Samsung's Galaxy S II Features MHL Port: Recognizes USB And HDMI
Oh, brother! Another port to remember! As the times change, so do the
ways in which we sync our devices, and Samsung's newly announced Galaxy S
II has a port that has never been used on a smartphone before, and
based on the specifications, we're hoping that it somehow comes to more
phones in the near future. The port in question is the MHL port, which
stands for Mobile High-Definition. It's a video link standard that was
built by a group of companies including Nokia, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony
and Silicon Image.
This is partly good news, and partly bad. One one hand, having a port that can be used as a USB or HDMI port is a real plus. But on the other, it's yet another fragment in a world of connectors that is already fragmented heavily. The MHL jack is shaped like a micro-USB port, but it has internal circuitry that can recognize HDMI and/or USB. There's a special 5-wire connector cable that would allow HDMI sockets to take advantage of the port. It's not quite as complicated as it sounds, but there's a video below that explains more regardless. Since MHL has already found a home on the Galaxy S II, we're certain that the protocol is complete, and we're hoping that it's only a matter of time before more and more phone companies decide to include this on their own devices.
This is partly good news, and partly bad. One one hand, having a port that can be used as a USB or HDMI port is a real plus. But on the other, it's yet another fragment in a world of connectors that is already fragmented heavily. The MHL jack is shaped like a micro-USB port, but it has internal circuitry that can recognize HDMI and/or USB. There's a special 5-wire connector cable that would allow HDMI sockets to take advantage of the port. It's not quite as complicated as it sounds, but there's a video below that explains more regardless. Since MHL has already found a home on the Galaxy S II, we're certain that the protocol is complete, and we're hoping that it's only a matter of time before more and more phone companies decide to include this on their own devices.
