As the most popular movie and television streaming platform in the world, Netflix has accumulated a wide selection of titles that they work tirelessly to secure from content theft. There’s a lot debate around the effectiveness of DRM, but there’s little doubt that it’ll be going away anytime soon. On Android, Netflix only allows select devices to play content in high-definition, and even fewer to play HDR content. Playing DRM-protected content requires the highest level of certification from Google’s Widevine DRM, namely Widevine L1, but also requires that Netflix whitelists the device for HD/HDR playback. Now, more devices have been added to Netflix’s list of HD and HDR capable devices, most notably the Huawei Mate 20.
Surprisingly, many Android flagship devices don’t support Widevine L1 certification. We previously noted that Xiaomi’s POCO F1 doesn’t have Widevine L1 certification (though they’re working on it), which means the device is restricted to streaming Netflix at up to 540p resolution. On the other hand, the Huawei Mate 20 series does support Widevine L1, and so Netflix has certified these devices to be able to play Netflix in HD, as first spotted by AndroidPolice. Here’s the list of newly certified devices that can play Netflix content in HD and HDR, respectively.
New in HD:
- Huawei Mate 20 (HMA-TL00, HMA-AL00, HMA-L09, HMA-L29)
- Huawei Mate 20 Pro (LYA-AL00, LYA-AL10, LYA-TL00, LYA-L09, LYA-L29, LYA-L0C, LYA-AL00P)
- Huawei Mate 20 X (EVR-AL00, EVR-TL00, EVR-L29)
- LG Q9 One (LM-Q927L)
- LG X5 (X5-LG)
- Sony Xperia XZ3 (SOV39, SO-01L, 801SO)
- Devices based on HiSilicon Kirin 710, HiSilicon Kirin 980
New in HDR10:
- Huawei Mate 20
- LG Q9 One
- LG X5
The biggest addition is the Huawei Mate 20, which gets support for both HD and HDR content. Although the listing does not explicitly state that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Huawei Mate 20 X support Netflix in HDR, we were able to confirm that HDR content can be played back on the Mate 20 Pro. The LG Q9 One and LG X5, both Android One devices, also support Netflix content in HDR10. Netflix also mentions that HD support is available on devices based on HiSilicon’s Kirin 710 and Kirin 980 mobile platforms, so theoretically any Widevine L1 compatible Huawei or Honor device with these platforms should be able to play Netflix content in HD. 3 new Sony Xperia XZ3 models also got support for HD content.
Netflix (Free+, Google Play) →
Note: Huawei has stopped providing official bootloader unlock codes for its devices. Therefore, the bootloader of the Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, and Mate 20 X cannot be unlocked, which means that users cannot root or install custom ROMs.
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