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by bgentry 3155 days ago
My understanding is that media fills the screen in the same way it does on any other iPhone. A double tap will change the zoom setting such that it will letterbox and not cut off any part of the video. This setting is supposed to be saved when you view another video.

And because this screen has such a wide aspect ratio, in most cases you can zoom out and only have black bars on the notch side and opposite side (left & right when in landscape mode).

That being said, I do find the designs that “embrace the notch” (especially in landscape) repulsive. I’d much prefer if that area just stayed dark to blend in with the notch.
3 comments
goatforce5 3155 days ago
From what I understand (from a 'The Talk Show'/John Gruber podcast, IIRC), the default view for fullscreen landscape video has black bars on the left and right. It's only when you double tap to go to full screen (and thus cropping the top/bottom) that the notch interferes with the video. He made the point that Apple showing the notch covering video was them kinda going out of their way to highlight that the notch was there.
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dep_b 3154 days ago
It's not only about the notch it's also the curved lines at the edges. Those would still cut out your video if the notch wasn't there. In my opinion the usable area of the phone is much smaller than it seems at first sight and the iPhone 8 Plus is a lot better in that respect.

I do like the fact that they managed to restrain themselves from abusing the rounded edges for display, that was something I always hated about the Samsung Edge family.

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bgentry 3154 days ago
That was my source as well :) Couldn’t remember if it starts with black bars or not, but the important point is that it’s trivial to toggle.
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parzivalm 3155 days ago
If the setting is saved I could see it being manageable. I think the bigger issue is if you have apps or games that stretch and get parts of it blocked by the notch. That is where you really can't do anything about it.
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gehwartzen 3154 days ago
The area to the left and the right of the notch would be best served by a mini task bar or in the case of videos play/pause/FF/FR icons.
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