Most phones, except those boasting particular slow-mo features, can record video at 60 fps, delivering a real-world, fluid quality to recorded clips.
Samsung is reportedly going to bump that up to a whopping 1,000 fps for the Galaxy S8's camera, which, if true, could allow users to record extreme slow-mo videos.
Galaxy S8: The Slow-Mo Smartphone?
Just for comparison, Google's Pixel and Pixel XL, the Galaxy S7, and the iPhone 7 are all capable of recording just up to 240 fps. The recently unveiled Xperia XZ Premium can do a whopping 960 fps, as noted by CNET. If reports are to be believed, then the Galaxy S8 will record at a frame rate even higher than the Xperia XZ Premium.
Illustrating how a 1,000 fps video would like in slow motion is pretty pale when put into words, but the terms "stunning" and "jaw-dropping" do come to mind. With that frame rate, one can see the minute details of life often missed, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, a water droplet hitting a surface, and more. Heck, even tragi-comic "fail videos" could look cinematic at that scale.
That said, it's still isn't clear under what resolution 1,000 fps video would be recorded in. It's important to note that as the frame rate goes up, the quality often goes down, since the phone's power is being allocated to the performance. On the Pixel, for instance, shooting 240 fps videos relegates the resolution to a mere 720p.
Why Frame Rate Is Important For Slow-Mo Videos
An extremely high frame rate is crucial for slow-mo videos, since the more frame rate there is, the smoother and more seamless a video turns out. That said, with that amount of frames per second, slow-mo videos take up huge amounts of storage space. This is why 4K quality videos are only recorded under 30 fps on smartphones because bumping it up to an ever higher frame rate would cause performance and storage issues.
Everyone will find out if the 1,000 fps rumor holds any weight, along with other rumors, come time Samsung officially unveils the Galaxy S8 on March 29. Official word from the company about the enigmatic handset has been very timid so far, save for a vague "This was a phone" teaser video wrapped in stylistic silhouettes.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Rumors
The Galaxy S8 is one the most hotly anticipated smartphones of 2017. It's a sort of comeback for Samsung, which had been under fire for a very long period in light of the disastrous Note 7 situation. That case, however, has been closed. Fans are eager to see what Samsung has in store for a better, and hopefully safer, sequel.
There are a wealth of rumors ascribed to the Galaxy S8, some of which are even backed by purported leaked images of the actual device recently. The leaks tip the handset to have a curved "Infinity" display, come in regular and Plus models, shun a physical home button, and feature a 12-megapixel rear shooter and 8-megapixel front shooter.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 is the phone's rumored processor, with the Exynos 8895 processor also rumored the phone's processor-to-be in other markets, a split Samsung has done for its past flagships. Famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that both the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus could hit shelves starting April 21, to be offered in seven color configurations silver, gold, bright or matte black, blue, orchid, and pink.
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