Eleventh-Hour iPhone 16 Rumor Points to High-FPS 4K Video Recording + More
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While you may think we’ve heard all there is to hear about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, a few last-minute rumors often surface on the virtual eve of Apple’s launch events. This year is no exception.
After all, Apple is expected to launch the entire iPhone 16 lineup during its Glowtime event that will kick off in less than 72 hours. The company is making the unprecedented move of holding its September iPhone event on a Monday — which may be significant for the Apple Watch — which means that today is the time for us to hear about any eleventh-hour leaks.
Chief among these is something we hadn’t heard any hints of before now: the iPhone 16 Pro could push its 4K ProRes video recording to 120 frames per second (fps).
This information comes from “reliable sources” speaking to 9to5Mac. These folks have confirmed several other camera features, including the 48-megapixel Ultra Wide we’ve heard about for months and identical camera systems for both iPhone 16 Pro models, with a 5x Telephoto on both. However, they’ve also added a new twist.
According to these sources, the iPhone 16 Pro models will be able to shoot 4K videos at 120fps for the first time. This will presumably be in the usual HEVC format by default for on-device storage; however, like the iPhone 15 Pro, the higher-quality ProRes format can be used for 4K/120fps recording when connected to an external storage device.
That’s reasonable, as such videos would quickly eat up the internal storage of even the largest-capacity iPhone — even if we see a 2 TB model debut this year, it would barely be able to store an hour and a half of 4K/120fps ProRes footage, considering that one minute of 4K/30fps ProRes already comes in at around 6 GB. ProRes 4K/120fps should be about four times larger.
The same sources say the QuickTake button will also be upgraded to capture 4K videos. On the iPhone 15 Pro, that’s currently limited to 1080p, even in the iOS 18 betas, so this will likely be exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro (and possibly the standard iPhone 16 models also).
There’s been some evidence over the past year that Apple has tested 8K video with the iPhone 16 Pro, and there’s no reason the new A18 Pro chip shouldn’t be able to handle this, but there’s no word on whether it’s ready to introduce that now or if it will hold it off for next year’s iPhone 17 Pro.
The iPhone 16 Pro is also expected to introduce some other device-specific camera improvements, including JPEG-XL support for higher-quality photos, new AI-powered Photographic styles, and the ability to remove wind noise from videos and pause and resume while recording.
The ‘Camera’ Button
Lastly, the so-called “Capture” button we’ve been hearing about for a while is reportedly called the “Camera Button” internally. However, 9to5Mac’s sources say it may have a different name when Apple presents it on stage.
It’s still expected to function as we’ve heard it described before, triggering auto-focus with a soft press, adjusting zoom and exposure with swipes, and taking a picture or starting recording when pressed fully. However, sources say that Apple plans to open it up to third-party camera apps right out of the gate, so developers can not only use it to replicate the same features in their own apps, but it can even be set to open the user’s camera app of choice.
It’s reportedly powered by the same API that will let users open third-party cameras from the Lock Screen. That’ll be a massive boon for fans of Halide and other alternative camera apps, to the point where you may even be able to forget the built-in Camera app exists (and it looks like EU users will be able to delete it entirely).
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
