Recording 4K video at 60fps has become a popular feature in flagship smartphones this year. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is the first Qualcomm SoC to support this feature, and we have seen it be adopted by phones like the OnePlus 6, Samsung Galaxy S9, LG G7 ThinQ, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, and more. The Apple iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XR also support 4K@60fps video recording thanks to the encoding capabilities of the Apple A11 and A12 SoCs. HiSilicon's Kirin SoCs still don't have 4K@60fps encoding support (even the Kirin 980 doesn't have this feature). On the other hand, Samsung's flagship Exynos SoCs have arguably been ahead of Snapdragon SoCs in terms of video encoding capabilities.

For example, the Exynos 8895, which was launched in 2017, has official support for 4K@60fps video recording. However, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 doesn't have support for this feature, which is why Samsung restricted both the Samsung Galaxy S8/Galaxy S8+ and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to recording 4K video at 30fps. Samsung disabled this feature in order to have feature parity between the Snapdragon and Exynos variants of its flagship phones. (The company did the same thing with respect to disabling 4K@120fps video encoding on the Exynos Galaxy S9/S9+, and Galaxy Note 9.)

This meant that users of the Exynos Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S8+, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 could not officially record 4K@60fps video despite the fact that the Exynos 8895 SoC did have such encoding capabilities.

How to Enable 4K Video Recording at 60FPS on the Exynos Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or Galaxy S8

However, XDA Junior Member KunkerLV has now shared a script to unofficially enable 4K@60fps video recording on the aforementioned 2017 Exynos-powered Samsung flagship phones. The good news is that the method does not require root, which means it can be easily applied by stock users without needing to modify system files.

The procedure to enable 4K@60fps video recording on the Exynos Galaxy S8/S8+ and the Galaxy Note 8 is noted below:

    1. Download the rubberbigpepper.lgCamera APK and install it.
    2. Open the app > Tap on Settings > Tap on the last tab > Tap "Edit Camera Script"
    3. Paste the following code:
              preview-size=%pref_width%x%pref_height%
      video-size=%video_width%x%video_height%
      camera-mode=1
      cam_mode=1
      cam-mode=1
      video-hfr=60
      preview-fps-range=60000,60000
    4. Tap on "Apply". Users will now be able to record 4K@60fps video on their Exynos Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and Galaxy Note 8.

Users can change the video recording bit rate for 4K@60fps video, and users on the XDA forum thread are reporting that video sizes can reach as high as 750MB. Technically, this script makes the 2017 Exynos Samsung Galaxy flagships the first Android phones able to record 4K@60fps video, even though such a capability was never officially enabled by Samsung. Users can now remove the feature restriction and enjoy the full encoding capabilities of their device.