Murena has started taking pre-orders for the Hiroh privacy phone. The privacy-first device has a physical hardware kill switch for the camera and microphone, and comes with an AMOLED display and a 108 MP camera. It runs /e/OS, a customized version of Android stripped of data-collecting code.
I think they all started doing it (2:1 aspect ratio) around 2017
Sounds about right. I held onto my 16:9 OnePlus 3 until the battery completely gave out in 2023 or so. It was the perfect size, and I hated the 2:1 ones that came after. Tried a OP Nord N200 for about a week but returned it.
Daily driving the Minimal Phone now. It’s not the highest resolution by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s 4:3 and makes current phones look even skinnier than when I was used to 16:9.