's sound logic. My only question would be wouldn't they keep it A8X in the Apple TV - better for gaming and other activities?

Would it be a possibility the Apple TV becomes the focus of the home, homekit syncing to it?, health data?, iWatch syncing data to it? - Becoming less of a download only device and just as much a content uploader to iCloud?

Obviously 4k Airplay and Home Sharing of iTunes libraries wouldn't benefit from the A8X, they'd get by on an A8.

 

[Keirasplace]

CURRENT video is "useless" on 16gb phones @ 1gb per 8 minutes.
So are large apps...
So are large games...
Yet these "useless" phones continue to sell!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guess not everybody uses their phone like you do. A huge number of people do light photography, Facebook, etc...
See what everybody else is getting at?

Its useless because nobody has super eyes, people already question the usefulness of 4k on 50 inch tv so you can imagine how useful it ca be in a 5.5 inch one no matter how close you are.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

How is this news? I tried this weeks ago on my 6 Plus with some crappy download app to run a TimeScapes video.

Maybe, then, you should have made your findings public and YOUR results would have been news!

 

[clukas]

I see a 4K capable Apple TV coming .

 

[TMay]

At 50Mbps. lol.
Apple is playing catch-up. Again!

Apple has a hardware encoder for H.265 in the A8. Surely you would recognize that feature as "leading", but more to the point, even 1080P video would benefit from h.265 encoding.

For the record, recording or viewing 4K on a mobile device is a waste of storage; better would be higher quality 1080P and high frame rates, encoded as h.265.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I wonder is the A8 chip--capable of decoding Ultra HD video--also capable to decoding high-resolution audio?

This may mean that the iPhone 6, iPhone 6+ and iPad Air 2 could play back 24-bit 96 KHz sampling rate audio, the same audio encoding used on Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio audio tracks on Blu-ray discs? Or feed the digital audio data through the Lightning port for external decoding? In short, you can plug in an external portable headphone amp that connects back to your iPhone through the Lightning port, and you can control the playback on the portable amp itself?

 

[2010mini]

I see a 4K capable Apple TV coming .

Umm.... Apple doesn't currently have 4K content. So why should they release a 4k Apple TV?

 

[aliensporebomb]

Yeah!

I'm totally going to try this with 4K videos on my 6+ and beaming it to one of the AppleTV's in the big conference room at work with big 80" Sharp Aquous displays with 4K! (yes, I have 128 gig).