Permanently Deleted

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    It's not so much that they're bigger, it's that they're longer.

    16:9 is a good aspect ratio not because of anything to do with video, but because it's close to the golden ratio. Half the screen is proportional to the rotated full screen, and there's open space to use.

    These days there are no more 16:9 phones on the market, and 18:9 is the shortest they get. Many are even 20:9 or even 22:9. What are you going to do with a phone that is 2.5 times as long as it is broad? Sure, a 7" phone that's 2.9x6.5" is less area than a 7" phone that's 3.7x5.7". But it's less practical too. You need a minimum width for a keyboard and other things, and beyond a certain point, more screen height is just not useful.

    Longer phones are really only good for scrolling- that activity we do in-between actually engaging with content. The assumption that customers actually like scrolling, along with how it's easier to make a larger "screen size" (longer diagonal) by making the device longer, is a driving perverse incentive that makes the hardware worse- generally unpleasant to use. Not only does it not fit in a pocket, you have to choke up on the phone to reach the corners, you almost need to glance up and down to see the full screen.

    Any longer and we'll have phones that look like NEOM.