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ZDNET Highlights
- Samsung unveils privacy display filters in Unpacked.
- The filter protects the screen from prying eyes and can be turned off as needed.
- The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the only model so far to feature this innovation.
Let’s be honest, most of the updates to the new Galaxy S26 series of phones during Samsung Unpacked were iterative. There were no major camera improvements, no ultra-powerful battery, no groundbreaking AI features. But one thing stood out: Samsung introduced the Privacy Display feature on the S26 Ultra, and it might be the most significant smartphone innovation in years.
Also: Samsung Unpacked 2026 live recap: Galaxy S26 Ultra, privacy display, preorder deals, more
The Privacy Display feature lets you read the screen clearly when you look directly at your phone, while preventing other people nearby from reading it. The best part? You can turn off the privacy display whenever you want to share what you’re watching with others.
I’ve been a fan of privacy screen filters since I had a BlackBerry in the 2000s, when I was in college and didn’t want everyone around me to see my screen. Even after all these years, privacy filters prevent people from peeking at your phone on the bus, train or plane.
Although I still appreciate the privacy filter, it becomes annoying when I want to show a reel to my husband or let my kids watch the video of a fox in our backyard last night.
The best trick of privacy display
That’s why the Samsung S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display feature is so excellent: you can turn it on at any time, keeping your information hidden from prying eyes or sharing it whenever you want.
Also: Comparison of each Samsung Galaxy S26 model: Should you buy the Base, Plus, or Ultra?
You can also use this feature with specific apps so that the privacy display only activates when you open a certain app or receive a notification from it. If you get a notification from an app on the Privacy Display list, only that notification will be shaded when viewed from the side.
Samsung says Privacy Display lets you control your display based on when you want to share, not based on what you want to keep private. To achieve this feature, Samsung created Black Matrix, a technology that narrows the path of light emitted by each pixel on your S26 Ultra’s display.
Also: Get the new Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus for free on Verizon – here’s how
The screen has narrow and wide pixels. When the privacy display is on, the narrow pixels serve as the primary light source; When the privacy display is off, both the narrow and wide pixels illuminate the screen. Narrow pixels have rings around them that make them visible only when viewed from the front, while wide pixels can be viewed from all angles.
privacy display vs screen protector
It’s easy to draw comparisons between the new privacy display feature and traditional privacy screen protectors, but the former sidesteps the biggest drawback of glued sheets of plastic and glass: image quality.
As my colleague Kerry Vann found while testing privacy screen protectors last year, the physical layer on your phone screen causes colors to wash out and overall brightness to decrease. It also weakens the contact point where you register your fingerprint to unlock the phone or log into apps.
With Samsung’s integrated display, it effectively eliminates all those trade-offs.
ground level
If it works as Samsung promises, the Privacy Display feature could become the new standard for phone makers in the coming years. For the rest of us non-S26 Ultra users, we’ll continue to use privacy filters, cleaning out bubbles and dust particles on the screen during installation, and tilting our screens all the way when trying to show TikTok to someone.
