I thought the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was a boring upgrade — then I saw Privacy Display, and it's best phone upgrade I've seen in years
The best (and maybe only) reason to buy an S26 Ultra
· TechRadarFeatures By Hamish Hector published 25 February 2026
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Samsung has unveiled a trio of new phones at its Galaxy S26 launch event — and if you were hoping for some major hardware upgrades they're, well, a little underwhelming.
With percentage improvements to camera brightness, as well as NPU, CPU and GPU performance the Samsung Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra feel a bit like their S25 equivalents with some software tweaks, rather than something new and special.
Except, that is, for the new Privacy Display feature.
Exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra — which is a truly disappointing limitation — this setting puts your phone case's privacy filter to shame, and helps the new handset stand out in a crowded market.
Just like the screen protectors you can already buy, Samsung's privacy display hides what's on your phone screen from onlookers while still letting you see everything. The big difference is that it’s a whole lot smarter.
Unlike standard privacy protectors, Samsung has built its privacy filter into your display at the pixel level, meaning you can switch it on or off to suit your needs. You can even control it on an app-by-app basis.
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So when you’re watching YouTube and sharing a phone screen, or showing your partner a funny Reddit meme, your privacy filter can be switched off, and then when you move over to your banking app or when you need to input a password you can set it so that your Privacy Display switches on.
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