Looking to test-drive your Galaxy S8 or Pixel’s screen with some ultra-vibrant high dynamic range (HDR) clips? You’re in luck. On Friday, YouTube extended HDR support to select Samsung, HTC, and LG devices.
YouTube’s expanded mobile HDR comes in the form of an updated app. Try it by downloading or upgrading YouTube from the Google Play Store on the Google Pixel, Xperia XZ Premium, Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, Galaxy Note 8, or LG V30, and then playing an HDR-enabled video. Tap the playback settings menu and you will see new HDR options in resolutions up to 1,440p (2,560 × 1,440 pixels).
It’s not quite ready for prime time, though. Reddit users are reporting stuttering videos and battery-draining brightness levels, and some Galaxy S8 owners claim the update does away with the option to stretch videos to full screen. It also appears to be a one-way street: Once you upgrade to the HDR-enabled version of YouTube, there is no easy way to switch back.
YouTube says it is working on fixes. “We’ll continue working with partners in [the] mobile industry to bring HDR playback to more devices,” a YouTube spokesperson told Digital Trends in an email.
HDR, or high-dynamic range, is a display specification that produces higher-than-average contrast between light and dark frames. The result is a brighter, punchier, and truer-to-life image than you are likely to get on a phone that does not support HDR.
But it’s not that cut and dried. The two dominant HDR video formats, HDR10 and Dolby Vision, are not interoperable, which has already led manufacturers like Samsung to ditch one format in favor of the other. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus comply with HDR10, but not Dolby Vision.
Content has not been easy to come by, either. Netflix recently rolled out HDR to the LG V30, Galaxy Note 8, Xperia ZX Premium, and Xperia XZ1, but only a sliver of its library is HDR-compliant (mostly Netflix-produced series like Chef’s Table), and accessing it requires a subscription to Netflix’s top-tier, $12-a-month 4K streaming plan.
Amazon Prime Video and Vudu, meanwhile, both boast a growing number of HDR movies and TV shows but have yet to support mobile devices.
That seems poised to change, though, as an increasing number of smartphone makers pledge to implement HDR. In February, the Ultra HD Alliance — a group of technology companies and movie studios — announced Mobile HDR Premium, a new baseline spec for HDR-enable smartphones, tablets, and laptops. It is unlikely to be a silver bullet, but it could be just the target manufacturers need to work toward full HDR compliance.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.
For years, Samsung’s Galaxy A phones have been some of the easiest recommendations for anyone who wants to go the Android route without paying flagship prices. But that part of the lineup could soon become harder to find at a good price.
According to South Korea’s Electronic Times, Samsung is cutting Galaxy A production by about 20% in the fourth quarter compared to its original plans. Component orders have reportedly dropped by a similar amount, which could mean roughly 10 million fewer phones over the year. Samsung is also said to be considering another production cut of more than 10% next year.