Do not buy a folding phone for a better media watching experience...

-

...instead, buy it, perhaps, for larger-screened regular applications and for dual-pane productivity? But no, don't buy a Galaxy Z Fold 5 or Pixel Fold or similar 'in order to have a larger display for watching movies and YouTube'. Because the dimensions don't work out that way!


Back in the day, TV pictures were 4:3(ish), but they moved to 16:9 in the 2000s, while video content itself has been 16:9 and then 18:9 for years, at least in terms of high production quality output, while movies are often shot at 21:9 or wider for that extra 'cinematic' look.


You'll see where I'm going with this. If you watch, say, a 18:9 YouTube video, on a folding phone like the Samsung Z Fold 4 or Google Pixel Fold then you'll be faced by large black bars above and below the content. That's just physics, that's just maths.


The diagram below is based on actual measurements of display size, though not 100% due to limitations in Google Drawings(!) - it'll give you an idea though. Superimposed is a typical large-screened conventional smartphone, the iPhone 14 Pro Max (155mm wide, complete with Dynamic Island cutout!), with a movie/video scene displayed:

(Depending on the video content and exact aspect ratio, you do get slightly more content vertically on the folding phones, by a millimetre or two either side before the black bars start, but the difference is comparatively small.)


The Samsung Fold 4 and 5 are actually worse by default, since the width of the phone is lower, unless you manually rotate the device (which is unintuitive but probably normal) - except that you then have the crease length-wise through the video picture, which looks terrible in some lighting conditions.

True, conventional ('candy bar', 'mono-slab') phones have cutouts for selfie cameras and the like, with the iPhone's Dynamic Island shown above possibly the most egregious, but then again the folding phones have a physical crease up/across the middle of the frame, so you can argue that one either way in terms of which is the lesser of two evils.

All of which leaves actual full-screen tablet apps (e.g. Google Maps, Chrome, Kindle) and dual pane/dual window stuff as unique selling points for a Fold device, which is as it should be. But unless you want to watch old 4:3 content ('Only fools and horses', Star Trek, anyone?!) then media watching, per se, isn’t much better on an (un)folding device, I contend.


In short, know what you're buying and why, as always!


PS. If you like this feature and want to support my work then please do so here via PayPal. Thanks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wavelet - and better sounding speakers (and headphones) on Android...

-
Image
You may well be fairly happy with the audio output (speakers and headphones) on your existing Android phone. Or, like me, you may welcome an extra step up. Perhaps more bass/punch, clearer treble, or perhaps just a volume boost overall. Now, there have been various 'boost' utilities for Android in the past and they've been a bit patchy in how well they work. But Wavelet, discovered by Ted Salmon back in 2021, is a whole different kettle of fish, in that it works supremely well, with extra bass, clarity, and volume,   BUT has a very confusing interface. Which is why a brief tutorial is in order. The steps come from Ted in bullet point form, but expanded by me here and with screenshots, which will hopefully help. By the way, ignore the 'headphone specific' text in the app's title - it works perfectly well for speakers too. In fact, by definition, I'd say that it's really ONLY for speakers, since with headphones you've usually got plenty of natural i...
Read more

Bluetooth keyboard incorrect PIN or password - SOLVED

-
Image
Just in case this helps anyone else, I had a nightmare today with my Bluetooth keyboard and my Android phone - but I used some common sense and found a geeky solution. In my case it was a ZTE Axon 7 running Lineage OS and a Microsoft Universal Folding Keyboard (UFK), but I suspect this cure will work for more general issues. The symptom was that when I tried to connect a previously paired keyboard I first of all got just the raw Bluetooth address shown and not the keyboard name. And then, when I tried connecting, I got an "incorrect PIN or password" error message. No chance to reenter a PIN and no amount of restarting keyboard or phone would fix it. The cure seemed to be to reset something in the phone's Bluetooth system, but what? The keyboard wasn't showing up as paired, so I couldn't 'forget' it. I tracked it down in the end. Settings, Apps, then 'Show system' on the '...' menu. Find and tap on 'Bluetooth extensions'....
Read more

Why the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is better than the 15 Pro Max

-
Image
Forgive the click bait(y) title, but there's actual evidence here, I promise. Note that I did write an article before availability, putting forward worries and concerns , but I've now had hands-on to confirm a few things and report back.  Cased (of course, read the blooming' article!) Pro Maxes - 15 and 14 (with XtremeSkin, Aged Oak , in case you're wondering!) In fact, it's the first time ever in the iPhone line-up/evolution that I seriously think the old 'Pro Max' model can be argued to be  better than the new one. (Admittedly, that I already own the old one [14 Pro Max] and didn't really want to spend over £1000 on the 15 Pro Max possibly helps my argument from a personal perspective.) (There's one big win for the new model, of course. Type C connectivity has been a long time coming - but this will take several generations to become established in iPhone/Lightning households and maybe I'll come back to this in a future article.) My observat...
Read more