Weekly poll: What is the best screen aspect ratio?

Peter, 12 November 2017

A couple of weeks ago, we detailed the history of aspect ratios, now we want to hear what you think. Is 16:9 the golden mean, suitable for both apps and multimedia? Or are you on board with 18:9?

16:9 is currently the dominant aspect – on phones, computer monitors, TVs. That in turn means most videos come in 16:9, certainly when it comes to TV shows and YouTube videos. Anything else leads to a blank area, be it pillar-boxing or letter-boxing.

Games benefit from a wider screen, it essentially creates a wider field of view for the player. The taller screens also allows app designers to be more liberal with status bars, shortcut rows and so on.

And since both Android and iOS moved their navigation keys on screen, you might as well cover the bezel with screens, right? Not that a wider screen is a requirement for thin bezels, but 16:9 bezel-less phones are quite rare.

Screen aspect ratios

Weekly poll

Reader comments

Vzaiah
22 May 2018
IW@

I prefer 16:9 ratio, its much better for playing games, watch youtube and surfing. What I hated about 18:9 ratio display is the home button is also on the screen, it also means less viewing experience and the phone!s appearance looks likea remote con...

Anonymous
20 Nov 2017
JG0

It's pointless to deny the facts. It's a problem on all phones with AMOLED screen. Cropping or stretching the content to fit the 18:9 screen is not a real solution, because you will have either lost or distorted content.