‘Shoulder surfers’ in Samsung crosshairs with new privacy display

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

The end of the “shoulder surfer” could be nigh, with the launch of Samsung’s new phone that integrates a privacy screen into the display.

The South Korean tech company’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy 26 Ultra, includes new display technology that prevents the screen from being viewed from the side, protecting confidential information such as passwords, PINs and banking details.

The feature, which is exclusive to Samsung’s premium device, uses the screen’s pixels to narrow the viewing angle of the phone, keeping the screen visible to the user while making it more difficult to see from side angles.

That effect is currently achieved by installing a third-party privacy film on screens but, unlike the screen protectors, Samsung’s technology can be switched on and off manually, set to automatically kick in for specific apps, or applied to only a portion of the screen, such as the push notification area.

The feature was one of the few significant hardware changes Samsung unveiled this week with the S26. The new devices are more focused on greater integration of artificial intelligence (AI), even as consumers continue to struggle to find compelling uses for the technology.

FDM CCS Insights’ Ben Wood highlighted the privacy display as the Ultra’s standout feature

“As a mature category, the year-on-year updates are largely incremental, making it hard to stand out from the crowd,” he said. “The privacy display is an extremely compelling feature that is simple to demonstrate and offers consumer benefits that are easy to understand.

“I think that without this capability, the Galaxy S26 Ultra would have been a tough sell.”

The new phones, which include the S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra, were announced at an event in San Francisco that also saw new Galaxy earbuds, the Buds 4 and Buds4 Pro, added to the line-up.

Samsung is pitching the S26 range as argentic AI phones that will help cut back on digital clutter by showing users the most important notifications, summarising calls and voicemails, and nudging them with timely reminders of events they have been discussing in emails and messages.

The AI features in the S26 line-up are expected to handle increasingly complex tasks for users in the background, nudging them to take action such as adding events to calendars and automatically finding photos mentioned in messages.

It also gives users more options for AI out of the box, with Google Gemini, Perplexity and its own AI-enhanced digital assistant Bixby installed.

“Samsung is repositioning Galaxy AI as an orchestrator, not a single-assistant bet. Gemini stays core, but Perplexity, plus a refreshed Bixby, signals the best tool for the job – with the upside of fewer app hops and smarter handoffs, and the downside of fragmentation, messy defaults, multiple wake words, and tougher privacy questions,” said PP Foresight’s Paolo Pescatore.

“The bigger issue is that AI still isn’t a must-have for many users – a problem given that Samsung is leaning on Galaxy AI as its primary differentiator.”

EU users will also have to wait longer for some of the more advanced features, with Samsung holding back planned argentic AI additions due to European regulations.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra also comes with a customised Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform chip set, and upgraded thermal management to support faster AI. It also gets superfast charging that will charge the phone from empty to 75 per cent in 30 minutes, and a redesigned thermal management system that improves heat dissipation even when pushed to work harder.

The S26 camera system has also been updated, with a wider camera aperture for clearer photos, enhanced night video capabilities that cut out noise, and an upgraded Super Steady mode that smooths out motion footage and makes it easier to capture video on the move.

Prices have increased slightly for the phones, with the base model of the S26 costing €1,109, up from €969 for last year’s comparable S25. The plus model will cost €1,289, compared with €1,159 last year, with the top-of-the-range Ultra model increasing marginally from €1,469 to €1,499.