With the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, a new trend has surfaced in the smartphone market. The new flagships come with an aspect ratio of 18:5:9 screening more content on its Infinity display.
The smartphones offer increased screen size with almost non-existent bezels and is compact compared to other smartphones, making it easy for users to navigate through the screen with one hand.
This is the reason Google has asked developers to optimise their apps according to the new display with 18:9 or 18:5:9 aspect ratios. This is important in order to avoid the unpleasant bars at the top and bottom of the screen when the app is launched.
Google released a post on the company’s blog urging developers to “take full advantage of the larger display formats.” After the update, the applications would fully cover the wider and longer display, thus eliminating unsightly bar at the top. "We recommend that you design your app to support aspect ratios of 2.1 or higher," reads the post on Android Developer’s blog.
To recall, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ sports a Super AMOLED 5.8-inch (S9) and 6.2-inch (S8+) respectively, with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and back. Both are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 for US markets and Exynos 8895 Octa for markets in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The camera is a 12MP sensor primary and an 8MP sensor for the secondary selfie camera. The display is a Super AMOLED 5.8-inch (S9) and 6.2-inch (S8+) with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and back.
Samsung also launched its digital voice assistant Bixby which is an AI designed to make device interaction easier, specifically designed to avoid the complexity of fully features devices and is designed to work across a range of Samsung products.
