Samsung Galaxy S26 Tipped to Rival iPhone ProRes with New APV Video Codec

The Samsung Galaxy S26 series has been part of the rumour mill for quite some time. We already know quite a bit about the upcoming smartphones. Now, a new piece of information has revealed the alleged video recording capability of the lineup.

Galaxy S26 to get APV video codec

Tech publication SammyGuru claims that Samsung will likely take the video recording capabilities of the Galaxy S26 with the official introduction of Advanced Professional Video (APV) Codec support. This will make them the first smartphones to incorporate this new video codec, which was made official back in 2023 at the Samsung Developer Conference.

The APV codec is said to be so powerful and efficient that it will allegedly be able to surpass Apple's ProRes video recording codec. Users will be able to record lossless quality footage, which will occupy 20% less storage (compared to iPhone's ProRes) while still supporting LOG and HDR video.

Additionally, APV also offers the ability to record videos with a high bitrate range of up to a few Gbps at 2K, 4K, and 8K resolutions. The reason why Samsung took four whole years to bring this codec to the "S series" is that only now, Android 16 added platform-level support for it.

Also, unlike the standard HEVC codec's 10-bit colour depth, APV is said to bring 12-bit colour depth. This will help the S26 series eliminate the banding issue in videos by accounting for the missing information. APV will also apparently support HDR10 and HDR10+ video recording. Low light shots will also improve thanks to 4:4:4 chroma subsampling.

The publication has further claimed that with the Galaxy S26 lineup, Samsung will also add the support for LUTs (Look-Up Table) right in the gallery app. This is something we first saw Nothing do with the Phone (3a) series. This new feature will enable users to preview their footages with cinematic colour grading.

Apart from this, the new APV codec is also said to bring a new Horizon Lock feature similar to the iPhone's Action Mode, multi-page document scanning and Motion Photo customisation. All these new features and better professional-level codec support are expected to take the photography experience on the Galaxy S26 series to new heights.

Galaxy S26 series expected specifications

Speaking of specifications, the new lineup is said to include an S26 Pro, S26 Edge and S26 Ultra this time around. Samsung is reportedly getting rid of the compact and the plus models.

The devices are said to draw their power from the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor and could pack up to 5,000mAh batteries. Additionally, the Galaxy S26 Ultra may feature faster 60W charging support. There won't be much going on in the camera department either, as a recent leak suggested that the Galaxy S26 telephoto sensor will be the same 50 MP 1/2.52-inch 0.7μm telephoto sensor of the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

That said, since the devices are expected to launch in January 2026 at the Galaxy Unpacked event, we can expect more details to surface in the coming months, leading up to the launch. Keep a close watch here at Beebom Gadgets as we will be covering them all.