From the original article:
The iPad has the proportions of a paper page. It’s a familiar format, which feels natural to humans, especially in portrait mode. A widescreen in portrait mode feels wrong. We just played with a JooJoo – which is 16:9 – and that’s exactly how it feels.
The 4:3 proportion fits non-video content really well, with no waste of space. So while the user may end up with black bars or cropped video, Apple may have traded full widescreen video in favour of a format that works better with non-video content and applications.
Wok
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 1:26 PMHow many 16:9 computer screens are there?
16:10 anybody?
col
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 9:05 PMConcur! 16:9 monitors set vertically look really odd. 16:10 vertical screens on the other hand, look quite reasonable.
(Hold your macbook pro on it’s side for a very clear example)
boc
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 1:31 PMWTF? You’re referencing a Gizmodo article about how widescreen is bad to prove your point that widescreen is bad?
Gee, well that’s …
While some people would dislike the 4:3 ratio I’m sure there are people out there that would like 16:9 and a hell of a lot of people who would just accept whatever aspect ratio they were given.
Personally I would want 16:9.
boc
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 1:32 PMI meant like the 4:30 ratio.
Rick
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 2:01 PMI disagree. Can you imagine buying a 4:3 TV?
Pinball
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 3:00 PMI’m familiar with a 12 centimetre diameter CD. How come iPods aren’t in a 12cm diameter aspect ratio?
Christopher Ng
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 3:21 PM16:9 ratio seems logical to me.
Ward Paterson
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 4:41 PMThe ipad is clearly not for watching movies. I mean 4:3 ratio would be fkin stupid, wouldnt it Jobs….
I’m hangin for the HP Slate. This is the one to watch. There are people out there negatively pushing the Atom CPU + Windows 7 speed being an issue, but I’m running Windows 7 premium on my Asus 1000HG, which has a 1.6ghz N270 cpu, 1gb ram and 160gb HDD – and guess what, its freakin quick!!
ipad blows, just a big iphone that you cant put in your pocket, seriously..
brenton
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 5:00 PMSeems like you’re justifying the format because it’s attached to your beloved iPad not because of logic. I would want 16:9
f4cti0n
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 5:06 PM16:9 is the standard ratio of things these days. As silly as the iPad is I think it’s more silly to say A4 is ideal over the ‘perfect’ aspect ratio.
Dan
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 6:42 PMFolks complaining about the fact it’s not 16:9 – it’s not meant to be a monitor, it’s meant to be a digital PAGE, so naturally the orientation and aspect ratio are entirely different.
The problem isn’t some Apple design flaw, the problem is your fundamental misunderstanding of its purpose.
(And no, I’m not an Apple fanboy. I don’t own an iPad nor do I intend to.)
Thomas Tran
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 7:07 PMI think widescreen look fine and it seems to me like most of the posters here as well. I think you should add “I think” to the title of this article.
theGoldenRatio
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 7:57 PMIsn’t 16:9 part of The Golden Ratio? I thought thats why tv’s all switched to that ratio instead of the ugly 4:3, it would make sense to have tablets the same. Giz, i’m disappointed, i may as well read apple.com for useless articles like this
Paul Cherry
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 10:42 PMI can’t wait until they release a 16:9 version and this guy has to come up with the reasons why “the market is ready for it now” .. “it is a logical step” etc
Fanboi just defending his tech.
I’ve gone the next step with my home theatre to 2.35:1 so going backwards to 4:3 for a device seems like fail.
I am no Cult of Apple man myself, but I will probably still get one, I would prefer WS format simply because 4:3 seems SO 2000.
Ha
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 12:27 AMSo I pick a random book off my shelf and measure the page… The ratio is 18:13 which turns out to be a bit wider than A4 ratio which is 99:77.
However, I measure the area used by the text and it is actually in a 15:9 ratio… closer to 16:9 than 4:3 if you ask me.
Test another book and the page is almost widescreen ratio and the text is 15:10
Really saying it’s the proportions of a paper page doesn’t mean anything. Books can be any size and this would just be seen as a different sized book.
Mr. Man
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 3:25 PM4:3 Aspect Ratio FTW.
Stylus
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 5:05 PMWhy has no one mentioned 3:2? It’s what the iPhone uses and it’s a good compromise.
P.S. international paper standards are 2:3.
Danny
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 1:28 PMI use my iPad in portrait mode far more than landscape (that’s mostly for games). Widescreen sucks in portrait mode.
A tablet needs to be a compromise for it’s many uses (at least until we get a morphing tablet which can change aspect ratios). From widescreen for movies, to square for boardgames, something in between satisfies most uses pretty well.
I couldn’t care less about a bit of space top and bottom when watching movies on the iPad/iPhone. That leaves space for controls/info/whatever, and you can zoom slightly to crop the left and right slightly and have even more vertical space for your movie! But all these dreadful 16:9 laptops with too little vertical space on their widescreen displays makes it hard to find a decent laptop. The have extra bezel space top and bottom, rather than display! How ridiculous!! Bring back 16:10 laptops!!!