YouTube Signature Device report recommends phones for best video playback experience

At the Samsung event yesterday, Samsung mentioned that the new Galaxy Note 9 phablet is a “YouTube Signature Device” for 2019. This is YouTube's brand new initiative that suggests the best phones that offer superior YouTube watching experience. The company calls it "signature devices,” for watching YouTube. The YouTube signature devices feature the ability to watch the 360-degree footage, support for high dynamic range, high frame rate, 4K decoding, next-generation codecs, and reliable DRM performance. Google says that the team behind this program evaluates each device and works with manufacturers to fix video playback performance and capability issues. At the launch of the program, there are a total of 18 phones including Samsung Galaxy Note9 Samsung Galaxy S9 Samsung Galaxy S8 Samsung Galaxy Note8 LG V30 Sony Xperia XZ1 Google Pixel 2 Google Pixel 2 XL Huawei Mate 10 Pro LG G7 ThinQ Xiaomi Mi 8 Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S Nokia 8 Sirocco Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium Sony Xperia XZ2 Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact HTC U12+ OnePlus 6 Surprisingly, the list doesn't include iPhones, not even the iPhone X which packs AMOLED display, bezel-less design. Then again, Apple also doesn’t support the VP9 video codec, which Google developed. It needs to see how much impact this certification ...