Take your boring glass rectangle of a phone and fold it in half! Or thirds! Or.. quarters? It's time for the shape of smartphones to change again. Over the last decade, they've settled into a largely uniform look. If I were to draw an icon for a phone, it would be a vertical rectangle with rounded corners and maybe a button on the front. There -- I've just described the Galaxy S line, iPhones, Pixels and pretty much every other phone.
But things are starting to change. And, thanks to new technology like folding and rolling screens, we're starting to see different shapes emerge. The Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr, for example, fold in half to become an almost-square.
With the rise of dual-screen and folding devices, screen sizes could change again, along with their aspect ratios. The Galaxy Z Flip, for example, has a 6.7-inch 21.9:9 display. On its outside, there's a 1.1-inch panel for notifications and message previews. The Razr, meanwhile, has a smaller 6.2-inch screen with a 21:9 ratio.
Those screens still sound big, but compared to the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X's 7.3-inch and 8-inch folding panels, they're dainty. The tablety devices are still too chunky and pretty much unusable when closed.