Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra privacy display tech gets detailed in new leak

The Galaxy S26 series launch is around the corner, and right ahead of the next Unpacked event, Samsung has started teasing a display feature that the S26 Ultra is expected to have. While it has not been officially demonstrated, prominent leaker Ice Universe has already showcased what it can offer.

For those who missed it, the feature under the spotlight is called Privacy Display, and as the name hints, it will limit the viewing angle of the screen to prevent snooping. The leaker recently showed that the feature can offer partial privacy, allowing pop-ups containing sensitive data to be hidden from indirect line of sight.

With a separate post, Ice Universe has now offered some explanation on how this privacy feature on the Galaxy S26 Ultra works. As the leaker points out, Samsung is adapting mature display concepts that can hide certain parts or the entire screen from off-angle viewing. It's similar to the directional-light approaches available on enterprise privacy displays and screens of certain ATM machines.

By emitting the light towards a specific direction, the display can only allow the eyes on the front to see the content. The people on the side can't see the light beam, which makes them see nothing on the specific portion or the entire screen. Traditional displays, such as the one on the S25 Ultra (256GB curr. $1,045 on Amazon), emit light in a uniform manner and are diffused. This allows around 180-degree visibility, allowing people to view the display from the sides without issues.

So, per Ice Universe, this isn't a software trick, and while it's similar to a third-party privacy filter available for phones, this is different. It's a hardware-level implementation, and while it sounds impressive, directional light emission on displays can bring some trade-offs. That includes inconsistency in brightness and color, and it will be interesting to see how Samsung tackles these issues.