If you’ve been following the news recently, you’ll most like have seen the new Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL flagship camera phones being announced. You might have even read some reviews online, which were embargoed till the 21st August (6pm to be precise).
Yep, that’s right, companies put embargo’s on reviews even after the product has been announced and handed out to reviewers, but luckily, ours didn’t include any stipulations, unlike some.
I was lucky enough to get a review sample, and have been eager to try out the new “8K video recording with Video Boost” feature. Note the phrasing of these words, and the description on the Google website:
“8K video recording at 30FPS (powered by Video Boost)”
Reading this, you’d think, wow, this phone records 8K video, and has some kind of Video Boost feature that will make the video even better. Note there is no end note, citation or notation on this, explaining this. So what’s the problem?
Well, the reality is unfortunately, entirely different. The Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL does NOT record 8K video on the device at all. In the slightest. The highest resolution you can select on the phone is 4K video, and even when you select 8K, it records 4K video.
Let me repeat this again, the phone does NOT record 8K video on the phone, it can ONLY record 4K video.
What? But Google says “8K video recording at 30FPS (powered by Video Boost)”
Yes, they do, I don’t know how they think this is clear, accurate, or appropriate, in any way, considering the phone does not record 8K video on the device.
To get 8K video you have to:
- Enable Video Boost
- Select 8K
- Record your video (the phone records a 4K 30P video file)
- Upload your video to Google backup (this took me several hours, even on Wi-Fi, even for short videos)
- Wait for Google to process the video
- The phone will then download the processed video to your phone
Initially the phone gives you two videos, a processed Full HD video (with colour grading, and image stabilisation), plus an unprocessed ‘raw’ 4K video file with no colour grading, with image stabilisation switched off. So, if you wanted to process this ‘raw’ video yourself, you’ll also need to stabilise it.
This whole process can take hours, for you to get your video file back, and will take longer if your video is longer. Then in photos you can go to your video and view the “Video Boost” video, and there you should find an 8K video file. On my colleagues phone, the 8K video file did appear on the phone.
Update: 23/08/24: When I tried this, I still didn’t find an 8K video on the phone. Just the Full HD video, and the processed 4K video. Instead, I found the 8K video file on the photos.google.com website, not on the phone. Google are looking into this, as this isn’t the normal operation, and the 8K file should be on my phone after processing.
The on-screen information says “A notification will be sent when your video is ready.” On my colleagues phone, a Google Pixel 9 Pro, the notification comes through when the video is ready. You’ll also need to have enough space on your Google account to backup the video file(s).
Alternatively, if you buy a Samsung S series phone, even an older model, like the S22 Ultra, you can record 8K video, instantly, on the phone, and have access to that 8K video file immediately. The process Google has provided for 8K video output, is quite slow, and unfortunate, when other phones simply provide 8K video recording directly on the phone.
In fact, it could even be quicker to record your 4K video, copy it over to your PC, and use something like Topaz Video AI to enlarge your video to 8K if needed. Particularly when recording longer videos, where large file sizes can take a very long time to upload to the cloud. You can also see how Video Boost works in PetaPixel’s video, although note they didn’t use Video Boost on the 10x/20x video.
On Google’s explainer page, explaining Video Boost, it says that on-phone processing is “Coming Soon”.
Last year, when Google announced Zoom Enhance, in October 2023, we were excited to try out this feature on the newly announced Google Pixel 8 series phones. However, this too was “Coming Soon” – it was released on the 15th August 2024, nearly a full year after being announced.
Are we going to have to wait 10 months for the Google Pixel 9 Pro phones to offer on-phone 8K video processing? I certainly hope not. We’ve contacted Google to clarify this feature, and have updated this article to include additional clarification of how it works.
It’s a shame that I’m having to even mention this, as the rest of the phone, for photography, is really quite amazing. Find out in our full, un-biased Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review.
Related reading:
How does Google’s Magic Editor work?
The best cameras for video recording
The best camera phones for photography
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