Samsung misled media at Galaxy S26 Ultra launch by reporting wrong 10-bit color depth of AMOLED display
Less than two weeks after launch, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is involved in another display controversy. After the outcry over alleged quality concerns about the new Privacy Display, it has now come to light that Samsung misled the media about the true color depth of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s AMOLED display.
It was widely reported at launch that the Galaxy S26 Ultra's 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED was a 10-bit panel, an upgrade over the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 8-bit display. However, SamMobile recently revealed that, despite early media reporting, the Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn’t feature a 10-bit panel. Some speculated that Samsung could be using Frame Rate Control (FRC) to stimulate 10-bit color on an 8-bit panel.
While FRC does improve upon a native 8-bit panel by reducing color banding and resulting in a wider color gamut, it was rather disappointing that Samsung miscommunicated this detail to the media.
Arun Maini, known as Mrwhosetheboss, now reports that Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S26 Ultra indeed uses an 8-bit AMOLED display. While this doesn’t make the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s AMOLED panel any worse, it does mean that the screen of the latest Galaxy flagship lags behind the iPhone 17 Pro Max, as Apple is using 10-bit OLED panels on the iPhone 17 series.
This is a pretty big deal, as this means that Samsung is selling a higher-end panel to Apple and is using a cheaper panel in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. We can see the rationale behind the decision, though.
It was widely reported before the Galaxy S26 series launch that Samsung was cutting costs wherever it could to keep the price of the Galaxy S26 phones down. This has resulted in the Galaxy S26 series phones largely resembling their Galaxy S25 counterparts with little to no hardware changes this year.
For instance, the Galaxy S26 Ultra packs the same 5,000 mAh battery as the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Although, Samsung has done a good job with the optimizations. The use of an 8-bit panel in the Galaxy S26 Ultra instead of a more expensive 10-bit panel lines up with Samsung’s reported cost-cutting measures.
In the end, we have to reserve judgment until we get our hands on the Galaxy S26 Ultra to see how the Dynamic AMOLED panel of the Galaxy S26 Ultra stacks up agains the latest iPhones. However, one thing is for sure: Samsung’s cost-cutting has the potential to alienate many fans.
Source(s)
Arun Maini on X, Teaser image source: geralt on Pixabay, Samsung, edited
Add as a preferred