Long phone is loooong: Sony swipes at flagship fatigue with 21:9 tall boy Five years ago, LG, Sony and HTC roamed the Earth like all-conquering warlords. But then the engines of the Chinese manufacturing economy cranked up, and thanks to the gift of Android that Google gave them, Huawei and OnePlus stole much of their thunder. And market share. So what are they up to these days? Let's provide the …
We're almost at parody level ratios, now...
The ratio thing really bugs me now.
I understand why they do it, but I really wish screen manufacturers would scale down their ratio figures.
Two years ago it was all about 18:9. Just call it 2:1
Now we have 21:9. Or 7:3.for those of us that were taught maths beyond the age of 8
Somehow we're all meant to be incapable of understanding anything without a ratio measured against 9.
Old TV programmes will now presumably be broadcast in 12:9 format.
What's next? A square screen that needs to be sold as 9:9 so that people can understand it?
/rant.
Can't blame them doing this.
People ranted at Microsoft for not updating their phone to WP8 (or whatever) when the whole OS changed, even though it wasn't possible. They were updated to a newer version of 7 with ports of some of the features (where possible). Had MS just called it WP8 they wouldn't have complained even though it's a just a number.
Expect stupidity to hit even the wisest people.
There was some story about a fast food place that tried to one-up their quarter-pound competition by making a third-pound burger. It failed because people didn't recognize that 1/3 lb. was bigger than 1/4 lb. After all, 4 is bigger than 3, right?
Before anyone sneers at the use of pounds as a unit of weight, keep in mind that a fraction of a kilogram would have been the same way. And I thought the "I don't get fractions!" thing was a trait of young children...
Except of course that really wouldn't be a problem with metric weights because you would have said 113g instead of 1/4 lb, and 150g instead of 1/3 lb, and even Drumpf would recognise that 150 is bigger than 113 - although he may claim otherwise at his rallies because, you know, liberals or something.
I have a sneaking suspicion that most of the faffing about with ratios is some perceived artistic benefit/director's vanity. TV drama is the most difficult to fathom. They create stuff for broadcast TV sets, which are mostly 16:9 receivers anyway, but they seem to make their dramas with just a half inch off top and bottom for "stylistic effect". In the same vein as "ooh, let's shoot into the light for every shot so that all the poor viewer can see is silhouettes", "make sure you get the lens flare though", "oh and make sure to have a really narrow depth of field so only a fraction of the screen is in focus, and be sure to switch the focus point suddenly while the viewer is trying to work out what's going on." and "make the actors whisper almost inaudibly, but hey, keep the background sounds nice and loud so it is hard to follow what they are saying, because it is 'edgy'", and "don't forget to map the colours to something that looks like a faulty TV from the 70s."
Sorry, but it wicks me off that I have to spend the first 10 minutes of a programme trying to find an aspect ratio that is neither a ridiculously narrow letterbox across the middle of the screen, that we all have to huddle round to see, nor a distorted mess, and then faff about with the colour/contrast/brightness/temperature to get it somewhere where I can enjoy the film and not be distracted from the story by stupidly wrong colours. I used to like to sit down and lose myself in a relaxing film. Now they are bloody hard work, both to set up, and to follow - "3 weeks earlier (weird colours, whispering dialogue while a brass band plays loudly in the background and someone shines a torch in my face), 4 days later... 2 weeks earlier (is that earlier than now, or from the beginning or end of the 4 days later than the 3 weeks earlier?)... 18 hours later (someone describing a key plot point in a hoarse whisper while using a vaccuum cleaner)"..." By the end, I'm exhausted! Beer helps, beers all round!
Xperias have always been very good. Sadly Americans hate them, because American websites never got kickbacks from Sony like they do from Samsung and Apple, so the American press constantly down review Xperia models in the hope that Sony change their payola practices to match that of Samsung and Apple (the big offenders).
As a result, you have blogs stuffed full of fake news about how Sony phones suck because they didn't have fingerprint unlock (patent trolling by Samsung), or the camera sucked because it didn't have fake over saturated images like Apple and Samsung did...
Also worth mentioning, Sony aren't "basically a components company these days", they are on record as stating that they only sell last generation sensors to other manufacturers. This gen sensors are exclusive to Sony products...
https://petapixel.com/2017/03/22/sony-keeps-best-sensors-cameras
Also worth mentioning, Sony aren't "basically a components company these days", they are on record as stating that they only sell last generation sensors to other manufacturers.
Since in handset terms they're well behind Sammy and Apple (and some others) in terms of market share and profitability, then holding back premium components is only harming one company. If Sony actually do (and continue) to hold back their sensors, they'll soon find somebody else is providing the premium sensors, and then they'll be a "has been" phone maker, and "has been" sensor maker.
I don't say that vindictively, I respect Sony's hardware prowess in many areas, but they have to maximise the value of their technology rather than looking to cling to past glories through preferential availability.
Sony contributed LDAC to the AOSP a couple of years back and so a good many phones support it. What is missing is a good range of Bluetooth headphones that support it, though Sony's widely esteemed (usually rated a bit higher than Bose's Quiet Comfort ) XM noise cancelling headphones do.
Android always feels like Windows 95 on LSD, not that the competitors are much better. But the crapware and malware on the play store puts me off, especially suggesting it to my parents who will no doubt install everything from the play store and wonder why ads are popping up on the phone at the OS level (my dad's samsung does this).
IP 67/ 68 and on the power button (side) according to the blurb Sony sent me... I'm still happily using my XZ, been holding off to see what new stuff was coming rather than plopping my money on the XZ3 the getting the buyer's remorse 2 months later.
More like they willing gave away their thunder (along with Google, Samsung, Apple etc), by trying to move the "premium price" range from £400-£600, to £800-£1000+. They vacated the consumers it that market. All that Huawei, OnePlus and Xioami have done is step in to fill the void -
Personally, I'm a darn sight more happy with my OnePlus handset, than I ever was with either my old Xperia and Galaxy handset.
Same here, my OnePlus 6 is far better engineered and reliable than the Xperia Z2 I used to have. The X2 was one of the worst phones I have ever owned and the screens had a bad reputation for an unresponsive touchscreen, brittle glass front and back and overheating problems. I was so put off I will probably never buy another Sony phone.
Phones are generally already loud enough, I don't want any more opportunity for some idiot on public transport to pump their shite music around.
How about a removable battery, five years of guaranteed operating system and security fixes, insisting on open source drivers so when it's out of support someone else can fix it, and finally bringing in a desktop dock so you can run productivity apps on it with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
I'd also ask for a landscape keyboard, but F(x)tec (was Livermorium) are at MWC showing off pre-production samples of their landscape keyboard phone. I'm dearly hoping it's decent and not obscenely expensive, as I plan to buy it as soon as I can.
@BinkyTheMagicPaperclip
Modern phones use USB-C for input/charging/output. Modern docks supply power and connect to devices over USB-C. You see where I am going with this?
I have tested various Huawei, Samsung and other phones through USB-C docks, and so far I have only had trouble with installing Display port drivers, but I was able to download an app for display port which provided that, so essentially, you can already dock a USB-C based phone and use Keyboard, mouse and monitor, it's standard functionality in Android.
If you're large enough, say that it's a condition of gaining business. Stick it under escrow if need be. Include the condition that it must be supported for N future versions of Android, with suitable funding. It would help if Android had a backwards compatible binary driver model, too.
I fully realise this is a little pie in the sky at the moment, but the current situation is one of widespread insecure phones, and excessive levels of waste.
Also, yes, such a position generally leads to less choice but greater security, viz OpenBSD.
"I fully realise this is a little pie in the sky at the moment, but the current situation is one of widespread insecure phones, and excessive levels of waste."
Which is EXACTLY what they want, if you don't realize it. The component manufacturers are string-pullers and are pretty much bigger fish than most of the phone manufacturers or otherwise hold key Trade Secret Sauce protected by patents and so on. Basically, the only things the component manufacturers fear is each other. No one else can force them to do anything; the market's such that they can counter-threaten or simply slide to another market like IoT.
Of course I realise that's exactly what they want, I'm trying in a very small way to change that.
They can be threatened - it'll probably take legislation. We're all living on borrowed time here - so far there haven't been any widespread exploits that have serious consequences, but I tend to think it's only a matter of time.
I just wish it was easier to backup the TA area. Since the dirtycow exploit was patched the is no way to backup the TA area which has the drm key specific to the phone that enables the useful features like eco cancellation and low level iso settings, auto focus. So if you want to get rid (mostly) of the google stuff and say want lineageOs or Saltfish like myself, when you unlock the bootloader the drm keys are erased and you can't put the phone back to it's pristine condition if you want to ( because you can't backup the keys in the TA).
BTW it is so nice not having to have a google account an just using f-droid instead.
Actually not surprised, as anyone with even an ounce of technical knowledge, or a par of moderately working ears will know that the built in DAC and analog stage in every phone that has a headphone jack sounds totally shite compared to an inline DAC. Headphone jacks are the integrated soundcards of the mobile world - adequate for casual use, but not very good when you want quality.
This post has been deleted by its author
If you are the type who has to watch landscape videos in portrait, or portrait videos in landscape, one would have to ask why?
I know I should probably upgrade to the latest all-singing, all-dancing gear but my TV dates from that primitive, dimly-remembered era before TVs came with automatic motorised swivel-stands that rotate the screen into the right orientation whenever they show mobile-phone footage on the news.
But was the person filming an escaped chimp in the zoo doing so to send to a news broadcaster or doing so to send to her friends who are more likely than not to watch the clip in portrait orientation?
That said, I would sometimes like to be able to film in landscape whilst holding the phone in portrait - it's just more comfortable and secure to hold that way.
I concur - that thing they have to do when showing crummy portrait videos in, for instance, BBC News, drives me nuts. You'd think it would be easy enough to make all video record in landscape but add metadata to say "this was actually shot in portrait, so display the relevant clipped portrait region if displaying on another phone", but keep the raw video in landscape so it could be used on TV news, or on a phone in landscape.
Most video done these days is at 16:9.
Most times when a phone is bent it is bent due to its length. Phone length often is more important than width in fitting into a pocket.
If you hold the phone upright while viewing the web, the width of the phone usually determines how large the text and images are.
What happens when (not if) the software (even the basic stuff) starts getting too slow to run on your phone (and holding onto the old stuff stops becoming an option)? I've been hanging onto Note 4's for years, but software performance has become increasingly clunky, to the point I may have to eventually jump to an LG V20 if something newer WITH a removable battery doesn't come along before then.
I have had a few Sony Xperia Z series phones in the family and they have always survived remarkably well. A durable case has resulted in teenagers not damaging a Z5 and Z5 Compact for years. My own Xperia has been dropped and dunked and I have always been surprised that there is no damage.
Screens are excellent as is the battery life. I am sure there are many who have equally bad experiences but that is generally true of most things.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
