What is Mobile HDR and which phones support HDR?

HDR has arrived on mobile and it’s set to transform your viewing experience.

HDR screens are found on a growing number of handsets – and we’ll cover which ones below, but they have the potential to take mobile movie watching to the next level.

Here, as well as telling you which phone to buy if you want a mobile movie marathon with added pop, we’ll also cover what HDR is, what services support it, and what else you should look out for to get the best viewing experience.

So without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about mobile HDR and how to get it.

What is HDR?

HDR stands for high dynamic range, which, in everyday English, simply means a high contrast between the lightest and darkest parts of an image.

On smartphone screens that means pumping up the brightness on the parts of an image that are meant to be bright, while keeping dark colours dim.

The effect of this is to better emphasise different colours and allow images to stand out in a striking way. And although HDR is used in photography, we’re not just talking static images. When it comes to an HDR-capable screen we’re talking about the ability to do this in videos and games.

HDR10 and Dolby Vision are the two main forms of mobile HDR. They have some subtle differences, with Dolby Vision seemingly set to be the best of them, thanks to its support for a higher peak brightness (10,000 nits rather than 4,000) and greater colour depth (12-bit rather than 10-bit).

Dolby Vision also uses frame-by-frame metadata to ensure the screen you’re watching HDR on is providing the best possible results at all times, whereas HDR10 uses metadata less frequently.

However, we’re now also starting to see HDR10+ on some phones, and this is more like Dolby Vision in that it uses dynamic metadata, meaning that it’s frame-by-frame.

That said, you should pay more attention to the overall screen specs and quality of a handset than which form of HDR they support.

On that note, you might also see the term Mobile HDR Premium thrown around. This isn’t a type of HDR but rather a standard for mobile devices, so if a phone offers this it has been certified as offering a good HDR experience.

Which phones support HDR?

A significant number of phones now support HDR and we've listed them in the table below to make things easier.

Note also that while all of these phones support mobile HDR in some form, they don’t all work with all HDR sources. Further confusing matters, video platforms don’t all keep up to date lists of which handsets do and don’t work with them.

What should you look for when choosing an HDR phone?

If you’re after an HDR phone then you probably want the best viewing experience possible, and there are other things to consider for that than just whether or not it supports HDR.

For one thing, you probably want a big screen, as no one likes watching films on a tiny rectangle. From that perspective, the iPhone 8 is the clear loser at 4.7 inches. The Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact, Google Pixel and Google Pixel 2 are also small at 5.0 inches and the Sony Xperia XZ1 is only slightly bigger at 5.2 inches.

The other phones are all varying degrees of large, but for maximum size go for the iPhone XS Max, Sony Xperia 1, Huawei Mate 20, Huawei Mate 20 X or Samsung Galaxy S10 5G (though note that at the time of writing some of these aren’t available to buy yet).

You also want high resolution. Again, the iPhone 8 loses here at 750 x 1334, while the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium come out on top at 2160 x 3840. That means you can watch content in 4K on them. Most of the other handsets have around a QHD resolution, which is still very high.

Finally, you want to consider the display technology. Generally, OLED offers better contrast and more vivid colours than LCD, so this can be a good choice. But not all OLED is made equal – based on reviews the Samsung Galaxy S10 range, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and Sony Xperia XZ3 are arguably the best quality.

Taking all that into account we’d say the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, iPhone XS Max, Sony Xperia 1, Sony Xperia XZ3 or Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium are the best handsets overall for mobile viewing.

What services support mobile HDR?

Currently, HDR content for mobile is primarily available on Netflix, Amazon Video, iTunes and YouTube – so it’s a good thing those are four of the biggest and best video services around.

Far from all content on any of those platforms is in HDR though. In general, on Netflix and Amazon it will be titles produced by those companies, and only relatively recent ones, but the selection of content is growing and should continue to, given that it’s not just phones but also TVs which can take advantage of HDR.

On Netflix, you’ll find big-name content like Bloodline, Daredevil and Netflix’s other Marvel content supports HDR. Just look out for the words HDR next to the description of a show to be sure. Also, be aware that you need to be on a 4 screen Netflix plan to access HDR content.

On Amazon, you can also look out for an HDR logo, and content includes films like Fury and Salt, along with shows like Transparent and Man in the High Castle.

On YouTube, videos will have an HDR badge next to the player controls and in many cases will also highlight HDR in the title or description.

Which networks are best for HDR?

As well as picking a phone you should also consider which network to choose. For the most part, there’s little to choose here – though if you plan to stream HDR content when out and about you’ll want great coverage and lots of data.

For the former, EE is currently the 4G coverage frontrunner, closely followed by Three, based on the most recent available figures, but all the UK networks are at close to 100% population coverage.

For the latter, Three, Smarty Mobile (which uses Three’s infrastructure) and Virgin Mobile (which uses EE’s infrastructure) are the only networks to offer tariffs with unlimited data with no speed restrictions. However, you need to be a Virgin Media customer to get unlimited data with Virgin, while Smarty just offers SIM Only plans, leaving Three the winner for everyone else.

And Three has another advantage too, at least if you don’t shell out for unlimited data, as it also offers Go Binge on Advanced plans with 12GB or more, which lets you stream an unlimited amount of Netflix content (as well as TVPlayer, Apple Music, Snapchat, Deezer and SoundCloud content) without it coming out of your data allowance.