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(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Android Central Labs is a weekly column devoted to deep dives, experiments, and a focused look into the tech you use. It covers phones, tablets, and everything in between.
For the past five years, display engineers at Samsung have been working on what looks like a display miracle from most angles. Privacy Display has been the talk of the town since the February 25th unveiling of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and for very good reason. It’s easily the most unique and, quite possibly, the most innovative new display concept in a decade. It’s also the most fun I’ve ever had testing a display.
Now, this isn’t to say Privacy Display is bad, but once the shiny new feeling has worn off and you look a little closer, it’s clear that you’ll have to deal with a few trade-offs to enjoy what might be Samsung’s crowning OLED achievement. I’ve asked Samsung to detail how they made Privacy Display and whether they feel anything specific can be improved in the future. I’ve yet to hear back at the time of writing, but for now, let’s take a closer look at what’s available today.
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Privacy Display or bust
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(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
If there’s any single reason to get a Galaxy S26 Ultra this year, it’s the Privacy Display. This new type of OLED panel redesigns the pixels, separating them into two types: wide-angle and narrow-angle. This display deviates from the typical diamond PenTile matrix design of most AMOLED displays and opts for a square of two green, one blue, and one red subpixel to make up each pixel.
This is important because it plays the key role in how Privacy Display works and why its design affects the display’s overall quality metrics. When Privacy Display is disabled, all the pixels are turned on. When Privacy Display is enabled, the wide-angle pixels are completely shut off.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
The brilliance of this design is that it doesn’t just work like a privacy screen protector; it works at all angles and can even be used to hide specific content you choose in granular detail. You can also select specific apps or conditions for Privacy Display, so even when the function is enabled, it’ll only kick in for specific events or apps that you choose (or you can just turn it on all the time).
Since the narrow-angle pixels primarily emit light in a narrow cone, it’s difficult to see the screen content from certain angles. The only time Privacy Display actually makes content impossible to see is from extreme angles. Even a moderate tilt just dims the brightness from an angle. No, it doesn’t work nearly as well as marketing might imply, but it is incredible, and enabling Maximum Privacy mode will produce the most obvious effect.
(Image credit: Android Central)
The least obtrusive Privacy Display mode is using it only for specific apps, PIN/pattern/password entry, and notification pop-ups. This leaves the screen looking normal most of the time, with only certain sections showing any change. Turning on Privacy Display for everything will immediately deliver a cut in brightness and resolution, a direct side effect of turning half the pixels off.
If this appeals to you, it’s going to be the best reason to buy a Galaxy S26 Ultra and the only thing you should probably care about going in. Otherwise, I explain the porential trade-offs below.
Negative effects
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Privacy Display achieves a goal brilliantly, but like any big change or new idea, some conventional measurements or ideals had to fall. Privacy Display appears to negatively affect brightness output at any angle, viewing angles in general, resolution and pixel density of the display, color richness and volume, and the anti-reflective layer people loved on the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra. Yes, even when the feature is disabled.
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Will you notice these differences without comparing them side-by-side to another phone? Maybe, and maybe not. It depends on how much you care about any one of these individual factors. As a result, I don’t think this display can be considered “the best” in any traditional sense of display quality measurement. Obviously, this is fine if privacy is what you prioritize over all else.
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(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Now, does this display look bad? No. Does it look worse than the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s? Yes. My measurements show it’s at least 300 nits dimmer at the brightest setting, despite Samsung claiming it has the same peak brightness output. With Privacy Display enabled, that number is cut down much further, meaning you probably won’t be using Privacy Display on the beach.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Privacy Display also slightly negatively affects contrast when disabled, an effect that’s further pronounced as brightness gets lower and, especially, if you use the Extra Dim accessibility feature.
The new pixel structure also means that things look less crisp than any other flagship phone you can buy. To mitigate this, Samsung appears to be using a sharpening filter, which will definitely annoy some people, but I haven’t noticed it all the time. Most commonly, I saw this effect while looking at photos in the built-in Gallery app. Samsung also appears to have downgraded the anti-reflective layer when compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which you can see in the gallery above.
Questionable comfort
Samsung Galaxy S26 PWM and dithering display review – YouTube
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Part of my display testing always includes comfort measurements, and Samsung rarely does well in this section. The company’s use of low-frequency PWM dimming has been a source of discomfort for many people, including me, for years, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s display doesn’t change this factor at all. It still uses the same paltry 480Hz rate the company has used for a few years now, while other companies are pushing PWM rates to 5,000Hz and beyond.
The lack of change was particularly surprising to me, given that both Apple and Google launched new PWM-sensitive accessibility features last year, but Samsung hasn’t given any word on whether it’s working on similar avenues or not. Samsung is also still using an 8-bit display here, while most competitors have moved to true 10-bit displays, meaning the company has to use temporal dithering to fake 10-bit colors.
While it’s not generally a good fit for people who are sensitive to LED flicker, the irony of the reduced brightness output means that some sensitive users may find this release more comfortable. See the difference in brightness output in the image below.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
What might be more surprising is that a new group of users is now reporting eye strain with the S26 Ultra, and it seems to be caused by how Privacy Display works. Several social media posts are popping up from people noting that the new display gives them eye strain, and it’s not related to the PWM rate.
Instead, it appears to be related to the idea that directional pixels create alternating patterns of contrast, causing eyes to strain in a way that’s similar to an improperly calibrated 3D screen. As there’s no way to calibrate the S26 Ultra’s screen, it’s likely we’re going to see another group of people emerge who simply cannot use the Galaxy S26 Ultra without pain.
Innovative, but not without potential tradeoffs
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
From a traditional standpoint, this may be one of the worst flagship displays in recent years, and certainly the worst Samsung may have ever put on a phone relative to the competition. However, as I said before, it’s not a bad display in most senses, but it is worse than other phones, including many older Samsung flagships.
But Privacy Display may well eclipse that for the normal person who probably doesn’t care all that much about display “excellence,” anyway. The brightness output is good, the colors look fine, and other metrics are still more than “good enough.” The thing that’s going to blow people’s minds is the headliner feature, anyway, and that’s likely enough to sell people on the idea of switching to an S26 Ultra.
Samsung is doing something unique with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it might just be the most compelling display innovation we’ve seen in over a decade. Try the Privacy Display and keep prying eyes from your personal information.
