Google’s Pixel portfolio has raised the bar when it comes to mobile image manipulation the past few years, but the company has struggled to offer a comparable experience when it comes to filming images. The 2018 Pixel 3 suffered from a bad audio recording problem and last year’s Pixel 4 entered the market with 4 K video capture which was limited at 30fps while most other 2019 flagship smartphones were capable of 4 K video capture at 60fps.
Once the Pixel 4 was introduced, Google said that the feature was not incorporated solely because 4 K video capturing on smartphones wasn’t nearly as commonplace as 1080p. This may certainly be accurate, but a later study showed that the Pixel 4 actually didn’t have enough bandwidth to handle simultaneous 4 K 60fps feeds from the phone’s two rear cameras. Other manufacturers have gotten around this issue by limiting 4K/60 video capture to just one camera or reducing the bit rate slightly.
Since the Pixel 4 just receive a feature drop this past week, if Google doesn’t figure out a way to implement 4K/60 video capture on the Pixel 4, don’t expect it to show up until later this spring. If the feature is only made available on the Pixel 4a, Google will have some explaining to do.