Sony’s marketing director, Don Mesa, has said that Sony’s Xperia smartphones won’t be featuring 18:9 display panels in the foreseeable future. So far, LG’s G6 has seen the incorporation of an 18:9 display and Samsung’s Galaxy S8 lineup that is set to launch on March 29 is also rumored to use the standard for both models. In the case of Sony, though, it appears the company currently has no plans to adopt the standard in its smartphones and the reasoning behind this makes a lot of sense. Considering Sony is a much bigger company that not only produces smartphones and gaming consoles but also produces movies, it appears the smartphone division will not adopt the standard until Sony Pictures does.
From Sony’s point of view, this move clearly makes a lot of sense, considering it allows all of its products to be unified to a certain point. Unfortunately for customers, their lack of plans regarding the introduction of the format into its smartphones may mean that the traditionally thick bezels that have featured on Sony’s smartphones for many years may be sticking around for another year or two. With many smartphone manufacturers looking to reduce the size of bezels, the adoption of the 18:9 standard, also known as Univisium, allows for the displays to be extended at both the top and bottom without making them any wider. When combined with smaller top and bottom bezels, this allows for a similar overall footprint to previous years, though the display that is present is much bigger.
With LG’s device yet to go on sale and Samsung’s smartphones yet to launch, customer reaction is yet to be properly tested. If the reaction is positive enough, though, it may push Sony to reconsider its current stance and eventually include the new format in its smartphones. After all, customers are sure to start expecting much smaller bezels when it comes to flagship devices if the format is met with positive feedback. It’ll remain to be seen how quickly the format will be adopted within the smartphone industry once LG and Samsung’s flagships go on sale over the next couple of months, but other manufacturers are sure to be paying close attention in order to plan their next move when it comes to their flagship devices.