Is it just me or are square-ish resolutions pretty common and popular on tablets? Just look at any iPad, the screen ratio is ~1.3 or 1.4 to 1.

I think the common sense answer here (which is ridiculous since we don't even know what Samsung's real intention is), is a phone that's close to 2:1 and a tablet that's close to 1:1. No big deal.

To speculate more: phones have widened to near 2:1 resolution not primarily because of watching modern TV and film, but because that's the easiest way to expand the screen while ensuring the phone is easy to hold. It also works well with vertical scrolling activity.

Why are you making this assumption?

But you did though. We barely have a prototype to look at (short of the demo on stage) let alone put a technology like that in the hands of Google or Apple engineers.

There was no need for a smart phone, until there was. There was no need for a tablet, until there was. Smart watch, smart speaker, and so on.

Version 1 is always crap and most (all) know that? Give it a couple iterations, a little trial and error and you'll probably get your aspect ratio or tiny bezels.

Did you read the rest of the post? I'm saying that mathetmatically those two things are completely irreconcilable.

I'm not saying the phone will be bad, just that it is impossible for the both the phone and tablet to conform to the form factor of a typical phone/tablet that is out now.

Phones and tablets come in hundreds of different screen sizes. Ever see this map?

https://crossbrowsertesting.com/blog/mobile-devices/android-...

There isn't a "typical" shape / size for a phone / tablet.

You can say an iPhone screen size when duplicated into 2 side by side does not equal an iPad screen size, landscape or portrait and I'd completely agree with you. But to say a new class of device won't have it's screen sizes and needs to conform to screen sizes of the past... that just doesn't make sense. No one conforms to screen sizes; past, present, or future.

The article specifically says that other aspect ratios are feasible, and even suggests one.

The future of the form-factor of foldable tech is by no means locked in stone.

From a quick google search to https://www.cnet.com/topics/tablets/best-tablets/large-table..., I see no such thing.

Tablets typically are 4:3, which would result in a phone being 3:2 which would be 25% shorter on 18:9 phones, and 15% shorter on 16:9 phones, which is a reasonable departure from the norm, and ultimately means neither the phone nor the tablet are well set up for watching films/TV.

I think you may be seeing a different argument than OP was making.

I think articles like this one show a lack of imagination. When I think about folded stuff in my life, I immediately think of a newspaper or a road map. I'd love a display that I can fold an arbitrary number of times to get the size that makes sense for what I'm looking at and where I am.

But aspect ratio is just not even remotely close to being a problem.

Let's not forget that smartwatches are popular despite being square.

All sorts of things could be tried. The 16:9 screen that folds to 8:9 could be like the Motorola Razr? Or you could fold it on the other axis to produce something like the Nokia communicator?

Hell, why not have two folds? Popup book mechanics?

Why would both the phone and tablet mode need to be 18:9, I don't get it?

Regardless, an 18:18 screen can only show 18:9 content at the same size as an 18:9 screen can.

Phones are fine the way they are, but I think there's still a lot of innovation waiting in the tablet space.

A 16:9 (~1.78) phone, unfolded twice like a letter, would produce a 27:16 (~1.69) tablet. That seems pretty reasonable on both ends.