I realize that the 3:2 ratio is getting a good response but when considering the bigger picture, I think it’ll do more harm than good.
Playing videos: A very large collection of movies and shows are made for the 16:9 ratio and even though we can just play video, the dark screen on the top and bottom will just be unapplealing to a large number of people.
People have already been through a huge change when the “normal” aspect ratio went from 3:4 to 16:9. Just imagine the screenshots and the screen recordings of this laptop would look completely “out of shape” to everyone else, maybe even to you, if you send the media to your phone. The goal should be to enable people to switch over without disrupting their normal workflow.
If a new model does make the ratio of 16:9, the laptop size can also reach the standard 15.6 inch displays. I know it sounds a lot futuristic and “feel good” but I feel that… and this is just my opinion that, it’s trying to address a problem that does not exist.
Also, making a 15.6 inch laptop would enable to have enough space to include a numpad on the right side of the keyboard
Edit:
Maybe the real solution will be that Framwork will add a new model with 16:9 aspect ratio and give the consumers the choice about which model they want to purchase. Really hoping for this
4:3 = 16:12 Some very old stuff
3:2 = 16:11 (16:10.666r)
-------- 16:10 Some old stuff
-------- 16:9 My TV
-------- 16:8 My phone (18:9) ??
21:9 - 16:7 (approx) @Minty_Root post 12 below
@amoun Yeah, was just poking around aspect ratios. Yikes, I didn’t know we have switched around so much. Seems like designers around the worlds have changed their minds a lot. I’m all for decentralisation and customisation but there are a few things which in my opinion should be standardised (by community) so that everyone can share a similar experiance. Oh well, maybe this will be the " new normal" and we will look back and think why did we ever even use 16:9. Though I doubt 3:2 will ever make it in the mobile environment and in order to maintain compatibility I wish 16:9 would remain around.
But the newer phones have started to change that as well. Making longer phones. I don’t know why they thought it would be a good idea
I think 3:2 is fine for mine. Don’t forget people don’t only watch videos on their laptop at full screen. When browsing the web or doing work having that extra vertical space is pretty helpful too. It’s a bit like the notch or the punchhole on modern phones, sure you have a part of the screen that is less useful, but it’s not completely useless either.
It helps the form factor of the laptop. By having a taller screen I also get a proper palm rest and trackpad, instead of having something awkward like the 11" MacBook Air. Sure you could go wider to get the 16:9 ratio, but then it would no longer fit the intended 13" form factor.
And it turns out to also work great with some old 4:3 shows and games I still enjoy.
It just depends on what your use-case is. If 90% of the time you’re consuming 16:9-or-greater movies/TV shows/games then yes, a wider aspect ratio is better. But for a more productivity-focused use-case, a taller screen is better:
Browsing: Pretty much all websites are vertically-scrolled. Taller screen = less scrolling
Menus/UI in the OS and software: Pretty much all vertically-scrolled.
Word processing/Excel/coding: Taller screen = more lines/rows viewable = less scrolling
YouTube: While full-screen, a wider screen is better, but when not full-screened (which I am 99% of the time) and with the video fit to screen width, you can see more info below (views, date, description, etc.)
Plus with 3:2 in particular you get little bonuses such as DSLR photographs fitting perfectly and comics/manga fitting better in portrait mode (though still behind the iPad’s sqrt(2):1 ratio, which is literally ISO A-series size).
On the Framework design side, I’m sure the taller ratio helped with the overall chassis design since it gives more surface area for them to work with.
Doesn’t seem worth it to release a whole new top cover, bottom cover and display, while making it larger to keep enough space, just because somethings won’t scale in quite right.
I prefer the Framework Laptop’s ratio for portable use, but it won’t stop me from using dual monitors at my desk.
Plus, I find it rather nice to have a 16:9 video playing full-width in the browser without having to fullscreen the video.
Ideally, you want nanobots to materialize / morph the panel into the ‘useful’ aspect ratio for the task at hand…but we’re not there yet.
So, the next best thing is not to have another model with a completely different aspect ratio, but have a display panel ‘option’ (that means matching bezel, display cable, panel mounting hardware options) with other aspect ratio for selection…
The problem with that approach is that unless you have a whole top and bottom frame that is wider, the other aspect ratio panel options will just be screens taking less space on the frame. It’s a lot less trouble to just use the existing screen and put black bars when going fullscreen on videos.
If there’s wide options for cases in the future, maybe I’d enjoy a 21:9 option that takes the current 13.5" form factor and just widens it and adds a numpad, but I doubt this would be a popular enough option to be worth mass manufacturing.
That’s like 95% of laptops on the market today…there’s always some degree of a display chin. (i.e. Display chin is not the problem we’re trying to solve here, if I understand the topic correctly…or maybe not?)
As someone that uses a funky dual-monitor setup with a CRT + LCD, isn’t the real issue that LCDs simply have poor black levels and so the “black” bars are not actually black, not that the black bars exist at all?
I mean, unless you make the actual laptop wider physically, going with a 16:9 ratio screen is just going to reduce the amount of screen real-estate that you have.
I’d think the real solution is just using OLED so that the black bars are truly and actually black - I mean, at least in a dark environment, widescreen video content on my non-widescreen CRT monitor looks like its on a natively widescreen display because the black bars are actually black and blend in perfectly with the bezel and dark surrounding environment.
(ok technically black on a CRT isn’t fully black like they are on OLED unless the CRT is displaying nothing but a black image, but they’re waaaaay darker than any non-local-dimming or non-dual-layer LCD monitor - we’re talking static contrast ratios measured at 100000:1 rather than 10000:1 for VA-LCD even 1000:1 for IPS-LCD)
Lastly, I’ve noticed that more and more non-entry-level portable devices are moving away from the 16:9 ratio with non-entry-level phones moving towards 18:9 and wider while non-entry level-tablets and laptops are moving back towards 16:10 and taller (with special mention that most non-entry-level tablets never even were 16:9, presumably because 16:9 in a vertical orientation can be a bit unwieldy for a tablet form-factor).
The one exception are gaming laptops since they tend to prioritize high refresh instead, but even that’s starting to drift towards at least 16:10 at times (e.g. Asus Zephyrus G14 with Ryzen 6000), possibly since that market tends to have a lot of overlap with general “PC enthusiasts” that do a lot of things with their PC rather than just gaming/media and therefore will similarly value desktop real-estate.
The problem you have with your wanting a 16:9 is you are asking for wasted space for bevels. If you like that cool, but there is a reason most enthusiast laptops have moved to a 3:2 or 16:10 aspect ratio, because they get reviewed bad if they have a 16:9. 16:9 is good for videos sure, but it’s so much worse for productivity, the extra screen real estate makes such a big difference for actually using the laptop from web surfing, to documents, to video editing etc.
I am finding the Framework screen size is working well for me as (I don’t watch film on it), what I am finding working exceptionally well is editing photos as the screen size is close the image format I use so no wasted space, and as been stated by others it’s great for surfing the web and reading documents and last of all the screen size is good with the CAD/CAM program I use.
More squarish aspect ratios also give more screen area in the same diagonal. The framework’s display has a screen area ~10% more than a 16:9 13.3" laptop.
I have a widescreen external monitor and enjoys it a lot - but that’s large enough I can comfortably run two windows side by side.
On a laptop screen I prefer 3:2. Still need to unbox and set up my Framework, but I used to have the first gen Pixelbook with the same aspect ratio, and really liked it. Disappointed when Google moved away from it…
