I shoot a lot of videos. I’m referring to the snippets I photograph professionally, not just the short snippets I share on social media. Typically, I rely on my trusty Panasonic Lumix S5 to do all the heavy lifting, but I also often use my best camera phone as a backup or B-roll cam to supplement my footage.
The announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform may finally give me the one video camera feature I’ve been looking for. You should worry about the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset has been officially announced, and thankfully it won’t be long before we see Android smartphones featuring it. In fact, the Asus ROG Phone 9 series is one of the first phones to feature new silicon based on the company’s 3nm manufacturing process. And the Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 are also scheduled to arrive.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite should be great when it comes to all the features we do in our phones, but what I’m most interested in is how this chip will enhance the camera recording capabilities of future phones. .
In other words, I’ve been asking for the ability to record video from all cameras at the same time instead of just one camera. As a videographer, I can’t imagine how useful a feature like this would be in the editing room, so I’m really looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.
video game changer
The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max certainly brought new features that I like, such as audio mixes that enhance the sound of video recordings and the ability to shoot at 4K 120fps. Interestingly, you can actually record videos on your iPhone at the same time using third-party apps like DoubleTake. However, we found it to be buggy and limited to recording only to two cameras.
Android smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform take an additional advantage over iPhones by offering the ability to record from three 48MP sensors simultaneously at 30 fps. This is very important because one 4K video source contains a lot of data, not to mention three 4K video sources that need to be processed. Providing a feature like this would give you additional utility for experimenting with footage in the editing room.
For interview-style clips, you’ll see how beneficial it can be to have three separate video files from your phone’s main camera, ultra-wide camera, and telephoto camera later on. One sequence can use footage from the main camera and switch to a telephoto feed if something interesting happens.
The average person might not want to record video with three cameras at the same time, but considering Apple wants to portray the iPhone 16 Pro as a filmmaker’s camera, this is something I’d like to see more. We hope this is an advanced feature that many mobile phones will have.
More practical applications for this
Now that you know how to effectively use this Snapdragon 8 Elite feature in your workflow, you’re probably wondering about other practical applications for this feature. Short-form video is king. TikTok and Instagram have proven this time and time again, and I think this ability to record video from three cameras is useful.
First of all, this could be such that people don’t have to worry about which camera to choose before recording. I know this has happened to me many times, like leaning into the main camera instead of the ultrawide camera to take a shot, only to realize halfway through that I’ve cut out part of the recording.
Recording from three cameras could be the default option on phones powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite. Once the recording is complete, you can go back to preview the footage and select only the videos you want. So if there’s a moment when it makes more sense to use an ultra-wide shot, you can swap it out and show the video there. More seamlessly.
All of this makes for a shoot now, worry later experience that we’ll see more people adopt. In any case, this kind of convenience allows videographers to get the most out of their device without having to think too much about the filming procedure. Meanwhile, Apple will have to keep a close eye on what happens next year, as the iPhone 17 Pro Max will definitely need some unique twists to maintain Apple’s momentum as the best camera phone. Probably.
