Connecting your smartphone or tab to a TV is easier than you think. In this post, you will learn how to Connect Mobile Phone to TV and enjoy your mobile contents on TV.
Mobile phones and tablets are ideal for individual users as they are lightweight, offer strong battery life, and feature bright and sharp screens, which make light work of every task including watching movies, listening to music videos, reviewing photos, and so on. However, bigger crowds demand bigger screens — this makes it necessary to connect your Android phone to your television set, without having to spend a fortune or buying tons of cables.
We are in a golden age of digital content, where popular streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and the likes regularly keep us entertained with action-packed and riveting films. But this is not so good at those times when you intend sharing the experience with many people. Your television set is great for this, and below, we will explore useful options to get your mobile digital content on the big screen.
3 Ways to Connect Mobile Phone to a TV
To connect your Android phone or tab to your TV, you can make use of an HDMI, Wireless method, AV cable, and Bluetooth. Here is a walkthrough of 3 best ways to do this:
Connect Mobile Phone to TV Using HDMI Input Port
These days, if you purchase a new large screen HD TV, we are almost certainly sure that it’ll come with an HDMI input port. Using this cable is the easiest means for connecting your mobile phone to your TV. Short for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, HDMI is quite a convenient standard to view videos on your television set as the standard is compatible with HD, so the quality of videos shown via the interface is comparatively great.
The first thing to look out is if your mobile device supports HDMI output. The majority of people merely assume that this will be so; however, you need to know that only some smartphones come with this feature. Here is a list of popular mobile phones, released in 2018 with HDMI output:
- Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (USB-C)
- Samsung Galaxy S8 (USB-C)
- Huawei Mate 10 (USB-C)
- Huawei Mate 10+ (USB-C)
- Google Pixel 2 (USB-C)
- Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra (USB-C)
- HTC 10 (USB-C)
- HTC U11 (USB-C)
- HTC U Ultra (USB-C)
- leTV Le Max Pro (MHL)
- LG V34 (USB-C)
- LG V30 (USB-C)
- LG V20 (USB-C)
- LG G5 (USB-C)
If you can’t find your smartphone on this list, the best course of action to take is to confirm that your device supports HDMI output. If you ascertain this from the official documentation that it is compatible with the cable, the next portion will inform you about the cable to make use of.
If you aren’t sure, don’t seethe. There are still other ways to connect your phone to a TV, and you can skip to that section below.
What Cable Is Needed?
From the list we gave above, you’ll notice there are primarily 2 types of HDMI output ports on Android mobile phones. The bulk of the newer devices make use of the USB-C port as their HDMI output port. Others use an MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) port.
If your phone has an MHL port, such as the LeTV Le Max Pro, or the older HTC One XL or HTC One, it would normally feature an MHL-to-HDMI cable. This is the cable you would use to connect an MHL-enabled Android phone to a television set.
The next steps are, connecting the MHL cable to your smartphone and then connecting the other end to the HDMI input port on the TV. With these done, you’re good to go.
For those smartphones with HDMI output through the USB-C port, the HDMI output cable isn’t usually given by manufacturers. So, you would need to buy either an official accessory cable or a third-party one.
Once you’ve got the cable, it’ll be as straightforward as connecting the cable through the USB-C port of your Android mobile phone and the other end to the HDMI input port of the television set.
Connect Mobile Phone to TV without Using HDMI
If you are not able to connect your Android phone to a smart TV through HDMI, maybe because it doesn’t support HDMI output or due to your inability to purchase the needed cables, then you can try another method for connecting your phone to a TV — by using a wireless connection.
For starters, it is advised that you try to connect your device to a TV wirelessly. If you have not gone through the technology that is available to do this, you would be surprised to see how easy it works. Apart from this, other kinds of cables are available for pushing images from your phone to your television set. These are the things we will be exploring in the subsequent sections.
How to Connect Mobile Phone to TV Wirelessly
Since WiFi networks are quite very common in homes these days, it’s that much simpler to make use of this network in connecting your mobile phone to a TV wirelessly. If the Android phone and TV are both connected to a single WiFi network, then you are now closer to achieving your aim.
Here is one of the methods you can make use of:
Connecting Your Android Phone to a TV with Chromecast
There are smart TVs with internal hardware and capabilities that enable you to connect to a WiFi network, and thus the internet. However, there are also several TVs with no internet capabilities that people purchased in that short period, prior to the emergence of smart TVs.
The Google Chromecast is handy here: It is a dongle that can be connected to the HDMI port of a TV, enabling the TV to connect to the internet. Once you have got a Chromecast dongle, you can connect it to your television using the HDMI cable. With this done, you can stream videos, photos, information, and others from your smartphone to your TV seamlessly.
Download the Google Chromecast from the Play Store.
Connecting Your Android Smartphone to a TV with AV Cable
You should only choose this method if the options explained above don’t work with your phone.
Here are the tools you need: A phone which has been confirmed to come with HDMI output; an HDMI output cable (whether via MHL or USB-C explained above), an HDMI-to-composite video converter, an AV cable for connecting the video converter to your TV. These converters are third-party devices you can get from your local stores or online.
Using These Tools
In theory, this technique should be effective. However, the number of elements that are between your mobile phone and the older TV is equivalent to the number of points in which the method may not work.
To start the technique, first, connect the normal HDMI output cable to the smartphone and to the HDMI input port on your video converter device. The next step is, connecting this converter to your old television by using an AV/composite cable. You should ensure you choose the AV input on the TV and confirm if the video output of your phone can now be viewed on the older television set.
In a Nutshell
Explained above are some of the best ways you can connect your Android smartphone to your TV set easily. With any of these methods, you can enjoy your favorite movies, photos, etc. which are being played or streamed on your mobile device right on your bigger TV screen.
