Forget the iPhone 17 Pro Max: Snapdragon 8 Elite could deliver my most requested camera feature on Android phones

I record a lot of videos. I don’t just mean the short bits I’d share on social media, but the ones I film professionally. I usually rely on my trusty Panasonic Lumix S5 for all the heavy lifting, but I often use some of the best camera phones as backup or b-roll cameras to supplement my footage.

With the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, it might finally deliver the one video camera feature I’ve been asking for, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max better be concerned.

Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset is now official, but hopefully it won’t be long before we see Android phones with it. In fact, the Asus ROG Phone 9 series is one of the first phones to feature the new silicon that is based on the company’s 3nm manufacturing process. And the Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 are also on the way.

While the Snapdragon 8 Elite should be a beast for everything we do on our phones, I’m more interested in how the chip improves the camera recording capabilities of future phones.

In other words, I’ve been asking for the ability to record video not from just one camera, but from all of them simultaneously. As a videographer, I can’t tell you how useful a feature like this would be in the editing room, so I’m really looking forward to seeing it right.

A game changer for videos

Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile chipset from Qualcomm

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max certainly brought new features that I love, such as Audio Mix to improve the audio of video recording and the ability to now record in 4K 120 fps. Interestingly, you can record video simultaneously on an iPhone using a third-party app like DoubleTake. However, I found it to be buggy and recording is limited to only two cameras.

With the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, Android phones could have an additional advantage over iPhones by offering this ability to record from three 48MP sensors simultaneously at 30 fps. This is a big problem because there is a lot of data in a single 4K video source, let alone having to deal with three. By providing this feature, this would give me the added utility in the editing room to play around with the footage.

For interview-style clips, I can appreciate how having three separate video files from a phone’s main, ultra-wide and telephoto cameras could be beneficial later on. In a sequence, I can use the main camera footage and then switch to the telephoto channel if they have something interesting to say.

The average person might not be inclined to shoot video on three cameras simultaneously, but given how Apple likes to paint the iPhone 16 Pro as a filmmaker’s camera, this is the kind of advanced feature that I like to see more phones.

More practical applications for this

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL taking a photo.

(Image credit: Future)

I know how I could use this Snapdragon 8 Elite feature effectively with my workflow, but I’m sure you’re wondering about some other practical applications for this feature. Short form video is king. TikTok and Instagram have proven this countless times, but I think this ability to record video from three cameras could be useful.

For starters, it could be the kind of thing that could allow people to not worry about which camera to select before shooting. I know this has happened to me many times, like leaning on the main camera instead of the ultra-large to capture a photo, only to realize in the middle of it that I’m removing some things from the recording.

With phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, recording from three cameras could be the default option. Once they’re done shooting, they can go back to preview the footage and select just the video they want, so if there’s a moment when the ultra-wide shot makes more sense, they can swap it in place for the video to appear . more perfect

All of this makes for a shoot-now, worry-later experience that I can see more people adopting. Regardless, it’s this kind of convenience that will allow camcorder shooters to get the most out of their device without having to think too much about the logistics of filming. In the meantime, Apple will have to keep a close eye on what happens next year because the iPhone 17 Pro Max will definitely need its own tricks to keep up Apple’s push to have the best camera phone.

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