6 things you must know about the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's amazing Privacy Display

The Privacy Display is the big new feature on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it’s one of the most interesting additions to a flagship smartphone we’ve seen in a while.

To make sure you’re fully informed about its features, what makes it special, and even how it works, we drew on our own hands-on experience and also spoke to Kadesh Beckford, Smartphone Product Specialist at Samsung UK and Ireland, to bring you all the details.

Related

Why you should buy a flagship phone instead of a midrange

Flagship phones > midrange phones

Posts 21
By  Rajesh Pandey

What is Privacy Display?

No peeking

Samsung’s Privacy Display cleverly obscures your phone’s display from anyone trying to view it from any angle other than directly in front of it.

For example, someone sitting next to you will see a black screen, while you will see the screen as normal.

Beckford explained that anyone outside a 45-degree angle won’t see the screen, and also that it works side-to-side and vertically too, so someone in front of you won’t see the screen either.

Privacy Display can be used to hide the entire screen, or just incoming notifications, and even be customized to only hide notifications from certain apps. It’s a world-first on a smartphone.

Does it really work?

You’ll be amazed at how effective it is

Yes, Privacy Display is very effective. We tried the feature out ahead of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s release, and can confirm that unless you’re looking directly at the screen, you will probably think the screen is actually turned off. The effect is that strong.

It can be turned on and off when you need it, and isn’t on all the time. It’s also easy to use. The Privacy Display mode is activated under Quick Settings, and the menu has just a couple of options.

You can enable it so it operates throughout the software, or just enable it for notifications. From here, you can select specific apps, or just let it hide all of them from prying eyes.

Beckford said it’s smart enough to work in specific situations, like entering your PIN when accessing a secure folder.

Will you notice it’s active?

Yes, but it’s not a problem

When you turn on the Privacy Display feature, the screen’s brightness dims, so you will notice when you turn it on. However, it’s not a dramatic change, and the brightness can still be manually adjusted.

Beckford made it clear there are no feature or further display compromises when using Privacy Display.

There’s no compromise in resolution, and the adaptive vision booster, adaptive brightness, and the extra brightness features are all still there.

The other time you’ll notice is if you move outside the central viewing area.

More than once during our hands-on time, we forgot the Privacy Display was active when taking photos of the S26 Ultra, only to then realize the screen didn’t appear in the image.

Forgetting the Privacy Display was active shows how little the drop in brightness affects general use.

Is it a Galaxy S26 Ultra exclusive?

Only for the Ultra

Privacy Display is an exclusive feature on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and is not available on the Galaxy S26 or Galaxy S26 Plus.

Because it uses a combination of hardware and software, it’s unlikely to be made available on previous flagship Samsung phones.

However, it’s not just Samsung wanting to push you to buy the Ultra. Beckford told us Privacy Display can’t be added to the other S26 phones because the physical display hardware on the Ultra is different.

Subscribe for newsletter insights into Privacy Display tech

Get more when you subscribe to our newsletter: concise, expert coverage of smartphone features like Samsung’s Privacy Display — hands-on takeaways, technical explanations, and practical context to better understand display innovations.

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

He also informed us the technology is not processor-led, so its inclusion on the Ultra only isn’t to do with the use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 over the Samsung Exynos 2600 in the S26 and S26 Plus.

How does Privacy Display work?

Pixel manipulation

The Privacy Display works by independently manipulating the millions of pixels on the display. Beckford explained:

You have your standard wide pixels, just like on every smartphone, which give you great viewing angles. We narrow them down and dim the wide pixels to a certain percentage at the sides, then only focus on the narrow ones in the center, which allows you to view content that’s in front of you.

With those dimmed at the relevant angles, it means nobody from those 45 degree angles, or vertically, will be able to see what’s on your device. With the maximum privacy setting, we can then dim down even further and focus on just individual pixels.

Does Privacy Display affect screen longevity or durability?

It shouldn’t cause concern

You may be concerned that a feature which manipulates pixels may impact the display’s longevity or durability, but Beckford told us he’s confident there will be no such problem, as Samsung has years of using similar techniques in displays of all types.

Display innovation is nothing new to Samsung, and we’ve been able to independently control pixels on our AMOLED, Super AMOLED, Dynamic AMOLED, and Dynamic AMOLED 2X technology for years.

He compared the way Privacy Display works to dimming and adjusting a pixel’s brightness when you watch a movie, something which happens constantly.

Find it on your new Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Privacy Display is one of the top new features aboard the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which leads the company’s mainstream smartphone push for 2026.

Our early impressions are that it’s a great addition to the phone, and we expect plenty of people to find it very useful.