For the first time, Google’s Pixel phones come with up to 1TB of storage. However, except for the Pixel 10 Pro XL, the base storage on all models starts from a paltry 128GB. Given the premium higher-end storage variants command, most buyers will stick to the 128GB or 256GB model. To make up for the low base storage, Google’s newest Pixel phones can record 4K video using VP9 and AV1 codecs for significantly smaller file sizes.
Flagship Android phones can record videos using the older H.264 or the modern and efficient H.265/HEVC codec. The latter helps reduce the overall file size by a substantial 50%. This can quickly add up if you use your phone to shoot videos frequently, especially in 4K resolution.
Turns out, Google is taking things up a notch with the Pixel 10 and its Tensor G5 chip. The SoC features hardware-accelerated encoders for both VP9 and AV1 codecs. More importantly, the company will supposedly allow Pixel 10 users to choose between them for recording videos using the Pixel Camera app, as confirmed by a Google spokesperson to Android Authority.
While the last two Tensor chips also featured dedicated AV1 and VP9 hardware encoders and decoders, Google never used them for video recording. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, which powers almost all other flagship Android devices, lacks hardware encoders for both AV1 and VP9.
AV1-encoded videos are apparently up to 30% smaller than the already-efficient H.265 encoded videos.
Google has gone all-in on AV1
Developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), AV1 is an open-source, royalty-free codec that offers better compression while delivering the same image quality. It’s the successor to Google’s VP9 codec and offers 30% better compression than it.
Google switched to AV1 streaming by default for YouTube back in April 2024. Even Netflix switched to this codec for streaming HDR10+ content on compatible devices earlier this year.
There’s only one catch with AV1 or VP9-recorded videos: older videos or some online platforms might be unable to play them. But that should be a small price to pay for the significant space savings they enable.
