You’re probably wondering why Apple put all that processing power and new cameras on the latest iPads and iPhones, but didn’t give them higher resolution video playback feature. After all, the screen of the iPad Air 2 has an impressive resolution, that begs to play a cool 4K vid. Well, apparently you can play with 4K on these products.
The iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 Plus both come with 4K video playback out of the box, courtesy of the Apple A8/A8X processor, as it turns out. Apple didn’t list 4K video playback as one of the Apple A8 features, but some developers have uncovered proof of that and posted it here. They’ve found it on the iPhone 6 and then Cult of Mac found the same thing on the iPad Air 2.
4K video works on both devices and playback has been described as “buttery smooth” for videos, as long as they’re relying on the H.264 codec, while .MOV and .AVI 4K videos will also play, with minor glitches. Of course, the iPhone 6 units don’t have native 4K resolutions, so their support is useless, but this may be a hint towards a future Apple 4K TV or tablet…
