Galaxy S26 Ultra Privacy Display debacle: Fans fear brightness and anti-reflective nerfs but concerns seem overblown
Samsung officially announced the Galaxy S26 Ultra yesterday. While the Galaxy S26 Ultra has only a few hardware changes vs the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the new phone brings a novel “Privacy Display” that masks the display when viewed from the sides. However, some users are concerned that the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display has made the 6.9-inch AMOLED panel worse than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Since the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display is a hardware solution and not a software feature, Samsung has had to tweak some display elements. As a result, the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s anti-reflective coating is now different than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Some are arguing that it is worse. The same is true for the brightness and text clarity, where some reports have claimed that the Privacy Display negatively affects both.
While we can’t base our judgments on anecdotes and will need to review the Galaxy S26 Ultra ourselves, it seems that the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display does change the anti-reflective properties of the display a bit. However, rather than being an outright downgrade, the anti-reflective coating of the Galaxy S26 Ultra works a little differently than on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Tech Reviewer Daniel Scuteri shows this on X by placing the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy S26 Ultra side by side under a direct light source. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s anti-reflective coating appears to disperse the light in a different pattern compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It is hard to say from the photos alone which one is worse, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn’t seem to be at a disadvantage here.
For the brightness, Daniel Scuteri’s side-by-side comparison of the Galaxy S26 Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Ultra makes the former seem brighter. Officially, the Galaxy S26 Ultra has the same 2,600 nit peak brightness as the Galaxy S25 Ultra. So, the huge visible difference could be down to the Adaptive Brightness of the Galaxy S25 Ultra not working properly.
In short, it seems, at least from these initial impressions, that the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display doesn’t really downgrade the anti-reflective coating or the brightness. We still need to check the Galaxy S26 Ultra ourselves to say anything definitive on the subject.
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