What is up with the aspect ratio of iphones these days? 19.5:9? Why? Is the phone meant for watching films like Lawrence of Arabia? Is that really what phones should be catered to? Most video content watched on phones (TV shows, YouTube, etc.) is 16:9, but this current ratio requires black bars on the sides in most cases so it’s a waste. Also obviously longer screens make one-handed use more difficult and take up more space. I just can’t think of compelling reasons for that ratio other than that was the overall length people got used to when phone used to be 16:9 with big top and bottom bezels. But since people can get used to anything, shouldn’t we really be asking what is actually the better ratio for most people’s usage? Thoughts?
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Other What is ideal aspect ratio for a phone in your opinion?
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Before X arrived my wish was actually 16:9. Like a + phone without bezels. I really dont need a tall phone, just the same width as + & Max for reading. The X is too narrow...
That makes sense to me. Why change the aspect ratio that was working when the only goal was to just get rid of bezels?
At first I thought it was about fitting more content vertically, but now with phones like the new Sony Xperia 1 II, I have no friggin clue what is going on, the industry has gone crazy with tall narrow screens, in fact iPhones seem to have the widest screens of all now. The 11 Pro Max is wider than the latest Galaxy Note20 Ultra, so if you want something close to 16:9 it’s probably best to stick with iPhone.
It looks like in a never ending quest to stand out from the competition, phones are pushing the limits to screen size but can only do so by going taller since going wider will make the phone too hard to hold. I wonder how far this will go. It’s unfortunate for people who prefer smaller phones/shorter aspect ratios/no black bars.
I’m surprised there aren’t more responses to this thread. I was expecting people to have all sorts of opinions to share in true MR fashion, especially in defense of the taller aspect ratio, but I guess not?
Tough question for me. It's actually OS dependent for me. In general terms I would need an android phone to be a little wider due to keyboard (gboard), I can't type for crap on any android and it gets worse as it gets skinnier. 72mm - 74mm width on android and 11 pro size which is like 71mm. As far as visual preference 19.5:9 is a sweet spot for me. Iphone 11 pro frame, on android the LG G8 is one off the top of my head. Perfect layout.
Taller phones are more useful today as we consume content by scrolling (instagram, twitter, etc). So taller screen, more content. Also, taller phones can be handier for gaming as you have more room for your hands as the screen is wider. 16:9 is a standard for HDTV. It shouldn't dictate the standard of a completely different device, ie a phone.
Obviously, there's a limit on how "tall" a phone can be before usability becomes poor. I'm surprised that Google still design Android notification to be pulled from the top of the phone despite Android being the pioneer in larger/taller phone.
There is a need to redesign the UI to be more accessible, have everything accessible from the bottom part of the screen.
I’ll take 16:9 all day long in terms of width, viewing media content, etc. I dislike that phones have taken on this tall/narrow approach but that’s just my opinion. Also, it’s been almost three years since the X dropped with this new aspect ratio and various apps like Flipboard STILL have not adapted their apps for this. Compare identical content in the app on the iPhone 11 vs 8 Plus and you’ll see you’re losing content on the 11.
Yeah I think it goes back to people just wanting a bigger screen, but they don’t want the phone to be too hard to hold, so it can only get taller, not wider.
I don’t think the taller aspect ratio in itself actually helps with the vertical scrolling. I think the goal is to minimize scrolling, which is achieved by fitting more on the screen at one time, which can be achieved by making the screen bigger in any aspect ratio since the content will always fill out the phone’s screen. But again a phone can only get bigger by getting taller, so that’s where we’re at.
I could see the longer aspect ratio specifically helping for gaming though, as you pointed out.
The hdtv aspect ratio (which is also used by Youtube and most online videos) isn’t about one device’s aspect ratio dictating another’s. Just like they shouldn’t have different aspect ratios just for the sake of being different. It’s about looking at device usage. If a large percentage of people’s phone usage is watching these videos, it only makes sense to consider adopting that aspect ratio.
I think the current iPhone X/Max styled phones are the best ones. It's just the size of a regular 16x9 iPhone but without the top and bottom bezels. For me, it's not too wide and it's not too tall (like some phones can be bEcAuSe mOvIe rATiO).
In terms of content, yeah it sucks we don't have one standard but at least app look perfect.
In terms of content, yeah it sucks we don't have one standard but at least app look perfect.
Hi there,
I own an iPhone 11 Pro Max, and the reason for me to go for this large screen version is because I spend most of the time on IG, YouTube, and Facebook. I strongly feel that social media applications like these are better viewed on a large screen due to all the scrolling we are required to do. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the smaller 16:9 aspect ratio that other iPhone models have; I personally prefer a larger display.
Happy to share my thoughts!
I own an iPhone 11 Pro Max, and the reason for me to go for this large screen version is because I spend most of the time on IG, YouTube, and Facebook. I strongly feel that social media applications like these are better viewed on a large screen due to all the scrolling we are required to do. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the smaller 16:9 aspect ratio that other iPhone models have; I personally prefer a larger display.
Happy to share my thoughts!
I know a couple reasons, some specific to Apple others to most of the industry.
16:9 would require the screen getting smaller or a break through in screen tech to obtain even scaling on both axis with the screens current PPI.. The iPhone 6+ and similar + models are a prime example, the long and short was they couldn't evenly scale the points used for UI drawing (os and apps) so they scaled the image up 3x to make it easy on developers. Then the OS would downsampled it 1.15x to match the screens resolution. This not only led to issues with artifacts in certain situations but was inefficient to process the image twice. The + model iPhones would have needed a PPI of 460 for 3x scaling to work which wasn't available back then, the iPhone 11 Pro Max isn't quite that high even today.
Not all of that 16:9 space would be usable. Since the screen goes so close to the edge and there are gestures like swiping from the bottom, top, etc the margin area (perimeter of the phone the devs shouldn't be using for functionality) will get bigger. And the tool bar that replaced the home button bezel at the bottom of Apples apps and a lot of 3rd party apps would waste more space.
16:9 on the 11 Pro Max would make it 3.5" wide. That is nearly a 1/2" wider than the iPhone 6+ was. Since the screen didn't get any shorter the stuff in the upper corner away from your thumb just got significantly further away. Making the iPhone 11 Pro Max 16:9 by just stretching it out would give it a 7.14" screen size. Which is getting a little bit oversized especially considering the iPad Mini has a 7.9" 4:3 screen.
16:9 would require the screen getting smaller or a break through in screen tech to obtain even scaling on both axis with the screens current PPI.. The iPhone 6+ and similar + models are a prime example, the long and short was they couldn't evenly scale the points used for UI drawing (os and apps) so they scaled the image up 3x to make it easy on developers. Then the OS would downsampled it 1.15x to match the screens resolution. This not only led to issues with artifacts in certain situations but was inefficient to process the image twice. The + model iPhones would have needed a PPI of 460 for 3x scaling to work which wasn't available back then, the iPhone 11 Pro Max isn't quite that high even today.
Not all of that 16:9 space would be usable. Since the screen goes so close to the edge and there are gestures like swiping from the bottom, top, etc the margin area (perimeter of the phone the devs shouldn't be using for functionality) will get bigger. And the tool bar that replaced the home button bezel at the bottom of Apples apps and a lot of 3rd party apps would waste more space.
16:9 on the 11 Pro Max would make it 3.5" wide. That is nearly a 1/2" wider than the iPhone 6+ was. Since the screen didn't get any shorter the stuff in the upper corner away from your thumb just got significantly further away. Making the iPhone 11 Pro Max 16:9 by just stretching it out would give it a 7.14" screen size. Which is getting a little bit oversized especially considering the iPad Mini has a 7.9" 4:3 screen.
As long as I can accomplish what I need to on the phone without having to change all kinds of settings, I am fine. I don’t really worry too much about aspect ratio since I am a basic phone user. If i were constantly watching videos, my answer would probably be different, as I would want the ratio to fit the original ratio of the stream as much as possible.
The scaling stuff is a bit outside my realm. As far as the interface guidelines, the requirement to leave margins at the top and bottom of the screen to compensate for the home indicator bar, etc., applies to any aspect ratio. So the only consequence of having those margins is that if we want a particular aspect ratio, then we *may* need to make it a couple mm longer to compensate. It doesn’t actually mean the longer aspect ratio the better, because it all depends on which aspect ratio we first want.
I say “may need to compensate” because it also depends on why we want that aspect ratio. For instance, I argue that 16:9 is better than 19.5 for most video. UI elements are irrelevant when watching video so there is no need to elongate the screen a couple mm for that.
Again, it just keeps coming back to people wanting more screen real estate but not wider (yes, people would not go for much wider than what is current).
I think the notch and home bar were factors in switching with the X derivative designs, that means you actually still have a usable 16:9 area (about 5.0" equivalent for the 5.8" iPhones) rather than the notch/ rounded corners wholly eating into whatever content you're watching if it was a bezel-free 16:9 phone.
my old 5.5” 16:9 phone has much bigger screen than my current iPhone 11 in Youtube 16:9 contents so I keep it as a tablet usage at home.
Almost all YouTube are still 16:9
Yes the 16:9 area of the taller phones is something like follows:
5.8" (iPhone X, XS, 11 Pro) - 4.96"
6.5" (iPhone XS Max, 11 Pro Max) - 5.55"
6.1" (iPhone XR, 11, 12, 12 Pro, 13, 13 Pro) - 5.22"
6.7" (iPhone 12 Pro Max, 13 Pro Max) - 5.73"
So despite a nominally larger diagonal only the Max phones actually offer equivalent space for watching videos to the plus phones.