First of all, its absurdly marketed as 18:9 instead of 2:1. People who know enough to understand aspect ratios would surely not need marketing to put in comparison to 16:9. For those who don't understand aspect ratios, these are numbers just as good as any other.
But leaving aside that, Is there really any merit to having a 2:1 screen on a phone? Why is this stupid fad catching on like this?
In a phone, width is pretty important. too big and you can't hold the phone properly and too small, using the virtual keyboard in portrait mode would be tedious.
I have used a phone with 6" 16:9 display and find the pretty pretty comfortable. Some people might find a 5.5" screen comfortable. Anything lower I would have to shift to landscape for typing onscreen.
A 2:1 display of 6" size has roughly the same width as a 16:9 display of 5.5" size. Of course the former is taller, but why would it make any sense to have a taller screen. I can probably fit one more row of icons on screen, but I don't see any utility in it. For the same diagonal size, I would actually get 7% less screen area.
For instance Mate 10 has 5.9" screen with 16:9 aspect and a resolution of 2560 x 1440. Mate 10 Pro has a 6" screen with 2:1 aspect and resolution of 2160 x 1080. That sounds like a downgrade.
But leaving aside that, Is there really any merit to having a 2:1 screen on a phone? Why is this stupid fad catching on like this?
In a phone, width is pretty important. too big and you can't hold the phone properly and too small, using the virtual keyboard in portrait mode would be tedious.
I have used a phone with 6" 16:9 display and find the pretty pretty comfortable. Some people might find a 5.5" screen comfortable. Anything lower I would have to shift to landscape for typing onscreen.
A 2:1 display of 6" size has roughly the same width as a 16:9 display of 5.5" size. Of course the former is taller, but why would it make any sense to have a taller screen. I can probably fit one more row of icons on screen, but I don't see any utility in it. For the same diagonal size, I would actually get 7% less screen area.
For instance Mate 10 has 5.9" screen with 16:9 aspect and a resolution of 2560 x 1440. Mate 10 Pro has a 6" screen with 2:1 aspect and resolution of 2160 x 1080. That sounds like a downgrade.
