Samsung Smartphone Display Patent Shows Super Wide With 21:9 Aspect Ratio

The biggest craze in mobile display technology in recent years is no doubt a surprise to no one. Manufacturers have made it their mission to cram as many pixels into as small a display as possible. The result? Panels that display hundreds of pixels-per-inch - some have even reached the ridiculous heights of 400+ (it's generally accepted that anything more than 300ppi is effectively wasted on the human eye).

With resolutions already high enough, it seems Samsung has turned its attention to figuring out other ways to help differentiate itself from the competition. With a just-issued patent, we can see what it has in mind: Ultra-wide displays. Here's a diagram straight out of the patent filing (turned counter-clockwise by me):

Most consumer displays today, mobile or not, are usually configured with 16:9 ratios, with 1280x720 being a popular choice on mainstream mobile devices, and 1920x1080 sitting on higher-end ones. Even the 4K resolution that's stealing headlines lately sticks to that same 16:9 ratio. So it's quite interesting, then, that Samsung would consider going against the grain and releasing something even wider.

Here's a quick comparison of 16:9 and 21:9 to give you an idea of what we'd stand to gain:

Of course, something as simple as a resolution can't be patented (at least, I'd hope not), but Samsung's latest patent nonetheless tells us that such a device is en route. And, it wouldn't be the first phone out there with such a resolution; LG's BL40 Chocolate sported it as well, but with a meager 800x345 resolution. Clearly, Samsung's going to beat the pants off of that.

With Samsung's 21:9 target, it will be interesting to see what the company does to utilize that extra space, if anything. With that added height, more icons could be fit to a screen, but you'd think that Samsung would have a bigger reason than that to adopt that ratio.