Reporting and photography by Nicole Nguyen

I tried a new Samsung smartphone feature called Privacy Display -- and I'm convinced that every device needs it. The tool obscures what's on your screen from the people around you. It's the first security screen built into a mobile device, the new Galaxy S26 Ultra, announced Wednesday.

Someone who can see your screen can learn a lot about you: how much is in your bank account, what corporate secrets lurk in your email or -- most sensitively -- the code you type to unlock your phone. We've reported that thieves who spied on people entering their passcodes could use them to lock victims out of their digital lives.

Samsung's Privacy Display would defend against those intruders. After a few hours playing with it, I see how it could be an essential security tool -- and also shield your fellow airplane passengers from that graphic HBO binge-watch. Apple and everyone else making smartphones should adopt this.

How it works

When you're looking directly at the screen, everything looks...normal. When I picked up the S26 Ultra at a demo in San Francisco, I had to ask if the Privacy Display was active. Then, as I tilted the phone to the side, the display went dark, like it was turned off.

This isn't a software trick but an innovation of the physical OLED display itself. Wide pixels, which emit light to the sides, are separated from narrow, front-pointing pixels. In privacy mode, the device dims those wide pixels, while the narrow pixels emit light only at your face. Within a 30-degree viewing angle, the screen is visible. Beyond that, it's dark.

The result emulates those cheap plastic screen privacy filters, but without the downsides: A plastic filter might only block snoopers from side to side, not from all angles, and can get in the way when you don't want them. Because Samsung's software can control which pixels to disable -- and when -- it can selectively obstruct parts of the screen, then turn off the shield when you don't need it.

You can set Privacy Display to turn on only when you're typing your device's passcode, or using certain apps, such as your password manager. It can shield incoming notifications -- just the pop-up and nothing else. You can also create routines to, for example, disable Privacy Display when you get home.

The feature doesn't protect you from all prying eyes. I could still see the PIN pad as I stood directly behind a representative holding a protected screen.

Samsung product manager Charles Uptegrove said the technology was five years in the making. The feature could extend battery life, because shutting off the wide pixels means less power is needed. The company isn't making that claim but I am going to try it out in my own testing.

Paging Apple

For now, Privacy Display is only available on S26 Ultra, the top-of-the-line $1,300 model shipping on March 11. The feature requires special hardware, so it can't become available on other phones via software update.

I'm hopeful this essential, security-preserving technology will go beyond this year's Ultra, maybe even beyond the company's own line. Apple relies heavily on Samsung's displays for iPhones, so it's possible the functionality could cross over. Uptegrove said he couldn't comment on that side of the business and any of the company's future plans.

As a fan of iPhones and Google Pixel phones as well as Samsung's Galaxy phones, here's my plea: We carry our entire lives in our pockets, and that six-digit code protecting our phones is the master key. If every phone adopted this disappearing act, we could all be safer.

Write to Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2026 13:00 ET (18:00 GMT)

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