(Credit: CNET Australia)
Making time to catch up with your favourite TV shows can be tough, especially when your free time is taken up with a long commute to work and back again each day. But with the right phone and a little tech know-how, you can turn a train ride into a trip to the cinema.
Picking the right phone isn't as simple as picking the handset with the biggest screen; however, it's definitely a good place to start. The most important consideration though is file support — the hidden part of this equation. For a phone to play a video file it first has to recognise the file type, or codec. There are literally dozens of codecs and depending on how your files are created or where you source them from, the files may or may not play on your phone. 3GP was a codec created specifically for phones, but has lost popularity to codecs more commonly available for PC video players. LG and Samsung phones are starting to support DivX and XviD files (the files most likely downloaded to PCs) while the iPhone will only play MPEG-4 files encoded with the H.264 codec, or Apple's own QuickTime format.
If this sounds like a foreign language to you, don't be alarmed. The trick is to figure out one or two file types your phone definitely recognises, and then download a freeware video file converter, like the Videora converter from Red Kawa. These converters accept a range of unusual file formats and outputs files best suited to your device.
In addition to choosing a phone with a huge screen and file support, you should also pick a phone with a 3.5mm headphone adapter and plan to splash out on some good headphones. If you are thinking you'll use the phone for video on noisy public transport, consider a pair of headphones with noise cancelling. These will cost more but will heighten your enjoyment of the media considerably.
Below is our list of the best phones for watching video. While some aren't our favourite phones overall, they each feature excellent screens and the all-important headphone socket.














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