The regular Android community started to care about Google’s Widevine DRM when they discovered the connection between the DRM level and HD playback capability in streaming apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Having Widevine L1 status is indeed a mandatory requirement, but it doesn't necessarily ensure the ability to play Netflix content in HD, as the streaming provider has to manually whitelist the devices for the facility. A similar certification procedure for Netflix HDR10 playback also exists, with the obvious prerequisite of having an HDR display.

Netflix maintains a publicly accessible list of HD and HDR playback supported devices so that consumers can pick the right one for binge-watching. The certifications aren't correlated with each other, though. Netflix tends to update its list once a device is certified to playback video in HD and/or HDR10. The company has now added a bunch of Sony Xperia, Xiaomi, and OPPO phones to their index of supported devices.

New HD-compatible devices:

New HDR10-compatible devices:

Interestingly, one of the newly listed devices is the unreleased Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite. This could be a mistake and Netflix intended to list the Mi Note 10 instead, but this wouldn't be the first time that Netflix has listed an unreleased device by accident. They did this very recently with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite and the Google Pixel 4, for example.

It is also worth mentioning that the OPPO Reno3 and Reno3 Pro that have been added to this list are the global models with the MediaTek Helio P90 and P95 SoCs, and not the Chinese variants. On the other hand, the Sony Xperia 1 II, Sony Xperia 5, Xiaomi Mi 10, and Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro were already added to the list of devices that support HDR10 playback on Netflix back in March. Thus, their additions to the list of devices that support Netflix playback in HD is merely a formality.

[appbox googleplay "com.netflix.mediaclient"]

Source: Netflix

Via: Android Police