Due to the use of DRM and other restrictive technologies by the Netflix app, not all Android smartphones or tablets can automatically watch HD movies and programs.
In most cases, in fact, Netflix must certify each device for HD playback and perform additional tests to make sure the HDR is working.
In the past few hours, Netflix has certified 23 new phones and tablets for HD playback:
- Honor WaterPlayer 8 (HDL-AL09, HDL-W09)
- Huawei MediaPad M5 10 (CMR-AL09, CMR-W09, CMR-AL19, CMR-W19)
- Huawei MediaPad M5 10 Lite (BAH2-L09, BAH2-W19, DL-AL09, DL-W09, HDL-AL09, HDL-W09)
- Huawei MediaPad T5 10 (GS2-L09, GS2-W09, GS2-W19, AGS2-L09, AGS2-W09, AGS2-W19, AGS2-L03)
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
- Samsung Galaxy View 2 (SM-T927A)
- Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL
- Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL
- Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL
- Honor Play (COR-L29)
- Huawei P Smart+ (INE-LX1)
- Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro
- OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro
- Razer Phone 2
- Samsung Galaxy A10
- Samsung Galaxy A20 and A20e
- Samsung Galaxy A30
- Samsung Galaxy A40
- Samsung Galaxy A50
In addition, six more smartphones have been added to the list of those that support HDR playback: Honor Play, Huawei P30, Huawei P30 Pro, OnePlus 7, OnePlus 7 Pro and Razer Phone 2.
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It is worth to mention that Netflix is evergrowing and added almost 10 million subscribers in the last quarter globally a lot of people actually enjoy streaming it on their mobile devices. Over the last year, Widevine L1 license has almost become a popular criterion for buying a smartphone or a tablet and this shows that prefer a quality viewing experience. Although Widewine L1 is the preliminary step to being able to binge any over the top video content in HD, Netflix videos are still limited to 480p unless the device is certified by the company and the process involves certain additional quality checks.