Top 5 phones for video

Finding time to catch up with your favourite movies and TV shows can be tough, especially when you have boring things like work to do every day. But with the right phone, you can turn your daily commute into a trip to the cinema.

Basically, all of the phones we've reviewed in the past few years are able to play videos, so how do we pick the best? Screen size and resolution is a major consideration. Also, the more powerful the processor, the higher the quality of video that can be played. That said, it's worth noting that the highest-resolution phone screens only go up to 720p, so 1080p content will always be downscaled when watching movies on the move, anyway.

The other major consideration involves the types of files that a phone is capable of playing. Most phones will play MP4 and H.264 files types, but not all videos are delivered in these codecs. The best phones go farther, offering the capability to play a wider selection of videos, including DivX and XviD files, and, in some cases, the MKV media container. The Korean manufacturers are ahead here, with Samsung and LG offering the best file support in our experience.

You'll notice that the iPhone is absent from this list. Although we recognise that there are many iPhone owners happily watching videos during their commute, we just don't see it as being the best device for this purpose. Despite its reasonably high resolution, It's 3.5-inch screen is way too small, and its file recognition is limited.