Chrome Central: Samsung Design Patent for Phone With 21:9 Aspect Ratio Appears on USPTO Website

via AndroidHeadlines.com |

With so many phones releasing each and every year, there’s a decent amount of pressure on manufacturers to offer something new to consumers on a regular basis. There are plenty of ways to catch the attention of mainstream consumers, but today a freshly spotted Samsung design patent has certainly caught ours. The patent, which was recently granted to Samsung by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is for a phone with an abnormally-sized display. Though specific measurements aren’t mentioned in the filing, the folks at Phone Arena did a bit of overlay work and discovered that the screen’s aspect ratio comes in at 21:9.

That’s a rather odd aspect ratio for a phone, as it’s one more commonly seen with televisions. While you might look at the images and think a 21:9 aspect ratio is better suited for a tablet, the filing specifically refers to this device as a mobile phone multiple times. Then again, considering this is just a design patent, Samsung may have submitted the design without any plans to immediately develop a phone like this. Time will tell, but just keep in mind that there was once a time when the Galaxy Note seemed a little on the weird side, whereas now we’re hoping that a Galaxy Note IV announcement will happen sometime this year.

The point is that we’re not exactly willing to put anything past Samsung at this point. The company has made some strange decisions when it comes to aesthetics in the past, only to have those take the smartphone and tablet industries by storm. We’ll even give Samsung a hand when it comes to branding and suggest calling it the Galaxy Stretch (this is why none of us work in Samsung’s marketing department, in case there was any confusion).

Odd as it may seem, this isn’t the first phone with a 21:9 aspect ration to surface. As PhoneArena points out, LG has Samsung beat by a number of years, launching the BL40 New Chocolate back in 2009. The idea apparently didn’t stick, but maybe it won’t be long before we see Samsung try to pick up where LG left off. What are your thoughts? Would you buy a phone with a display that could boast a 21:9 aspect ratio?