How I Met My Smartphone: Best Handset for Binge Watching
If you missed the series finale of How I Met Your Mother, be glad. By most counts, it was terrible ending to a delightful show. If you were one of the millions of fans that shifted your calendar to actually watch it in real-time, not on your DVR or one the web the next day, chances are you are trying to drown your frustrations with a bit of media therapy. While retail therapy is quite well known, initially developed on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, media therapy is now coming into it’s own. Typically media therapy involves binge watching of some known good series in an attempt to erase the residual trauma caused by a story gone wrong. While retail therapy fills your closet while emptying your bank account in an effort to assuage trauma, media therapy requires, traditionally, an uninterrupted block of hours dedicated to quality time between you and your television. In the past Binge Watching was limited to Star Trek Marathons on SyFy channel or Leave It To Beaver reruns on TV Land. The rapid availability of content online through Netflix, Hulu and the like, means that effective media therapy prescriptions are available en masse and at your fingertips, literally. In our attempt to deconstruct the neural connections burned into our cerebral cortex by Mother’s finale, we began to ponder how to receive our media therapy on the go, through our smartphones. Argus Insights took a look as which handsets are best for grabbing a few idle minutes into a few soothing minutes of Downtown Abby or Breaking Bad.
The graph shows that, for example, the LG G Flex has more than 10% of its consumers expressing satisfaction with less than 1% expressing negative opinions when it comes to the media related usage on their smartphone. It is worth noting that Apple’s 5S and 5C are not on the top ten but they did crack the top twenty. It’s surprising that even though they don’t feature large screens compared to the increasing average size of smartphones year by year, consumers still expressed enough positivity for them to rank in at 19th and 20th respectively. Also, Apple smartphone users are also likely to have Apple iPads which are much more enjoyable to watch movies and videos on.
It wasn’t surprising to see that our data found the Nokia Lumia 1520 to be the best phone for media usage. The Lumia 1520 has one of the largest displays available coming in at 6” with 367 pixels packed in per square inch and powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 processor. These specs help the Lumia 1520 produce stunning and smooth visuals. Having strong specs within these three areas turns your smartphone into the ideal personal portable home theater system. This allows you to turn your breaks or bus rides into YouTube video sessions or catching up on your favorite movies or television shows.
These three key components are not heavily guarded secret and other manufacturers are following suit with large screens, crisp high definition displays, and fast processors to enable satisfying viewing pleasure. The same formula can also be seen in the other 9 smartphones on this list. With the exception of the BlackBerry Z10, which features a 4.2” screen, the rest of the smartphones have screens larger than 5”. Along with a large screen, all the smartphones on this list have superior screen resolution and technology. High quality AMOLED displays, LCD displays and IPS (In-Plane Switching) displays simply delight users with high pixel count and clear images.
For all the movie junkies out there looking for the smartphone that has all the right components for the best possible media experience, these ten deserve a strong consideration. In today’s market, there isn’t a shortage of large screen smartphones to choose. Take advantage of the variety, use the time to discover what you want most out of your smartphone, and see which of these ten fits your checklist most. As always, watch for Argus Insights, we have the tools to find what delights consumers most by simply listening to you, the people.
In the future we will be analyzing other aspects of smartphone usage. Let us know what other features or uses you’d like us to share insights on. Below are details from consumers, sharing their love and hates of smartphone usage in their own words.
1) Nokia Lumia 1520 (6” IPS, 367 ppi, Quad-Core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“Watching full HD movies on this phone is a experience you will enjoy”
“I use my phone mostly for checking work/personal emails, surfing, and watching netflix”
“I have the entire screen full of live tiles which connects to internet 24×7, I watch videos for aout 45-60 mins a day”
Cons:
“Basically rendering YouTube useless for videos over a minute long”
“Unfortunately Microsoft has written into the coding that you can not download movies you purchased from the Microsoft store onto the SD Card”
2) LG G Flex (6” OLED, 245 ppi, Quad-Core 2.26GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“the curve gve it an outstanding cinematic experience when watching videos”
“The phone has great picture quality when watching videos or playing games”
“can’t say enough about watching Netflix or playing games on this”
Cons:
“its not the worst but watching youtube on this phone is not so great”
3) HTC One Max (5.9” Super LCD3, 373 ppi, Quad-Core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“the front facing speakers really makes it much more enjoyable to watch videos on”
It’s larger size allows you to watch a movie or youtube videos with ease”
“movies on this phone are great, the two forward facing speakers really do an amazing job”
Cons:
“Most of the unlocked Devices will not work with 4G LTE of AT&T”
4) Samsung Galaxy Mega (6.3” LCD, 233 ppi, Dual-Core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“I love how I can finally hear sond on a phone when I watch movies or the phone rings”
“Good battery life, good 2-way camera, lightweight, easy to watch videos”
“Crystal clear when watching videos”
Cons:
“Now that we once again have phones that can be used as a bludgeon, I feel a surge of hope that movies, too, might regain their former weight”
“Unlike the s3 surfing the net or checking the Internet is impossible 99 percent of the time so can’t use features of phone”
5) ZTE Max (5.7” IPS, 258 ppi, Dual-Core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“Watching videos is amazing”
“HD Movies look Beautiful”
Cons:
“Resolution not good for videos”
“wasn’t good for watching videos, movies, etc”
6) Sony Xperia Z1S (5” LCD, 441 ppi, Quad-Core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“The screen is beautiful for movies”
“watching movies in HD on a cell phone like this is really awesome”
“Had friends gazing over how sweet the videos were”
Cons:
“continue to stream information (using 4g or wifi) so internet surfing can become frustrating”
“If I am watching a video on YouTube, or listening to music, or on a call on speakerphone, I can barely hear it even with the volume all the way up”
7) Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (5.5” Super AMOLED, 267 ppi, Quad-Core 1.6GHz Exynos Processor)
Pros:
“”Watching Youtube is fantastic”
“Reading emails, watching videos or using different apps is so pleasant because you don’t have to squint or strain your eyes to see”
“On heavy use days (phone/Netflix/surfing), I still have about 30% of the battery left”
Cons:
“I will replace it when the Note III comes out”
“The multi-tasking was a let down because it doesn’t work with the one thing I really wanted it to-Netflix (or basically any streaming video outside the sd card)”
“This is very disappointing knowing I like to watch youtube”
8) Sony Xperia Z (5” LCD, 441 ppi, Quad-Core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“I listen to music, suft the web, play games, watch videos, listen to music, everything”
“The large screen makes it perfect for watching videos or movies”
“The 5” display is great for watching videos on YouTube”
Cons:
“While I was watching a movie, the screen started cracking”
9) Nokia Lumia Icon (5” AMOLED, 441 ppi, Quad-Core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“video capabilities makes this phone just so much fun to use”
“videos to my heats content”
“RAM makes watching stream movies a pleasure”
Cons:
“The stream/interface is horrid, it pulls in info from all over the place”
10) BlackBerry Z10 (4.2” IPS, 356 ppi, Dual-Core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Processor)
Pros:
“Great to download movies for long flights”
“my Z10 can automatically share music, movies etc.”
Cons:
“is rather small compared to todays standard, if you want to watch tv or a movie on the tube forget it completely pointless”
“I have to admit, the only thing I am going to miss is Netflix”
