Dominance of 16:9 displays coming to an end?

Over the past 15 years or so, the 16:9 aspect ratio has been the most prevalent in the computer display market. ExtremeTech notes 16:9 became dominant due to economic reasons but the site noticed other aspect ratios are now heading back to the mainstream.

At this year's digital-only CES 2021 show, various big laptop makers all showed systems with 16:10 and 3:2 aspect ratio displays. At least for higher-end systems, more mainstream laptops still gravitate towards 16:9.

People who really like 16:9 but would like just a bit more vertical space benefit from 16:10. If you aren’t sure how to tell them apart: 1920×1080 is a 16:9 resolution, while the 16:10 equivalent is 1920×1200. Instead of 2560×1440 (16:9), we use 2560×1600. 4K panels shift from 3840×2160 to 3840×2400.

Aspect ratios like 16:10 or 3:2 are a big step up for productivity on a laptop. Whether you're browsing the web searching for information, editing spreadsheets or writing code, the extra vertical pixels come in really handy.