Beyond just improving in terms of resolution, display technology has also improved in terms of colors and their dynamic range, leading to video content being offered in HDR, and with TVs also starting to offer support for the feature. In fact it seems that if you own a new-ish smartphone, you’ll be pleased to learn YouTube has added HDR support to your device.
According to the various reports found on platforms like Reddit and publications like SamMobile, support for YouTube HDR has been added to phones such as the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, the Pixel handsets, the LG V30, the Galaxy S8, and the Galaxy Note 8 phones from Samsung. YouTube actually introduced support for HDR video back in November 2016, but it is only recently that we’re seeing support being rolled out to handsets that can take advantage of the feature.
That being said, SamMobile claims that support for HDR video is only up to a maximum resolution of 1080p at 60fps, while the folks at Engadget are claiming that their Galaxy S8 handset can access resolutions of 1440p at 60fps. There are also varying claims of 1140p at 60fps, so we’re not sure what’s with the discrepancies or maybe it might have to do with the phone in question.
Either way we guess this is a pretty cool feature so if you own any of the handsets mentioned above, you should be able to take advantage of it already.