The dual-core A8 chip powering Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus appears to be capable of handling 4K video playback, despite the fact that the two iPhones have native resolutions of 1334 x 750 and 1920 x 1080 pixels, respectively.
4K video playback on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus was first discovered by the developers behind WALTR, a Mac app that’s designed to make it easy to upload and convert any music or video file to an iPad or iPhone for native playback, and reported by TUAW.
Image via iFixit
The discovery was made by the developers of WALTR, a great Mac app that allows users to quickly upload video files to their iPhone which aren’t supported by iTunes, such as FLAC and MKV files. While testing the app developers found it is possible to playback 4K videos on the iPhone 6. Even if Apple hasn’t announced it, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are ready to play 4K videos.
With resolutions of 1334 x 750 and 1920 x 1080, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus won’t be able to reproduce the detail in a 3840 x 2160 4K video, but the A8’s ability to play 4K content means 4K videos side-loaded onto one of Apple’s two devices will still be watchable.
It’s highly unlikely many users will load 4K videos on their iPhones due to the massive file size of 4K content and the fact that there’s little practical use for it, but it has the potential to be a somewhat useful feature for some users who want to play 4K video recorded on their devices as there are apps available that advertise 4K video recording on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
