8K video recording is rumoured to be coming to many of 2020's flagship handsets - but what does it actually look like? 

Qualcomm took a prototype phone out to various locations in Arizona, such as the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend and filmed the below footage which it has stuck on YouTube. YouTube can cope with 8K video though note that it won't appear as 8K by default - it'll probably just appear in HD. 

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The prototype phone was based on Qualcomm's new top-end Snapdragon 865 platform and uses Sony's IMX586 image sensor which we also saw in a lot of 2019 phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro and Oppo Reno 10X Zoom. 

On board the Snapdragon 865 chipset is the Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor and it's this that makes the 8K capture possible - it can process up to 2 gigapixels of information per second (two billion pixels per second, in other words). 

The Spectra 480 also supports Dolby Vision HDR video capture, up to 960fps slo-mo and - get this up to 200 megapixel photos. Obviously the sensors aren't there yet for that, but even so. 

There are several problems with playing back 8K video, chiefly you definitely haven't got an 8K monitor on your computer or phone and you probably haven't got an 8K TV or monitor (though you will).

Playing 8K footage also requires you to have a pretty beefy device - many computers will struggle to render the footage. 

However, it is an interesting taste of what's to come - we're expecting to hear about the first 8K-capable launches during Mobile World Congress 2020.