All thanks to the AV1 video codec

MediaTek’s announcing that it’ll be enabling 4K, 60FPS video streaming to phones armed with their new Dimensity 1000 5G chipset.

This is made possible thanks to an AV1 hardware video decoder that’s included in the SoC, a world-first according to the company.

While streaming at this resolution will definitely tank your battery life, MediaTek says that the Dimensity’s more power-efficient hardware-based AV1 video decoder will allow people to enjoy longer battery life while still streaming at the best quality settings.

The AV1 video codec is creating a landmark change in the video streaming industry. First released in 2018 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), AV1 is royalty-free, crafted to replace the VP9 codec, and become the Internet Video Codec (NETVC) standard. AV1 is an ultra-high-performance video codec technology that delivers 30% more compression efficiency over existing VP9.

“AV1 has become an increasingly important format to allow high-resolution playback on handheld devices, and we’re excited that MediaTek has implemented dedicated AV1 hardware to advance its adoption, such as what’s included in their Dimensity 1000 5G SoC,” said Matt Frost, Director of Product Management of Google Chrome. “As mobile video streaming becomes more prevalent, new use cases like MediaTek’s emphasize the important work of developing next-generation codecs.”