"The 'Privacy Display' on the Galaxy S26 Ultra Will Be Hard for Rivals to Copy"

San Francisco, The Financial News – Correspondent Lee Byung-chul"The Privacy Display technology is unique to Samsung. We believe it will be difficult for competitors to catch up with it anytime soon."
Moon Seong-hun, Vice President of Hardware at the MX Business at Samsung Electronics, met with Korean reporters right after the Galaxy S26 Unpacked event held in San Francisco on the 26th of last month (local time) and underscored the "Privacy Display" feature on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is designed to protect users' privacy. Moon stressed, "We secured a large number of patents while developing this technology," adding, "It will not be easy to replicate the same technology without infringing on those patents."■ "Innovation controlled at the pixel level"Samsung Electronics spent five years developing the technology that enables the Privacy Display. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) described this feature as "something Apple should copy immediately." As interest in personal data protection grows, some analysts say the Privacy Display could become a new standard feature. However, Samsung has drawn a line, saying it will not be easy for rival companies to implement this technology.
The Privacy Display is a technology that Samsung Electronics has adopted in a smartphone for the first time in the world. When the feature is turned on, the screen is almost invisible from any direction—up, down, left, or right—except to the user looking at it straight on. It is the result of an innovation that controls light at the pixel level. The Galaxy S26 Ultra display is built with two structures: "Nero pixel," which emits light vertically, and "Wide Pixel," which diffuses light more broadly. When Privacy mode is activated, the Nero pixel emits light only in the vertical direction, while the Wide Pixel emits weaker light so that the screen cannot be seen from the side. It is also possible to block side viewing angles only for selected areas, such as notification screens, making it fundamentally different from privacy films that cover the entire display.■ "Considering expansion to more models"At present, this feature is available only on the Ultra model. Moon said, "Our production capacity for the Privacy Display is still limited," and added, "We will closely monitor market response, and if we secure a stable supply chain, we may expand the range of models that use it."
The device’s thickness has also, for the first time, entered the 7 mm range. Previous Ultra models were around 8.9 mm thick, but Samsung has gradually reduced the thickness through years of design improvements. Moon noted, "It is 7.9 mm, but this is the first time an Ultra model has entered the 7 mm range."
Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy as its application processor (AP). By contrast, the base and Plus models use Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2600 chipset. In the previous Samsung Galaxy S25 series, Exynos was excluded after issues such as overheating were raised. Samsung Electronics explained that the Exynos 2600 has been improved in terms of performance, heat generation, and power efficiency.
Moon said, "The value we ultimately consider most important is the customer experience," adding, "The Ultra model is a highly symbolic product even within the company, so we are constantly thinking about which AP is worthy of that status." He went on, "The fact that we have used only Qualcomm chips in the last few generations does not represent the direction we are aiming for," and added, "From the perspective of our mid- to long-term AP roadmap and securing supply stability, we will continue working so that we can equip future Ultra models with Exynos as well."
pride@fnnews.com Correspondent Lee Byung-chul Reporter