Last Monday, June 22, Apple officially announced most of the news that will come from the hand of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7 and so on. But not all. With iOS 14 some of the limitations disappear that Apple had established for no reason, one of them being the ability to play 4k videos on YouTube's iPhone and iPad.
Apple did not allow its operating systems to enjoy 4K videos from YouTube, due to the lack of VP9 codec support used by Google, an open source codec that allows to reduce the size of the videos by half while maintaining the quality.
The Apple TV4k, ironically, also did not offer access to 4K YouTube videos for the same reason: it does not support the VP9 codec. With iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14, this limitation disappears, allowing users to Play 4K quality videos on Apple TV 4K.
By not offering support in their operating systems, users of Apple devices, including the Mac, could not enjoy videos in 4K quality, they could only do it at 1080p. Apple tried to justify its decision by accusing Google of changing the codec, a codec that in addition to reducing file size requires less bandwidth.
4K videos on iPhone and iPad with limitations
The maximum resolution that the iPhone 11 Pro currently offers us is 2436 × 1125 and in the iPad Pro it is 2731 × 2048. If we talk about 4K resolution, we talk about 3840 × 2160 resolution. By offering support for YouTube videos in 4K, if we select this resolution, this will adjust to the maximum resolution of our device, which will always be better than the previous one, 1080p, although we have to have very good eyes to appreciate it.
Apple has never been characterized by meeting the wishes or needs of its customers, so if it has implemented the VP9 codec, it is likely that in the not too distant future, the Cupertino-based company launch an iPhone or iPad with 4K resolution. The one that has the most ballots to do so is the iPad Pro.
