Display aspect ratio

The size of a television set or computer monitor is given as the diagonal measurement of its display area, usually in inches.

Reasons for this transition was productive uses for such monitors, i.e. besides widescreen movie viewing and computer game play, are the word processor display of two standard A4 or letter pages side by side, as well as CAD displays of large-size drawings and CAD application menus at the same time.

[20][21] Since 2014, a number of high-end desktop monitors have been released that use ultrawide displays with aspect ratios that roughly match the various anamorphic formats used in film, but are commonly marketed as 21:9.

One of the available monitors for desktop use of this format is Eizo EV2730Q[28] (27", 1920 × 1920 Pixels, from 2015), however such monitors are also often found in air traffic control displays (connected using standard computer cabling, like DVI or DisplayPort) and on aircraft as part of avionic equipment (often connected directly using LVDS, SPI interfaces or other specialized means).

[30] As of 2013, many games are adopting support for 21:9 ultrawide resolutions,[31] which can give a gameplay advantage due to increased field of view,[23] although this is not always the case.

[32] 4:3 monitors have the best compatibility with older games released prior to 2005 when that aspect ratio was the mainstream standard for computer displays.

[34] From 2010 to 2017 most smartphone manufacturers switched to using 16:9 widescreen displays, driven at least partly by the growing popularity of HD video using the same aspect ratio.

[35][36] Since 2017, a number of smartphones have been released using 18:9 or even wider aspect ratios (such as 19.5:9 or 20:9); such displays are expected to appear on increasingly more phones.

[37] Reasons for this trend include the ability for manufacturers to use a nominally larger display without increasing the width of the phone,[38] being able to accommodate the on-screen navigation buttons without reducing usable app area, more area available for split-screen apps in portrait orientation, as well as the 18:9 ratio being well-suited for VR applications and the proposed Univisium film format.