Not all iPhone 15 Pro models can record ProRes video in 4K without additional hardware

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Something to keep in mind if you want to record in 4K60 ProRes video.

iPhone 15 Pro
(Image credit: Apple)

Thinking of buying a 128GB iPhone 15 Pro to make use of the new 4K ProRes video recording at 60fps? You might need to think again.

While Apple announced that its best iPhones of 2023 will upgrade their ProRes recording capabilities from 4K at 30fps to 4K at 60fps, it failed to mention that there is one key limitation that might catch a few people out — you'll need to get the iPhone 15 Pro with more than 256GB of storage if you want to capture at that improved frame rate.

While the iPhone 14 Pro was able to record 4K ProRes footage at 30fps when configured with 256GB of storage or more, no mention of a similar situation for the new models was made. However, it now appears that the situation is similar — although the iPhone 15 Pro can bypass this issue by recording straight to external storage via its USB-C port.

All the frames

While Apple's specifications page doesn't make any of this clear, MacRumors notes that those using the iPhone comparison portion of the Apple website will notice the difference.

There, it's made clear that ProRes video recording at up to 4K at 60fps is only supported on devices with more storage than the base 128GB. Those models are still limited to 1080p at 30fps.

Those buying the iPhone 15 Pro Max need not worry about any of this of course — that iPhone starts at 256GB so all handsets will be capable of 4K ProRes at the magical 60fps.

The workaround for this limitation for iPhone 15 Pro buyers is of course to record to external storage, but that's something that only pro-level videographers are likely to do. However, given the extremely large file size associated with ProRes video, that group of people is the only one likely to dabble in the world of ProRes anyway.

The new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro families of devices go on sale this coming Friday, September 22. iPhone 15 preorders and iPhone 15 Pro preorders are open now.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.