What's the best smartphones for watching web video?

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	What's the best smartphones for watching web video?	By Sindre Lia, 15 August 2008

One of our readers wants to watch online videos through a smartphone. Let's find out what's required to get the good stuff streaming.

Reader's question:

I currently own a BlackBerry Pearl 8130, but which smartphones will let me play web videos such as Windows Media videos? Wendall

Editor's answer:

Right now, there's unfortunately no optimal solution for watching web videos on a smartphone. However, if you wait a few months, things will start happening.

When Microsoft's new Internet Explorer Mobile gets released this fall, it'll include plug-ins for Windows Media (as part of the new Silverlight plug-in), Adobe Flash and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. Most of the existing owners of Windows Mobile 6 smartphones will probably get this upgrade for free, and all new Windows Mobile smartphones will offer it out-of-box.

Another new mobile browser, the Opera Mobile 9.5 for Windows Mobile, will likely also offer the same plug-ins when released to the public late this year or early next year. Among the first devices to support it, will be the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and HTC Touch Pro, as well as other touchscreen-based Windows Mobile smartphones. Opera also plans to make this browser available to non-touchscreen Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 smartphones in the future.

When speaking of Symbian S60, Nokia is also currently implementing the Silverlight plug-in in its own Mini Map mobile browser for Symbian S60 smartphones. Likely, they'll roll out Flash and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC plug-ins in the same package.

Whether RIM, or Apple for that matter, is planning to implement video plug-ins in its mobile browsers is currently not know. According to Microsoft, Silverlight will support Mac OS X, but not BlackBerry OS.

So, unfortunately it doesn't look like you'll get Windows Media support in your BlackBerry browser anytime soon, though RIM could end up including a Flash plug-in for its browser when rolling out BlackBerry OS 4.5 later this year (we don't know for sure). As a BlackBerry Pearl 8130 owner, you may be lucky enough to get some of the new BlackBerry OS 4.5 features, though it's not written in stone what old models will get specifically.