Explainers

Where did the 18:9 ratio come from?

And should you get an 18:9 phone?

Published

March 22, 2018

Luigi Leonardo

2018 will be the year of the notched, bezel-less display. Along with it comes a new number that not everyone knows what to make of yet — the 18:9 aspect ratio.

Smartphones are quickly adapting the new 18:9 standard. However, since the ratio is still in its relative infancy, you might have heard more about its smaller variant, 16:9. Since the invention of widescreen TVs, everyone took in 16:9 as the industry standard. With 18:9 just on the horizon, should we care that our phones are getting taller?

What is aspect ratio?

First, let’s define what an aspect ratio is. The two numbers describe how big a device’s screen or a piece of media is. Specifically, it compares how wide your screen is relative to its height. The larger number is its height, while the smaller is its width.

For example, the square photos on Instagram have an aspect ratio of 1:1. As it gets taller or wider, its corresponding number on the ratio increases. It can vary from the old 4:3 to the ubiquitous 16:9 to the new 18:9.

Where did it come from?

The history of aspect ratios has always been intimately linked to the movie industry. The art of experimenting with aspect ratios began as cinematographers trying to perfect their film’s vision. With every new experiment, a new aspect ratio is born. Sometimes, their experiments become popular enough to become an industry standard.

The world’s first documented aspect ratio, 4:3, is also one of the world’s most popular ones. Remember those bulky CRT monitors you used to have? Those used the 4:3 ratio, which was adapted from old-school cinema. The first films used the film negative’s perforations (or holes) to measure their screens. In 4:3’s case, the screen was three perforations tall and four perforations wide.

When television was invented, the world of cinema faced tremendous competition. At the time, TVs also started off with a 4:3 display. Naturally, the homely convenience of a TV placed it at an advantage over the inconvenience of driving to a movie theater. The film industry had to compete.

Going head-to-head with the TV, cinematographers invented wider and taller aspect ratios. From this era, we saw the invention of the 70mm film. These huge ratios could fit more content on the screen. They became so popular that 70mm is still a standard that’s used today.

Our old friend, 16:9, arrived shortly after this boom. With aspect ratios popping out of nowhere, there came a need for a standard that everyone could follow. For this, Dr. Kern Powers, an expert at the craft, proposed the 16:9 format, a compromise between the industry’s most used ratios. With this format, you can watch either a TV show or a movie with minimal letterboxing (or the black rectangles on the edges of your screen).

Its flexibility skyrocketed the ratio into ubiquity. A lot of screens adapted the ratio as a result. Years later, almost every device prior to 2017 used a 16:9 display. Even now, the ratio that we’re most familiar with is 16:9.

Now, if 16:9 so effective, where did 18:9 come from?

The birth of 18:9

Because of the massive popularity of 16:9, 4:3 displays became obsolete. Today, finding a 4:3 device involves a trip to the nostalgia store. 16:9 began as a compromise. Since everyone adapted the compromise, it became a norm. The feud now was between HDTVs and cinemas.

Hence, the gap between portable 16:9 screens and cinema’s 70mm still exists. The next logical step is to create a compromise between 16:9 and the current 70mm cinema standard.

In 1998, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro solved this by inventing the Univisium film format, or what we know now as 18:9. Seeing the need for a new standard, he saw 18:9 as a standard that can make both cinemas and TVs happy.

At the time of his invention, only a handful of films used his new standard. In fact, most of them like Exorcist: The Beginning were his own films. Univisium would lay low for over a decade.

The rise of 18:9

In 2013, Univisium entered a renaissance with hit streaming show House of Cards, which was shot in the format. Having found a new home, Univisium crawled its way into other shows like Stranger Things and Star Trek: Discovery. In some circles, 18:9 was already known as the “streaming ratio.”

With the effectiveness of 18:9 proven, devices started adopting the new ratio. In 2017, the LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8 launched with 18:9 in tow. (The S8 would use a slightly adjusted 18.5:9.)

After the trendsetters, more phones started getting into the trend. Google, OnePlus, and Huawei would soon adapt the new ratio. Even the Apple iPhone X uses a taller ratio: 19.5:9.

Should you get an 18:9 phone?

As it’s still in its infancy, the usefulness of 18:9 isn’t as apparent. However, the ratio already carries a flurry of benefits for early adopters.

Firstly, getting an 18:9 phone ensures future-proofing for a standard that’s quickly gaining traction. More shows are using 18:9. Even Hollywood is already testing the waters. 2015 film Jurassic World used the ratio.

Secondly, Univisium optimizes existing smartphone features like split-screen view. With more real estate, two apps can easily share the screen for a true multitasking experience. Even without the feature, phones can display more content in one screen without scrolling.

It’s likely that you won’t see the benefits until further down the line. The shows that use 18:9 are still too few to call it a true standard. When you watch a contemporary video on an 18:9 screen, you’ll still notice letterboxing. Despite their flexibility, some apps might even have trouble stretching to 18:9.

The vision of 18:9 is still in the future. It will have its growing pains. Critics will even put it down as a fad. However, the new ratio shows a lot of promise in uniting content under one pleasing ratio.

Illustrations by MJ Jucutan

Explainers

Everyone’s angry at PlayStation’s new no-disc policy, and this is why

It’s a tragedy for nostalgia, ownership, and preservation.

Published

July 2, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Check in with your gamer friends today. Today, a lot of gamers are up in arms over Sony’s decision to kill the physical game disc starting in 2028. But, if you’re a digital-only gamer or just not a gamer yourself, you might not understand the anger. If you want to understand the ire or just want to relate with your gamer friends, here’s a primer for you.

Ending the era of the physical media

Last year, Nintendo launched the Switch 2. Though the console still has a slot for physical cartridges, the Switch 2 also introduced the Virtual Game Card as a way to digitize your library of games.

Of course, the feature wasn’t positioned as a way to eliminate physical cartridges. In fact, Nintendo just wanted to add the flexibility of physical cartridges to the digital world. In the end, the feature strangely coincided with less cartridges. For example, Pokémon Pokopia, one of the most popular games this year, does not come with a cartridge even if you buy a “physical” copy in a brick-and-mortar store. It was a portent of things to come.

Fast forward to today, Sony has made the monumental decision to stop producing physical game discs starting in 2028. The PlayStation’s future is completely digital.

On a similar note, Microsoft is also experimenting with a disc-to-digital feature. Much like the Nintendo Virtual Game Card, the experiment will digitize libraries and attaches the digital copy to the physical game disc. It sounds awfully like a prelude to killing off the game disc.

Why this matters

The physical disc is synonymous with a simpler time. It represents a time when gamers camped out stores to anticipate midnight releases, when gamers can learn more about their games through an in-box manual, and when gamers can show off their fandom through a beautifully stocked shelf of games.

And yes, that’s part of why this situation sucks, but it’s not the only reason.

If you’re an outsider looking in, this nostalgia factor is the easiest to see. Then again, it’s also the most difficult to relate with, especially if you’ve never had the history of buying physical games.

The more crucial reason — and the one that most people will relate with — is media ownership. By not having a physical copy, you will no longer have ownership of what you bought digitally.

And it’s not an imaginary issue. In 2024, Steam amended its policies to reflect that players do not own the games they buy. Rather, they simply own a license to play the game.

In the same year, Ubisoft delisted The Crew, a sure sign that the new policy means business. Though Steam itself has a relatively good track record of prioritizing its customers, publishers and developers can get rid of games if they choose to.

That limitation doesn’t exist with a physical copy. As long as you have a working disc drive, you can install a game whenever you want, even if the publisher decides to pull it from stores.

Therein lies how much this is a touchy topic. Should you own digital goods in the same way as you own physical ones? If the answer is yes, then selling only the license for the good doesn’t make sense. But if it’s a no, we shouldn’t pay full price for something we don’t own anyway.

Will PlayStation actually delete games?

Now, just because they can, does it mean that they will?

Right now, it’s hard to say. You can certainly go by the optimistic hope that PlayStation would never do something as anti-consumer as that. And yes, there are times when you’d be right.

Plus, there is a good chance that governments, especially those in the European Union, will protect consumers if PlayStation even thinks about deleting a game that others have paid for. Governments have been known to intervene in the past, such as when the EU forced Apple to adopt USB-C as a standard. There are checks and balances available.

Then again, Sony has had recent history of deleting media from a user’s library.

Only a few days ago, PlayStation made headlines for deleting over 500 titles from their library. Starting September 1, users can no longer access movies distributed by Studio Canal, due to licensing agreements. Sony was unapologetic about unceremoniously deleting this content. No refunds, no apologies; just 500 movies, which you thought you bought, gone for good.

No matter how you angle it, Sony’s recent decisions just don’t bode well for media ownership.

You can argue that this is the price we’re paying for not buying enough physical games. Still, losing PlayStation discs, even as an option, is tragic for nostalgia, ownership, and preservation.

The world we live in

Unfortunately, this all comes with precedent. Unless you buy physical games and movies, we already don’t own anything in today’s world.

Outside games, Netflix and Disney+ remove the ownership of movies and shows from us. It’s already common practice for these platforms to remove titles regularly. Some platforms even give you a last chance to catch these titles before they go away. Moreover, they can even restrict access, like with Disney+, if you travel abroad.

In exchange for convenience, subscription services and digital storefronts have made it all too comfortable to not own media. With a rental service like Netflix, that’s all expected, but we’re now at the inevitable stage when even bought games and movies are at the behest of our corporate overlords.

This is where the fury comes from. Companies are getting more brazen about taking more options from us. Between this and the increasing prices of RAM, it’s getting harder and harder to live as a tech-savvy citizen in today’s age.

Computers

Samsung’s SECRET That Made OLED Even Better

Say hello to the new QD-OLED Penta Tandem display tech by the Korean giant

Published

May 23, 2026

GadgetMatch and Michael Josh Villanueva

Samsung Display just unveiled QD-OLED Penta Tandem technology. This is a next-generation display structure that stacks five emission layers to improve brightness, efficiency, and overall OLED performance.

In this video, we simplify what Penta Tandem actually is, how it works, and show you two monitors that already have the technology — specifically from MSI and Dell.

For more details, check out Samsung Display here.