S26 Ultra adds built-in privacy screen that shuts out phone snoops
The Galaxy S26 series arrives with a new anti-snoop tool built straight into the S26 Ultra, and Samsung showed the feature at a San Francisco event that began at 1: 00 p. m. ET. The built-in privacy screen aims to keep prying eyes from reading messages and notifications on trains, in crowds or anywhere passersby peek over shoulders.
S26 Ultra brings a built-in privacy screen
The privacy function is available only on the series-topping S26 Ultra and can be enabled instantly. When engaged, a simple tilt test makes the display go dark for anyone off-angle; text and outlines become faint and, at higher protection, nearly unreadable. The reviewer who tested it noted they had been covering tech for well over a decade and were initially skeptical when Samsung explained the feature ahead of the S26 Ultra's launch.
How the privacy screen behaves in practice
There are two levels. Normal privacy protection keeps content readable face-on but hard to parse from the side; a “maximum privacy protection” mode applies a visible filter across the whole screen and makes content look washed-out when viewed straight-on. For fast-paced content such as Champions League highlights, the maximum setting can be a poorer viewing experience because, when viewed from an angle, the screen turns almost mirror-like and shows a sheet of grey glass instead of faint outlines.
Granular controls for selected apps and parts of the screen
Samsung built fine-tune controls into the feature: users can set the privacy screen to trigger only for specific apps such as Gmail or TikTok, or restrict the privacy effect to a defined portion of the display. There’s also an option to shield all notification pop-ups from prying eyes while leaving the rest of the screen fully visible.
Design and handling: thinner, lighter, S Pen caution
The reviewer said the S26 Ultra feels thinner and lighter than the previous generation without reducing the number of cameras or the size of the battery and screen. The result is a big phone that still feels premium but is less over-bearing than its predecessors and is considerably lighter and slimmer than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. One caveat: the S Pen stylus feels a little too fragile, and users should be careful sliding it in and out of the handset.
What Samsung announced in San Francisco
Samsung used a San Francisco event starting at 1: 00 p. m. ET to unveil the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra, and the announcement included the suggestion that the company would likely show some accessories as well. The event was described as not being the company’s foldy phone event, which usually occurs in the summer.
Live blog details and the industry questions on the table
The live coverage noted that posts from the topic would be added to readers’ daily email digest and homepage feed, and invited people to stick around for the news and banter. Observers at the event were curious about whether RAMageddon had affected pricing for the new phones and whether Samsung would introduce new AI features.
The review suggested Apple is likely to copy the privacy screen for future iPhone Pros in a year or so. One line in the source about corners of the Ultra was cut off and is unclear in the provided context.
For now, Samsung’s S26 Ultra and its built‑in privacy options are the headline takeaway from the San Francisco unveiling. The company held the event at 1: 00 p. m. ET and additional hands‑on impressions and accessory details were part of the live coverage; Samsung’s foldy phone event typically comes later in the summer.
