Last night, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra finally went official in India and globally. To date, it is the brand's most advanced flagship phone with a new Privacy Display, Galaxy AI features and overall hardware upgrades. The phone also sets a new benchmark in imaging and has become the world's first phone to support the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra APV Codec unlocks next-gen smartphone imaging
Developed in-house by Samsung back in 2023, the APV codec is an open-source, royalty-free, and visually lossless compression format developed for high-end mobile filmmaking. It is a generational leap over the standard High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), which every Android phone in the world features.
The only reason why Samsung was not able to use the APV codec was due to software and hardware limitations. That changes with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra since Google finally added APV support with Android 16 and Qualcomm unlocked APV with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
In terms of performance, APV is said to surpass Apple's ProRes video recording codec. Compared to ProRes, APV can take 20% less storage space while still maintaining lossless quality footage and 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. Also, unlike the standard HEVC codec's 10-bit colour depth, APV brings support for 16-bit colour depth. This will help the Galaxy S26 Ultra record HDR10 and HDR10+ videos at full 16-bit colour.
Image Credit: Samsung Developer
Image Credit: Samsung Developer
Moreover, APV will also bring noticeable improvements in low light footages. Thanks to 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, Galaxy S26 Ultra will be able to shoot real-time full colour resolution videos by assigning unique colour data to every single pixel. This brings zero image and video compression with no data reduction.
So, it is clear that when it comes to videography and photography, the Galaxy S26 Ultra has managed to deliver on superior imaging technology. While it is currently the only phone to support the APV Codec, other Android OEMs who use the same software and hardware configuration can unlock APV imaging. However, older Galaxy phones like the Galaxy S25 series and even the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will not be able to support the APV codec.
