For the primary time, Google’s Pixel telephones include as much as 1TB of storage. Nonetheless, apart from the Pixel 10 Professional XL, the bottom storage on all fashions begins from a paltry 128GB. Given the premium higher-end storage variants command, most consumers will keep on with the 128GB or 256GB mannequin. To make up for the low base storage, Google’s latest Pixel telephones can document 4K video utilizing VP9 and AV1 codecs for considerably smaller file sizes.
Flagship Android telephones can document movies utilizing the older H.264 or the fashionable and environment friendly H.265/HEVC codec. The latter helps cut back the general file measurement by a considerable 50%. This could rapidly add up if you happen to use your telephone to shoot movies continuously, particularly in 4K decision.
Seems, Google is taking issues up a notch with the Pixel 10 and its Tensor G5 chip. The SoC options hardware-accelerated encoders for each VP9 and AV1 codecs. Extra importantly, the corporate will supposedly enable Pixel 10 customers to decide on between them for recording movies utilizing the Pixel Digital camera app, as confirmed by a Google spokesperson to Android Authority.
Whereas the final two Tensor chips additionally featured devoted AV1 and VP9 {hardware} encoders and decoders, Google by no means used them for video recording. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, which powers virtually all different flagship Android gadgets, lacks {hardware} encoders for each AV1 and VP9.
AV1-encoded movies are apparently as much as 30% smaller than the already-efficient H.265 encoded movies.
Google has gone all-in on AV1
Developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), AV1 is an open-source, royalty-free codec that provides higher compression whereas delivering the identical picture high quality. It is the successor to Google’s VP9 codec and gives 30% higher compression than it.
Google switched to AV1 streaming by default for YouTube again in April 2024. Even Netflix switched to this codec for streaming HDR10+ content material on appropriate gadgets earlier this yr.
There’s just one catch with AV1 or VP9-recorded movies: older movies or some on-line platforms is likely to be unable to play them. However that ought to be a small value to pay for the numerous house financial savings they allow.