We have come to an era where smartphones are being used as multimedia player and people have mostly stopped carrying dedicated media players. The mobile phone companies are trying to come up with different ways to integrate better displays and better processors to cater the needs of these video buffs. More and more users are using their smartphones to stream YouTube videos while on the go or while waiting for someone. If you are a movie buff too, then we have shortlisted 5 smartphones for you which can improve your video watching experience drastically.
Samsung Galaxy S3
It is the best mobile phone to watch videos and movies due to its 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD display that supports the playback of 1080p HD Videos. The best thing about this phone is the screen resolution of 1280 x 800 which is the set standard for high definition videos which automatically makes this phone adhere to an aspect ratio of 16:9, eradicating those ugly black borders (called as letterboxes). Another fact that makes this phone the best for watching videos is, it has the deepest black levels compared to any other phone in the market. Samsung intelligently bundles a dedicated video player with this phone that supports most wide range of video codecs and lets you can watch just about any video format without the need to re-encode it. This phone allows sharing of video content to Samsung Smart TVs via All share feature. Even if your TV isn’t ‘All Share’ enabled, you can connect it with Galaxy S3 through the HDMI cable and enjoy the videos seamlessly. Another interesting feature that Samsung worked on is, you can work as well as watch video at the same time on the same screen. To do that, you just need to pinch the video while watching it in the video player so that it shrinks itself into a window which floats where ever you navigate around. You can even connect USB Flash Drives and Portable Hard Disk Drives to this phone using an extra accessory which is sold separately. This phone comes in options of both 16 GB and 32 GB (64 GB is also on its way for select markets) on board storage space with an option to expand it using the Micro SD card slot. Samsung Galaxy S3 is priced at Rs 36,999 for 16 GB of internal storage space.
HTC One X
One X is a recently released phone from HTC which comes with one of the best processor in the market right now; Nvidia Tegra 3 which is excellent in processing even full HD videos and Flash videos while browsing the web. HTC One X 4.7 Super IPS LCD2 capacitive multi-touch screen is the best screen in a portable device ever due to pixel dense resolution and warm colours. This Android 4.0.4 lce Cream Sandwich laden smartphone can play back 1080p HD videos of various popular file formats along with an ability to show subtitles. Similar to Galaxy S3, you can use this phone to display videos stored in the phone to large television screens or monitors using either DLNA or HDMI cable. There is 32 GB of on-board storage with no ability to expand it as it lacks the memory card slot. One X price of INR 33,990 makes it the cheapest quad-core phone with HD screen at.
Samsung Galaxy Note
Samsung Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch HD screen which is massive and is ideal for watching movies and videos. Although, the Super AMOLED display on this phone does not have as pixel dense screen as the likes of HTC One X or Samsung’s own, Galaxy S3. Similar to Galaxy S3 though, it supports playback of 1080p HD Videos with multi-channel audio. It was released with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which is now updated to Android 4.0.4 ICS. This phone can be connected to USB Flash Drives and Portable Hard Disk Drives using an extra accessory which is sold separately. It also comes with a souped-up S Pen stylus that brings new ways to interact with your phone. Its 16 GB internal memory is expandable up to 32 GB which is enough for storing a lot of movies. Samsung Galaxy Note is priced at INR 29,700 which is worth every penny.
Sony Xperia S
This phone sports a beautiful design and a dual core Snapdragon S3 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz and 1 GB RAM which are enough to process full HD videos. This smartphone has a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 ‘Reality Display’ and comes with company’s own Mobile Bravia engine which supposedly livens up the contrast and colours while watching videos and pictures. The screen’s pixel density of 342 ppi is better than all the other smartphones in the market right now. The internal storage space in this phone is 32 GB out of which 26 GB is available for the users and lacks storage expansion slot of any kind. The phone comes with an illuminated transparent strip that changes colour based on the primary image on screen. This adds to your visual experience while watching videos giving an ambiance light. This phone now runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread but is soon to be updated to Android 4.0.4 ICS. The Sony Xperia S is priced at INR 28,990 and is the best phone in the whole series of Sony smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy S2
Samsung Galaxy S2 was the first phone to sport the Super AMOLED Plus display technology in its screen. Although it has a screen resolution of 800 x 480 and it is not as pixel dense as other smartphones listed above, it is still one of the best smartphones to watch videos due to its large screen size, deep blacks and high contrast ratio. Even this phone has the same video player which is bundled with Galaxy S3 but the feature to watch videos while using other apps is not present in this phone. It has a dual-core 1.2 GHz Exynos processor with Mali 400 GPU which is clocked at a little lesser frequency than the Galaxy S3. This phone was released with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which is now updated to Android 4.0.4 ICS. This phone is now available at reduced price of INR 26,790.
Summary
Smartphones are fast doubling up as entertainment devices to carry while commuting. People are using them to watch videos and movies while on the move. With bigger screens and better graphic capabilities these phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X etc. are great purchases. Sony Xperia S and Samsung Galaxy S2 lag behind the other three due to less pixel density but can be still great for a bit shallow pocketed movie fans. In a nutshell all these phones come with an array of advanced features and stand out from other smartphones in this category, making your movie watching experience enjoyable.