Amid a sea of 5 G-supported devices and a five-camera phone unveiled at Mobile World Congress this year, Sony has announced three phones that do not support any of the aforementioned technologies. But they still stand out because they’re really tall and have a 21:9 aspect ratio.
Foldable phones? Check. 5G devices? Yep. A five-camera smartphone? Wow. Mobile World Congress 2019 has had an impressive start, with radical innovations to smartphones that make this year stand out from the recent past. Sony isn’t doing any of that, but it is still innovating. Its new phones — the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus — are incredibly tall, thanks to a 21:9 aspect ratio.
What does that mean? Well, most phones currently have an 18:9 aspect ratio, though for the longest time they used a 16:9 aspect ratio, which meant they were a little wider. Screens are getting narrower and narrower to suit the vertical content we’re so used to on our smartphones but moving to 21:9 also makes sense from a media-consumption perspective, as most movies are filmed with the same 21:9 aspect ratio. That makes Sony’s latest smartphones compelling devices if you’re a Netflix addict.
The Xperia 10 Plus as the name suggests, is bigger than the Xperia 10, and it’s where the difference with the 21:9 aspect ratio is most visible. It’s unusually tall. Both phones are also quite narrow, so holding them feels comfortable as you can wrap your palm around them easily. It is tricky, however, to reach the top of the screen on the Xperia 10 Plus — it’s a two-handed job.
They resemble the remote controller for your TV — they’re that long — but instead of buttons, you get a 6-inch and 6.5-inch screen (protected with Gorilla Glass 5) on the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, respectively.
Sony is continuing to change its smartphone designs to make them look more modern, and that’s evident on the new Xperia devices. The slim bezels around the sides look contemporary, though there is a large forehead bezel at the top to house the earpiece and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. If you love symmetry, then you’ll hate these phones. The different-sized bezels on the front can be off-putting, but it’s likely easy to get used to the more you use the phone.
